BNP Paribas Fortis: Onboarding Innovation meets in-person

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BNP Paribas Fortis chooses Talentech's Onboarding App to take newcomers from new hires to brand ambassadors.

#1

Bank in Belgium.

18,000

Employees in Belgium

800+

New hires onboarded

BNP Paribas Fortis
in numbers

BNP Paribas Fortis teams up with Talentech to welcome their new hires

BNP Paribas Fortis teams up with Talentech to revamp their new hire welcome mindset and embark on a journey of improving employee onboarding experience through a mix of technological innovation and in-person experiences.

Introducing digital onboarding innovations into a traditional banking environment allowed BNP Paribas Fortis to build new brand ambassador and client employee programs, taking their employer brand to a new level through referrals. BNP Paribas Fortis’ Adventure Coach Tim Callebaut shares his point of view on growing and guiding new hires from being new to the company to becoming its brand ambassadors.

"Talentech's solution is a great, simple and engaging way to bring the information your new hires need exactly when they need it."

Tim Callebaut
Adventure Coach, HR Talent

Onboarding before implementing Talentech

Before partnering with Talentech, BNP Paribas Fortis had a very traditional approach to onboarding. When new employees had questions they were typically given the same answer for everything, "You can find that on the intranet."

Leaving new hire welcomes to individual managers

Before BNP Paribas ventured out with the goal of transforming their new hire welcome approach, their onboarding had no defined structure from the organizational point of view, fully depending on the goodwill of each individual manager.

Endless paperwork

The traditional approach to onboarding at BNP Paribas Fortis consisted primarily of paperwork given to new hires on their first day on the job. Information presented in the form of packs of paper and presentations overwhelmed new hires instead of being a helpful welcome guide. And any questions new hires might have had? They were left to sort through the documents available on the Intranet to find the answers.

A one-size-fits-all approach

Finally, new hire welcome activities included presentations both for new and existing employees - spread out throughout the year, welcome days included formal presentations for groups of hires, even though many of them have started working at the company already.

"Talentech is a part of a bigger new story: a whole new approach to onboarding in a global sense - with focusing on the culture, on giving people a great first experience - it is something that has evolved with BNP Paribas Fortis and Talentech working together."

Tim Callebaut
Adventure Coach, HR Talent

Time to make (new) history

The introduction of Talentech at BNP Paribas Fortis became the first step in and the impetus for an inter-department transformation of the overall onboarding practices within the organization.

With Talentech, BNP Paribas Fortis got to build an application where HR managers and employees get to co-construct the content, co-construct the ways in which the software is used moving forward. By involving company employees every step of the way and getting their feedback and advice, BNP Paribas Fortis ensures a strong affiliation between app user and Talentech, as well as keeps the new hire content relevant and updated as the organization transforms with it.

Feedback foundations

Having done a lot of research before starting out with onboarding, with the help of Talentech App feedback forms and pulse checks, BNP Paribas Fortis can now continuously collect and evaluate critical employee feedback, making the whole onboarding process work smoother and grow to be more appealing to real employees every day.

"Along the way people started to ask critical questions - we see that the people were interested enough to give honest feedback and help the app and our onboarding evolve together."

In-person cultural experiences

With Talentech in place, Tim and his team re-evaluated the entire process of new hire socialization, changing all of its key components in line with the new vision of feedback and innovation.

The welcome day itself changed very drastically - today BNP Paribas Fortis welcome day focuses exclusively on culture in the first part of the day, whilst in the second part, new hires get to visit different innovation initiatives of the bank in Brussels, experiencing innovation and change first hand. With Talentech, even before new hires step into the office, they get to take an immersive 360 Degrees virtual tour of BNP Paribas Fortis’ newest flagship offices in Belgium, building up the excitement though a combination of innovative technology and a personal touch.

Tim explains, "This new approach allows new hires to take these experiences back with them, people are much more enthusiastic about their new job when they have experienced the change themselves - that is also the best way to make them ambassadors.”

What new hires want: Clever KPI’s

Focusing on a number of KPI’s available in-app:

Activation rates,
Application use and open rates,
As well as the Top 5 most popular pages, BNP Paribas Fortis could shape their employee onboarding program beyond the initial goals.

Using the continuous feedback mechanisms that allow to enhance and restructure content delivery as the application develops, only select information is sent to new hires exactly when it is most helpful and relevant.

“The in-app pulse checks alone helped us intuitively shape the onboarding program,” shares Tim.

Gradual evolution: Changing with your employees

With the informative part out of the way, new hires can meet with their managers in person faster - tackling objectives, not office plans or compliance documents, together. Thanks to Talentech, new hires at BNP Paribas Fortis receive new information in timely, segmented, digestible pieces.

Metrics you need to continue improving

"People have a certain image of the bank when they sign a contract - the apps gives them a better impression of the day-to-day life at BNP Paribas Fortis."

Tim Callebaut
Adventure Coach, HR Talent

From newbies to new brand ambassador

Having started with using the Talentech app only for new hire onboarding, today BNP Paribas Fortis has successfully extended the socialization process beyond new hire welcome and into cultureboarding, long-term brand building and turning new hires first into happy employees, then into stellar brand ambassadors and clients of the bank.

Today, as BNP Paribas Fortis employees augment their knowledge of the company and its culture, they can represent the bank in three distinct capacities:

Level 1 | BNP Member: An engaged and productive new hire.

Level 2 | BNP Client: Using the app to inform about and promote attractive products and create internal incentives for BNP Paribas Fortis’ employees to become customers of the bank.

Level 3 | BNP Ambassador: A dedicated employee armed with an in-depth knowledge of the bank, ready to refer either new suitable candidates for open positions at the bank or as new clients via the Talentech App Referral option.

Future ambitions

Today Tim and his team continue working with Talentech on exploring what the App can bring beyond their initial onboarding goals.

Having started with a narrow focus on HR content alone, today the collaboration between BNP Paribas Fortis and Talentech has evolved into a global, threefold approach to employee engagement, client engagement and employee advocacy.

"The Talentech app became a part of a bigger transformation - starting with delivering information to new hires in small, timely, digestible pieces, it has grown to a full restructuring of culturization in the company."

So what's next?

The adventures of BNP Paribas Fortis and Talentech don’t end here. With the launch of Talentech's new Chatbot feature, as well as a call to open up the App to the bank’s current employees and not new hires alone, only the future will show what is in store for these HR innovators.