Virtual Graduate Intake and Onboarding

Graduate intake and onboarding programme – Can we make ours work in this pandemic?

As we began talking to our client about negotiations on the finer details of the venue contract for their Annual Trainee Conference, we established there was no plan B should they decide not to go ahead with a live event. As a highly sought after graduate position, involving a robust attraction and recruitment campaign, any change to the induction and onboarding conference for these graduates would need to deliver all the benefits of a physical event, and provide a platform for delegates and the graduate team to start building those all-important relationships which they would come to rely on over the next two years.

With three months to go and no certainty around government guidelines we suggested exploring the option to move the conference over to a virtual solution. Quickly the idea grew arms and legs and before you knew it, we were considering incorporating week one of the programme as well which normally takes place in house.

The virtual event would run across two weeks, with a mixture of live streamed keynote sessions,
pre-recorded content from the partners and break-out sessions to facilitate focused learning and discussions. Making the most of interaction and engagement from delegates was a key concern, to ensure knowledge and networks were being built throughout – and the social element of the conference would have to be fun and appeal to graduates to help them get to know each other and the wider team.

As a training style event, lots of content would need to be available during and after the conference and held in a secure environment for delegates to access in their own time.