Remote onboarding: how to help new hires meet their team with an online escape game

A photo full of joy and good spirits? 🤩

It is the result of an initiative led by Diane CORNET, Talent Manager at the consulting firm Bartle.

Like many people working in human resources (Office Managers, Chief Happiness Officers, Culture Managers), Diane has had an intense few months. With remote work becoming widespread, the whole organization of employees was turned upside down and had to be rethought. Collaboration tools were set up quickly, but one question remains particularly hard to address: how do you onboard new hires remotely? Here is how this (very simple) online team building activity was organized. It is unlike any other, and terribly effective for team cohesion!

To onboard new hires...

The goal was to let long-standing employees and new hires of the firm meet each other.
On March 10, 2021, Diane contacted me on the recommendation of a colleague who had just joined Bartle. She had discovered our Online Escape Game concept on LinkedIn and found it an original way to meet her new coworkers.

Diane explained that the company is growing like crazy (30 to 40% in recent years, and 10% in 2020 despite the crisis), and that during the health crisis it is hard to create the right moments for new hires to meet. Yet the co-founders, Patrick NICOLLE and Max-Hervé DUJARDIN, are sincere and determined. They want to keep the friendliness and the exchanges that are one of the firm's strengths. I understand them... before lockdown, Bartle meant seminars, dinners, team meetings and many other events.

...they are among those who decide to act!

And who no longer wait for the hypothetical return of in-person team building.

Like all of us, they started by offering their employees online happy hours, called “virtual Galas”, bringing everyone together, and Teams coffee breaks in small groups. But when 45 people join in a little over a year and say they want to meet their new colleagues, something more is needed. Diane's request was simple: she wanted to organize a fun, collaborative event, suitable for everyone, where conversation comes first.

With Escape Game en Ligne, she got just that:

• plenty of laughs during the puzzles, teasing colleagues who cannot see the clue right under their nose;
• a team spirit that is essential to solve the puzzles;
• everyone is needed in the game, which suits junior profiles as well as experienced employees;
• communication and listening are key to the success of the mission.

And the employees' feedback is simply great! Several participants thanked us because they were able to disconnect, for an hour, from their daily remote work routine. They were delighted to get to know their colleagues in an informal setting.

"I had a great time! Since I arrived recently, I got to meet people I had never talked to before. A very good moment of entertainment and team building, which feels great in these remote work times! Thank you Escape Game en Ligne"

Clara M, Consultant at Bartle