Designing an onboarding process is no longer an optional task for companies. Therefore, we will show you how to design an onboarding process within Spacecreator.

Before starting to design a virtual onboarding plan, ensure you have a Spacecreator account or register for free here. It's important to highlight that to have access to all the administrative tools, you must have administrator permissions or be the creator of the space.

Before starting with the design of the onboarding plan, it's important to be familiar with the tools and features of Spacecreator.

Tools for Collaboration and Teamwork

Spacecreator is a communication and collaboration tool based on virtual environments that can be used as virtual workspaces, virtual offices, or a tool for organizing virtual events. All of this is possible thanks to its versatile tools designed from the experience of collaborating with clients like Meta, Janssen, and ESDesign.

Virtual Whiteboards and Notice Boards

You can use virtual whiteboards and pinboards to design an interactive orientation program and personalized onboarding processes.

Some of the uses you can make of the whiteboards and pinboards are:

• Organize individual or group interactive onboarding sessions; whether it's for working on planning their goals and professional career within the company.

• Enable a space as a “suggestion box” anonymously where these new employees find a safe place to express their opinions and viewpoints in a way that's most comfortable for them.

• Design a gamified onboarding process through questions and answers or even puzzles.

Virtual Presentations and Screen Sharing

These two tools can be used individually but are also very useful in conjunction.

When we talk about "virtual presentations," we refer to the ability to share PDF files within the space that new members can consult: from welcome manuals, personal documentation, or a presentation summarizing the company's history. This is where you need to think about what goal you want to achieve with this material. Do you want the employee to read it on their own? Will it be a unique document specific to that person? Or would it be better to work on it together and leave it available?

You can upload your documents at any time, and until you remove the file from your space, it will always remain in the same place.

In addition to this, as we will see below with virtual conferences through video calls, we can connect with the other person and share our screen without having to leave the virtual space.

Virtual Communication Tools

Spacecreator offers various tools that facilitate communication in remote work environments and for hybrid teams. These tools can be used in virtual events, virtual conferences, team-building activities, or even for educational activities in professional virtual spaces.

Virtual Video Calls

With video call tools, you can hold a meeting with up to 150 people within a virtual space simultaneously, share screens, and even have voice-only conversations. In addition to this, the tool incorporates the function of being able to share screens.

Some of the uses you can make of video calls for the onboarding process are:

• Sending a Google Meet, Zoom, or Teams link is no longer enough. Imagine welcoming new team members through an immersive space that works from the tab of your trusted browser.

• Creating virtual tour sessions of your offices: if your team operates remotely or is a hybrid work team, having a virtual tour of what the office looks like while visiting different areas of the space will foster this feeling of belonging and inclusion for the new employee.

• Coffee Breaks and socialization activities: taking care of the mental health of remote workers is also important. When working from home, we lose special moments like having coffee with our colleagues and going out together at the end of the workday, and therefore, we do not build real personal ties, which in the long term can affect employee performance. Therefore, emphasizing these digital and temporary areas and spaces is important, especially because it demonstrates the corporate culture.

Team Chat

Many companies use communication tools like Slack or Discord, and others use employee experience enhancement platforms. Whatever you are using, remember that this tool can be used for much more than just sending work messages.

So far, you can maintain a global conversation with all team members and make announcements that everyone can read using the "General" tab in Chat. You can also send private messages to other members individually or even start a video call directly. Another feature is that you can check the connection status of that team member with the red or green indicator that appears on the screen.

Some recommended practices you can implement are:

• Announce to everyone that the onboarding process is about to begin: imagine that you give early access to new team members to freely visit your space and you want everyone to gather at the same point at a specific time.

• Send links of interest to other websites or content outside the virtual space.

• You can use that communication channel as a center for frequently asked questions and real-time doubt resolution to be answered later.

Content in Your Virtual Space

In addition to communication and work tools, Spacecreator offers customization tools that will make this virtual onboarding experience a significant moment in your team's career.

Images and Video

You can upload videos or place m3u8 links if you wish to use streaming video. This is very useful if you want to link your streaming management tool and use it as an additional tool in the onboarding process to welcome new team members. You can also upload images; whether it's a logo or any other corporate resource you wish to use.

Image Gallery

This image carousel is great for those areas within the virtual space where you want to show a more human side of your organization. From photos of the last company dinner or corporate events to pictures of each team member's pets. It's as simple as planning what you want to use each tool for and determining the areas where you will do so.

