The Challenge

At Lyft, a global, publicly traded company with a reputation for upholding the public good, the stakes are even higher. The Lyft mission statement includes caring for one another, creating fearlessly, and building great teams. When new hires come onboard, they need to see the role they’ll play in that greater mission. To tell that story and bring Lyft culture into the flow of onboarding, Lyft partnered with Gatheround, a culture-building video conferencing tool designed by a team that shares Lyft’s values.

New employees start in Gatheround, with a “Welcome to Lyft” session of intros and icebreakers. It’s the first touchpoint of many. Gatheround is a linchpin in the initial onboarding session at Lyft, a 1.5 day masterclass in facilitation run by onboarding specialist Allison Lucero. 

Onboarding is a big task: Allison has onboarded more than 1,700 new hires in the past year. She spends hours each day on camera and must check dozens of boxes, from compliance training to technical troubleshooting, all while telling Lyft’s story and helping each employee find a place in it. She and the rest of the onboarding team lean on Gatheround to build social fabric along the way and automate some of the logistics of the marathon onboarding process.

The Partnership

For Lyft, the Gatheround platform handles a lot of the facilitation and finicky manual tasks involved in onboarding — like setting up breakout rooms — and takes them off the host’s plate. Meanwhile, Lyft’s culture and values are woven into the tool at a foundational level thanks to more than two years of hand-in-glove partnership. Many of Gatheround’s ready-made onboarding agendas and features have been shaped by feedback from Lyft.

In 30-Day Check-In, an onboarding template co-authored with Lyft, recent hires come together in a safe space to process all that they’ve learned. Fireside Chat, another template co-authored with Lyft, creates opportunities for junior employees and new hires to connect with senior leaders. Meanwhile, in the Gatheround user interface, dozens of design decisions and improvements — from camera controls to new activity types and accessibility features — have emerged from the Gatheround-Lyft partnership.

The Outcomes

The partnership with Lyft has helped Gatheround think bigger and be better. And the benefits go both ways. Anchored by Gatheround, the Lyft onboarding experience makes a great first impression on new hires. 98% of respondents to the Lyft new hire survey report feeling connected to Lyft’s mission from their first day, and 99.2% feel that they have the knowledge, resources, and tools necessary to embody Lyft’s values after orientation.

The opportunity to connect and form community early is both a strong predictor of retention and engagement in the long term (at any organization) and an organic way for Lyft to put their values into practice, right from the beginning of an employee’s tenure. And it has resonated with new hires.

As Allison puts it, “The #1 thing people remember from onboarding? It’s always Gatheround.”