2021 Online Inaugural Ceremony to be held [Cluster & Zoom & Special]

I'm Fujisawa, in charge of public relations and recruitment, and I think the office is the most comfortable place

We held "Online Job Offer Ceremony" on October 1, 2020

In September, we started thinking, "Come to think of it, what should we do about the job offer ceremony?" Since it's difficult to gather offline, we wondered if we could somehow hold it online, and as a result, we decided to use the following three tools

• Job Offer Ceremony → Cluster
• Group work → Zoom
• Social gathering → SpatialChat

It was my first time using three online tools in one day, so I was worried about whether I could manage it smoothly, but we managed to complete the ceremony without any problems

we will be sharing some interesting points and areas for improvement in online job offer ceremonies

(See last year's ceremony here .)

Online but in a suit

The only occasions at Beyond where you'll wear a suit are the job offer ceremony and the company induction ceremony

Some people usually wear tracksuits or aloha shirts to work, so this year they decided to dress up properly on days like this, and wore suits even online

I wore a jacket even at home

Accepted candidates will receive a gift of the "Offer Ceremony Set"

In previous job offer ceremonies, we were able to gather at a venue and enjoy stylish catering, but since we couldn't have the same meal online, a "job offer ceremony set" to the homes of those who received job offers. (We also mailed out job offer certificates.)

Everyone was free to help themselves to drinks, and we all ate the same food and shared the same time, so at the social gathering, we chatted online while the accepted candidates enjoyed a stylish appetizer platter and pizza

I also got some sent to me, and it was delicious and filled me up

Cluster where a mysterious phenomenon occurred

First, at the job offer ceremony, everyone gathered in a "Cluster."

With Cluster, you can host and participate in events for free right away by downloading the app

This was my first time using Cluster, so I had some problems during the connection check the day before

・When multiple people turn on the microphone, it becomes difficult to hear the audio

→Mic is generally off except for the person speaking

・PC slows down while starting Cluster

→ Do your best even if it's heavy

We carried out the ceremony using this method (perseverance)

During the actual event, a mysterious phenomenon occurred where one participant entered the venue only to find that no one was there. However, we managed to get this person to join Zoom and share the screen within Cluster, allowing him to participate without any problems.

There is a high possibility of unexpected problems occurring online

• Make sure everyone can meet the day before
• Decide what to do if there are any problems on the day

I felt that such advance preparations were necessary

We will be holding many online events in the future, so we will be sure to check the connection in advance when using tools for the first time

Group work in breakout sessions

After the job offer ceremony, we had group work, which we conducted using Zoom

Zoom has a feature called "breakout sessions" that allows you to create several rooms and divide participants into different groups

We divided the accepted candidates and internal members equally into three groups and had them discuss prepared topics

The topic is something like this

1. Come up with your own catchphrase (each person should think of one and present it)
2. If you could take three things to a desert island, what would they be?
3. Working styles have changed dramatically this year due to the impact of COVID-19, but what do you think would be the ideal way to work going forward?
4. Come up with new services using Beyond's four locations (Osaka, Yokohama, Shikoku, and Canada)

The presentations were mainly given by the accepted candidates, but even though they only had a short amount of time to discuss, the presentations were well-organized and I was impressed by how well they were able to work together even though it was online

The purpose of group work is to foster teamwork and deepen mutual understanding, and I think we were able to achieve this goal to some extent even online

However, I also thought that offline would be easier, since we couldn't see how other teams were discussing things and couldn't discuss things face-to-face

I thought the last one would be a special chat!

The final social gathering was a place where everyone could have fun chatting, so we used "SpatialChat" (commonly known as "Specha")

Special Chat allows you to freely move your icon and talk to people nearby

You cannot hear the voices of people who are far away, but the closer you are, the more you can hear the other person's voice, allowing you to experience a simulated offline gathering

This time, we created a background image to allocate seats in advance and decided the number of people at each table so that everyone could talk to the accepted members

↑This is how I came up with the idea

 

↑This is how it turned out

 

But, however..

With around 30 people joining the special chat at the same time, it became too heavy for conversation to take place

In the preliminary test, there were only three people, so we didn't expect that the audio would become difficult to hear if there were a larger group

we decided to return to Zoom , where we had been doing group work earlier

I had already created a background and wanted to try using Special Channel, but Zoom was the one I was most familiar with and the connection was stable

Like Cluster, Special Chat was a tool I had never used before, so the day made me realize that conducting connection tests with the expected number of people is essential when hosting an online event

summary

Here are some of the thoughts I had after holding the online job offer ceremony for the first time

Interesting points

• Simply fresh
• Use a variety of tools to avoid getting bored
• The novelty of attending a formal company event from the comfort of your own home

Points for improvement

• Check the connection based on the expected number of participants
• Have a plan in place for when someone can't connect

Holding events using various online tools is a very interesting endeavor, and I feel there is still much that can be done

What I also learned from this online job offer ceremony is that careful preparation is essential to carry out more interesting projects

I think we will continue to hold company information sessions and study sessions online from time to time in the future, so I would like to continue to try new things while also striving for stable operations

(We may soon be holding a "1-day internship" online, so we will let you know as soon as the details are finalized.)

Now, I'm Fujisawa, in charge of public relations and recruitment.