Building a Remote Corporate Culture

Building a suitable remote corporate culture presents a unique set of challenges and opportunities that organizations must explore to foster an inclusive, collaborative, and productive work environment.

Unlike traditional office environments, where casual interactions and face-to-face meetings play a crucial role in the development of culture and each team member, the remote environment requires a deliberate strategy and innovative tools to replicate these vital experiences.

In this context, tools like Spacecreator become an essential ally for companies looking to overcome the obstacles of remote work and build a strong and unified corporate culture. Thanks to 3D virtual spaces where teams can interact, collaborate, and connect more naturally and meaningfully, Spacecreator facilitates the creation of a sense of belonging and community that is fundamental for any successful corporate culture.

Get to Know Spacecreator's Virtual Space

Spacecreator's virtual space features different zones for interaction, collaboration, and communication. Our space consists of 5 main areas:

• Hub: Acts as the central point of the space. It's the site from which each team member will start their adventure within the environment.

• Multidisciplinary Auditorium: This virtual auditorium will serve for any virtual conference or as a place to encompass a large number of people in the same room and connect to a virtual video call through video and audio.

• Gallery: This gallery-shaped zone has multiple private audio and video areas where you can gather, use collaborative tools, or create a roadmap that new employees can follow for successful onboarding.

• Virtual Offices: In this area, you will find different virtual rooms of various sizes that you and your team can use as you like. They are small virtual offices with individual voice and video zones where only the people inside them will see and hear what happens.

• Patio: is a voice area designed as a space to take a break from your day.

To conclude, it's important to understand what an “Element” is. This is the main tool of the entire platform, incorporating all the collaborative and customization tools of the space. Consult the Spacecreator documentation to learn how to use it.

Virtual Onboarding Plan in Spacecreator

An effective virtual onboarding plan in a virtual space like Spacecreator should be structured around the four main steps of the onboarding process: Preparation, Welcome, Integration, and Performance.

Preparation

1. Before jumping into the digital space, design the onboarding plan with your team, typically the human resources department: define everything that this process should include, how long it will last, who will be the people or departments involved, and what are the essential documents and resources you want to show.

2. Create a Spacecreator account for the new members joining your team. Make sure to correctly configure the necessary permissions and roles based on the position they will hold.

3. Set up the virtual space according to your needs by utilizing the included tools and preparing all the content you plan to use.

Welcome

Remember that the new employee welcome plan starts even before their first day, so it's important to keep in touch throughout the entire incorporation process.

1. Organize the onboarding sessions in a way that makes use of the different areas of the virtual space meaningfully. You can schedule a welcome meeting in the auditorium, prepare and distribute training content, whether in video, text, PDF, etc., in the gallery, and finally, end with individual meetings in the meeting rooms.

2. You can organize virtual tour sessions. For example, with Spacecreator's Corporate Metaverse service, you can request the design of a digital twin of your real work office and have a customized virtual space.

For the integration phase to be successful, prior planning of the onboarding process is very important. If you already have an onboarding plan, you can adapt it and directly implement it in Spacecreator.

Integration

The main goal of the integration phase will be to get the new members to start executing their tasks and collaborating with other team members.

1. For this phase, it is highly recommended to assign a mentor to accompany them on this journey of introduction to the entire organization's ecosystem. It's also important to have a good overall strategy within the corporate culture that promotes an excellent employee experience; for example, by using dedicated tools.

2. It's important to include new members in team meetings that help to have a global vision of the company. For instance, you can organize daily express meetings in the auditorium or offer constant support as follow-up through chat or collaborate in collective work rooms.

3. Incorporating socialization activities and team-building activities also promotes a more natural and effective integration process. Having moments to "do nothing" helps to be more productive, to have time to talk with your colleagues, and to have a better relationship with work.

Performance

When planning the onboarding process, it's important to include a space to assess the progress of new hires: whether there is any difficulty or problem, as well as the acceptance of feedback to improve the employee onboarding program.

1. Conduct regular follow-up meetings: as time goes by, more time can pass between meetings. Offer feedback and help with any challenges they may encounter using communication tools or even the ability to share screens.

2. You can create an Element as a Pinboard where new employees can leave improvement ideas or opinions anonymously if they find it more comfortable. It can also be a mural where to attach files, photos, or any other material that may be helpful.