Put your VR glasses on! Thanks to this new program, Lesaffre Egypt invites its new employees to a journey through time: company’s founders, key places, historic and groundbreaking innovations. It also allows new recruits to visit places they won’t be able to see in real life like baking centers or factories.
Not only does the VR program facilitate integration, in English, Arabic and French, but it also allows employees to experience processes first hand and dive into the company’s expertise in a fast and engaging way. Learning about the fermentation process ౼ once very difficult to explain ౼ becomes an interactive experience as recruits step into the virtual factory to make bread, croissants, pizza dough and more; just with glasses.
The planning and development phase of the VR onboarding process began in March 2020, around the same time that Covid-19 began drastically changing the workplace. As in-person encounters became increasingly scarce, the VR program became more useful than ever. Instead of kicking off orientation with a PowerPoint presentation, new recruits could tour places but also meet with department heads and learn about the company’s history without even leaving the room.
Following the success of this pilot, department heads are looking into ways to expand the virtual experience to include quality and safety training, customer orientation, new machine training and even various onboarding programs in Lesaffre subsidiaries around the world.