More and more employees give notice within the first 100 days of their employment. The main reason: the onboarding and integration process did not go as they hoped. New employees often feel left out, they lack a positive experience of the corporate culture and the corresponding sense of belonging. This development is problematic not only in light of the war for talent, but also because companies are wasting enormous recruitment costs. This makes a good onboarding process all the more important. And this is precisely what is becoming increasingly difficult in today’s often hybrid and decentralised world of work.

A virtual experience cannot replace personal contacts, but it can assist in the onboarding process in two key areas: conveying the corporate culture and getting to know other new employees for the first time. Both are considered the strongest means of retaining employees. Onboarding in the virtual space is not tied to any physical location – it reaches employees working from home and all over the world. In addition, virtual experiences can transmit a much larger amount of information – even to the subconscious mind of the participants. Messages become tangible experiences and are thus stored much deeper and more lastingly in the memory. And you don’t need virtual reality glasses anymore: Laptops, PCs, smartphones or tablets are all you need to take part in the multisensory experience.

Three building blocks for next-level onboarding

Anything is possible in virtual space. There are no physical limits and every company can shape its world the way it wants. Nevertheless, three important building blocks should be taken into account in order to attract new employees:

1.       The storytelling: Which story building blocks are important for the onboarding? What does the company want to convey to the new employee? In the virtual experience, information can be conveyed in more than just words. The room itself or objects in it interact with the visitors and actively involve them in the search for information. Presentations, videos or graphics can also be integrated, but must be ‘translated’ into the immersive space.

2.       The architecture: The range of ways in which the virtual space can be designed is gigantic – depending on how a company sees itself and what values it wants to convey. Whether it’s a futuristic sci-fi city, a specially designed eco-friendly building or a changing, dynamic environment. By playing with size, weight and gravity, architecture can help to emphasise the importance of particular corporate values. New employees experience them consciously or subliminally and internalise them.

3.       The Community: Shared experiences forge bonds between people – and that also applies in virtual space. For example, the onboarding process can take place in a small group moderated by one person from HR, and thus acts as an ‘icebreaker’. New employees get to know their first colleagues, can interact with them and subsequently contact them.