Global financial services organization

Reimagining onboarding for a changing world

Challenge

Pre-pandemic, this financial services organization planned to hire thousands of employees annually across its many global locations. Onboarding those employees was done on-site and in person, and they had a reputation for being the best. However, the pandemic forced the company to radically innovate a new way to onboard team members while not losing the all-important opportunity to build connections and community, share the numerous benefits of becoming a team member, and promote the firm’s winning culture.

We had to change how we onboarded people—basically overnight—and we were proud of it but we knew we could make it better.
Solution

As part of our multistage discovery process, we participated in the existing onboarding sessions, interviewed recently hired employees, and identified core goals with key leaders. 

Next, we partnered with the client to develop, design, and implement an entirely new, all remote, three-part onboarding experience. This included a revamped onboarding script and animated slideshow. 

Through a series of workshops and practice labs, we equipped the company’s onboarding facilitators with new content and structure, and best practices for maximizing engagement. Finally, we developed a story structure for a senior-leader kickoff segment and created an accompanying video to prepare them quickly.

Impact

Participation and feedback responses hit an all-time high as a result of the new onboarding process—even as employees were working remotely and away from colleagues and traditional workspaces.

There’s so much going on, constantly, in the business, that we had to find a partner that understood our culture and could help us translate it into a great experience for new hires.