This idea stems from a crucial point made in the blog Finding Congruence in the Onboarding Process. If you haven’t had the chance to read it yet, I highly recommend you do so. It discusses the importance of aligning new hires’ abilities, values, and beliefs with those of the company. By ensuring this alignment during the onboarding process, you set the stage for a more motivated and integrated workforce.
Think about it—how many times have you welcomed a new hire, given them the training, the welcome kits, and all the HR formalities, only to sense something was off? That “off” feeling could stem from a lack of congruence. Congruence refers to alignment—not just on a surface level, but in a much deeper, meaningful way. It’s about ensuring your new team members are genuinely in sync with your company’s values, beliefs, and approach.
Continue reading “Finding “Congruence” in the Onboarding Process”
Isn’t it funny how time works? It can feel slow or fast, long or short, depending on how we perceive it. When I look back at the last 11 years, I feel so much has happened in such a short time, yet I also feel I have done so little in all these years. The past 11 years have been a roller coaster for me, involving a career break and embracing motherhood—switching my identity from “Ms. Ayushi Verma” to “Reyansh’s Mumma.” This identity shift brought about many changes in my personality. Being “Reyansh’s Mumma” made me more responsible, stronger, empathetic, and, most importantly, taught me to adapt to changes quickly.
Guess what? We’ve got an epic tale to share! Picture this: last month, the FocusU team took on a challenge almost as big as the tractors and harvesters our client manufactures. We’re talking about a global giant in the world of agricultural, construction, and forestry machinery. If you can imagine a farm or construction site looking like something out of an action movie, you’re on the right track. But hold on—these folks aren’t just about big machines. They’re also heavily involved in diesel engines, drivetrains, financial services, and are all about innovation and sustainability.
Continue reading “How FocusU Turned New Hires into Company Culture Champions”
Staring at the screen, both of us are striving to win the Need for Speed race. Both of us against each other, we just want to win, no matter what! I can’t believe he is the guy I was teaching how to play this game about half an hour back. And now I am struggling to defeat him!?
Continue reading “How Digitisation Can Help Improve Your Induction Program?”
A gamified experience to onboard new hires to the organization. 20 Teams. 3 days. 1 Championship. All virtual.
The new paradigm forced upon organizations by the Pandemic has meant that new hires were required to be onboarded to the organization while being confined in their homes.
In such a scenario, how can the cultural tenets of the organization be experienced and learnt in an immersive way? And how can the new joiners be made to feel both welcomed and connected?
The objective of this 3-day virtual journey was hence to:
• Introduce the new hires to the organization’s culture
• Bring home learnings related to collaboration, curiosity, critical thinking, resilience and growth mindset – in an engaging and gamified manner.
• Build team spirit and connectedness
The entire engagement was conceived in two parts:
• Four game-based team challenges followed by a debrief and reflections. These were run as VILTs (Virtual Instructor Led Trainings). The learning was brought alive through participant sharing post the experience, in line with Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle.
• Highly engaging wellness challenges that were executed across 3 days in an asynchronous mode (which means each participant could take it at any time during the day according to his or her convenience) to foster relatedness. This was conceived and delivered through a mobile app to the phones of the individuals.
How the themes were brought alive:
• Collaboration and Growth Mindset:
The BOMS Challenge is a relentless, non-stop race to the finish line that pushes team members to both collaborate and push their own comfort zones.
• Curiosity:
The Map The City Challenge set up for the client in London, nudged participants to engage with their own curiosity to uncover and unravel new sights and answers!
• Critical Thinking:
By getting into an Escape Room which challenged them as individuals and as a collective, the importance of critical thinking was brought alive for participants.
• Resilience and Survival Skills
Citius. Altius. Fortius. The motto of the Olympics – but executed virtually, through the Digital Olympics, brought alive both resilience and survival skills in team members.
• Connectivity and Bonding
The finale activity inspired participants to connect and bond by getting them to dance like nobody is watching through the Happy Feet Challenge!
The engagement was complemented by a live leaderboard at the individual and team level and an activity feed to keep the momentum and excitement going all through the engagement.
Some participant reflections after each game-based activity (verbatim):
How did you ensure you took everyone along during the activity?
• By putting forth the opinions by everyone
• By helping anyone who was left behind
• What did you do to ensure you are able to upgrade your skills?
• I got out of my comfort zone and performed activities that I don’t do usually
When faced with an obstacle, what did you do differently to overcome it?
• With wider perspectives, things can be different. And this can help us to draw conclusions
• We were thinking about the different possibilities that can happen.
• By retracing our steps and seeing where we went wrong
• We figured the alternative way
How did you evaluate different arguments within your team?
• By understanding teammates, because we all have same goal to reach
• We discussed about the views that the other teammate had and then went to the conclusion
What factors did you consider before nominating?
• Considering the interest of every team member
• Divided according to the capability and made sure each of us gets equal opportunity
With 200 participants, spread across 20 teams made a whopping 10,122 submissions.
We also asked the participants how they liked the format and the activities. Here’s what they said:
On a scale of 1 – 5, 1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest, please let us know how you liked the activities.
• 80% respondents rated 5
• 19% respondents rated 4
What are some of the things you really liked?
Team building activities and Human Story books
It’s really hard to name 1 thing. Everything had its own importance, and every activity instilled a new value in me.
To build the excitement, here are some of the customized team logos we created:
A great and practical guide to help any leader transition into a new job, position, and organisation, within the first quarter or more specifically – 90 days, this book is a treasure chest of knowledge!
Continue reading “10 Lessons From “The First 90 Days” by Michael D. Watkins”
I still remember my first day at my new job, at my dream company. I had a bag full of emotions. I was excited, nervous, curious, and little restless. Restless because I was not sure about the organization, its culture, and its people. Although I had heard a lot of good and inspiring stories from other employees, now after I had become a part of the company, these fears and apprehensions were natural. We have probably all had similar emotions on our first day at work. But to my surprise, the moment I entered the premises everything looked so planned and structured. My name was already in the system at the reception, so I faced no hassle in submitting my identity details. After all of the initial recruitment formalities, I was guided to a conference room where the induction session was to begin in some time. I was so delighted to see that all of the necessary documents were on the table and that the HR team members leading the sessions were well prepared to answer my queries. From paperwork to soft skills programs to fun sessions, everything was so well planned by the HR team. I was happy that I was finally a part of a company where they value their employees. It was indeed an unforgettable experience!
Continue reading “How to Make Induction Programs Meaningful?”
