MULTINATIONAL LUXURY GOODS CONGLOMERATE

Onboarding for the Future of Luxury

THE CHALLENGE

Helping a French luxury brand attract better Asia-based talent and empower employees to think outside the box.

OUTCOMES

1. 100+ concepts that spoke to the employee experience and onboarding solutions

2. A set of principles for employee engagement that were implemented with future classes of new joiners

OVERVIEW

Inducting new joiners into more than 250 years of tradition, craftsmanship, and brand storytelling is a significant challenge – and helping instil a mindset of innovation while doing so is an even more nuanced undertaking. When a French luxury house set out to attract better talent and empower employees to think even further outside the box, it turned to Heist to re-design the first step in the employee journey – the onboarding process.

Tasked with creating an experience that would play a key part in a firm-wide drive to re-shape company culture, Heist brought to life employee onboarding solutions that upheld the tenets of traditional luxury while encouraging the behaviours that lead to industry disruption.

What resulted was 12 concepts – 7 of which have been implemented today – that welcome new joiners in a way that honours the past while ensuring the brand remains relevant for the long-term.

PROCESS

The ways companies introduce new employees to culture, process, and brand is changing, and organisations all over the world have set out to design experiences that put fresh hires at the epicenter of their business ecosystem from the first day on the job.

Heist did an audit of existing strategies, gaining inspiration and lessons from firms who have taken a groundbreaking approach to onboarding, and selecting the strategies that might translate well for the luxury client. They also delved into the needs of today’s employees – including their beliefs and attitudes about working for luxury brands, the technology they use, and the lifestyle that their paychecks work to support.

From there, personas were created for each type of new hire. They went on to serve as the focal point for the design of an onboarding experience that caters to diverse motivations and demographies.

A co-creation workshop, which drew in research learnings as well as the views of current employees of the luxury brand, yielded the story of the concepts on video. These were shared with the brand’s global headquarters, and more than XX are being taken forward today.