Artelia
The context
Artelia is an international engineering and consultancy giant, present in over 40 countries. The group works across 5 major sectors: Building, Mobility, Water, Industry and Nuclear.
With such a breadth of trades and expertise, the main challenge is to avoid working in silos. To build a shared culture,onboarding into a company of this scale means giving people a big-picture view of projects, fast.
The brief: reinvent HR onboarding
Artelia’s HR department wanted to modernise the way itwelcomes new employees. Traditional formats (top-down presentations, slide decks) were struggling to hold attention and spark engagement.
Arcane Experience was set a twofold challenge:
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Align practices: make Artelia’s project management methodology clear to every new recruit, whatever their technical background.
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Build connections: encourage people to meet and bond as a team from day one.
The goal was clear: turnemployee onboarding into a memorable, playful and unifying moment, a world away from traditional admin-heavy inductions.
The Arcane solution: gamified onboarding
To meet thisonboardingneed, we designed “AGORA”, a bespoke, life-size serious game .
Our approach: turn theory into practice through a corporate game. Rather than sitting through a presentation on the project life cycle, participants live it for themselves.
The concept: Split into teams, participants play assistant project directors. To complete their onboarding journey, they collaborate on realistic scenarios (building a dam, an industrial refurbishment, and more) to construct “Agora”, the world of tomorrow.
Armed with a game booklet and a map, they set off to investigate and validate the 7 key stages of the project cycle. This gamification mechanic makes every new recruit an active player in their own training, helping internal processes stick for good.
The results
The programme completely transformedemployee onboarding at Artelia.
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Faster understanding: learning by doing embeds the methodology far more effectively than conventional training.
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Instant cohesion: the game breaks the ice and builds strong links between departments, a cornerstone of successful employee onboarding.
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A stronger employer brand: by offering an innovative experience, Artelia showcases its culture of innovation from day one.
With Agora,employee onboarding is no longer an administrative formality, but the first collective adventure of a career at Artelia.
Client testimonial
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