Grant Thornton Bharat goes metaverse way to onboard new employees on virtual office

In what can be seen as an initial penetration by the metaverse into the workplace, professional services firm Grant Thornton Bharat is using the technology to onboard new employees. The platform, ‘GTMetaOne’, is a digital model of the Grant Thornton Bharat offices, which allows new hires to opt for an avatar and interact with their counterparts, including senior employees such as CEOs and COOs.

Built using 4 percent of the total HR budget and internal tech team, Grant Thornton has conducted 3-4 inductions with around 40 people so far. The company has plans to onboard 10,000 new employees in the next three years.

“Though we did look out for people outside to build this tech, we soon realised we can make it in-house. It took GT (Grant Thornton) around three months to build, test and implement the tech,” said Satya Jha, Chief Business Officer at Grant Thornton Bharat.

Extended reality, or XR, is an emerging realm of technology that combines real and virtual environments. The term is used to refer to human-machine interactions generated through wearables and computer technology.

XR is categorised into three types namely AR, VR, and mixed reality (MR). Mixed reality is one of three types of extended reality technologies often associated with the metaverse. An MR headset can allow the wearer to use a real-world object to trigger a virtual-world reaction.

Using Virtual Reality (VR) headsets, the employees can get access to 2.5 hours of onboarding experience where they can attend leadership lectures and HR sessions, all while being in a room in the GT office in Aerocity, New Delhi. In addition, it is also accessible on laptops and mobiles.

According to Nupur Kohli, HRBP Lead, the tech has helped the HR teams with ease of doing business, flexibility in onboarding, employer branding and increasing engagement among new hires. Currently, around 98 percent of the consultancy’s employees work remotely, across various locations.

“Candidates usually forget the crucial points mentioned during the HR session. However, with an immersive experience of VR headsets, the sessions hold a place in their mind and can be re-accessed on mobile devices anytime, anywhere,” she said.

Taking a step further, GT plans to take the initiative to the next level by placing headsets in each office across the country and making its workplace all-virtual. It also plans to offer the metaverse tech to its clients and has already started working on use cases, including telemedicine.