L’Oreal Creates World’s First Mobile Onboarding App to Engage New Employees

A business’ results are directly affected by its employees.  Simplified, the more positive the experience of an employee within the organization in which they work, the greater the potential for the employee to positively perform their duties and contribute to a business’ key performance indicators.   Higher levels of engagement are directly supported by the level of motivation and commitment of the employee.  There are multiple factors that affect an employee’s motivation and commitment, including company culture, feeling connected, opportunity to share ideas and opinions, trusted environment, employee recognition program, sense of community, and more.   L’Oréal, a global leader within the cosmetics industry, has embraced a number of unique, noteworthy social media tactics to develop employee engagement and in fact is extending their objective of employee engagement to include employee advocacy.  A question L’Oreal has asked though, is when can advocacy and engagement begin to be developed within an organization?  According to Rosie McCarthy, International Learning Manager for L’Oreal, “One of the best opportunities you have to engage with your employees is when they start.“   The onboarding process provides one of the first touchpoints with a new employee; it is a perfect opportunity to connect with, support and build engagement with an employee, during a very positive time that can be full of excitement and anticipation.  L’Oreal has harnessed this opportunity; L’Oreal has developed the world’s first employee onboarding app: ‘Fit’.

Onboarding sets the stage for an employee’s experience, and oftentimes longevity, within an organization.  In her article on LinkedIn entitled “Why is Onboarding So Important“, Cristina Campanella says “A study by analyst firm Aberdeen Group found that 86 percent of respondents felt that a new hire’s decision to stay with a company long-term is made within the first six months of employment.”  The cost of replacing employees is expensive.  She continues, “That’s why it’s vital that all organizations hold on to their people, and they can start by providing a well-designed onboarding process to educate new employees about their place within the larger culture.”   It is critical that new employees understand where they fit in within the company culture.  This is especially important for one of the largest sources of new employees: Millenials.  According to Deloitte, a sense of purpose is one of the reasons 60% of Millenials chose to work for their current employer.  This number is even higher among Millenials who are relatively high users of social networking tools.  Gone are the days of paperwork and filling out forms on the first day.  Using social media is a natural “fit” to immediately engage an employee on day one.  FIT is the world’s first mobile application designed to immediately engage employees and help them understand, decode and master L’Oreal’s unique company culture.  It is utilized by L’Oreal new hires globally, in 11 languages.  FIT focuses on the 7 most critical parts of L’Oreal culture to master as defined by new hires in over 30 countries.  Positives, challenges and advice for dealing with each are available through videos and written testimonials. New employees play with the app for 5 to 10 minutes a day in their first month.  Rosie McCarthy of L’Oreal, has referred to FIT as their own “Pocket Coach”, to help them navigate the L’Oreal culture.

Lessons for Others

L’Oreal has established itself as an industry leader in the use of social media to support employee engagement and advocacy, to which other companies  can look.  The launch of their first to market app, FIT, is proof of this.  Not only is it a unique tool, but recognition of an opportunity to engage with employees at a very impactful and impressionable time in an employee’s career, the onboarding process.  If done successfully, connecting with employees at this early stage can reap significant benefits for both the organization and the employee.

If you have concerns as to the accuracy of anything posted on this site, please send your concerns to Peter Carr, Program Director, Social Media for Business Performance.

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