Mondelez India turns to virtual reality for onboarding new hires

From witnessing how chocolates are made and packaged, to visiting the global R&D innovation centres, a bunch of newly recruited employees at Mondelez India are getting onboarded on the Metaverse.

Mondelez India has launched a pilot initiative to offer an immersive experience for onboarding newly recruited employees leveraging the Meta Oculus Virtual Reality headsets. India is the first country for the chocolates major, known for products such as Cadbury Dairy Milk and Cadbury Chocobakes, to have launched such an initiative.

‘Signature moment’

Shilpa Vaid, Head HR at Mondelez India, told BusinessLine, “ Given the shift to remote and hybrid work models, we have been deeply thinking on how to redefine our colleagues’ work experiences at Mondelez. We want to ensure that onboarding and assimilation into the company becomes a key “signature moment” for the new hires irrespective of their locations and therefore we decided to launch this cool immersive experience.”

Vaid said that onboarding is among the key moments that matter for an employee at an organisation and is also an opportunity for the employers to validate that the new hires have made the right choice.

Spread across several weeks, the onboarding process at the company during pre-Covid times included physical visits to the company’s manufacturing facilities and innovation centres, among others activities.

“ But we felt that in this new normal those experiences have not been as compelling for the new hires as it would have been during the pre-Covid era. The immersive experience has therefore been designed in a manner that the new hires across functions are able to understand the purpose of the organisation, cultural nuances, and have a greater sense of community. Currently, a batch of 50 new hires across functions are getting onboarded through this pilot programme ,” she added.

Hiring plans

These newly recruited employees can tour digital versions of the company’s manufacturing facilities, innovation centres, global R&D and corporate offices and meet colleagues virtually.

Last year, Mondelez India hired over 400 employees and has strong hiring plans for this year too. “We are the first Business Unit across Mondelez that is piloting this initiative. We would like to scale it up to the level where all new hires can get onboarded through the Metaverse. The generation that is entering the workforce already uses these technologies in their personal lives. So, this is in line with our strategy, as an organisation, to focus on embracing new digital technologies across functions including HR, ” Vaid added. 

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