Global induction portal

Harbour Energy is a global energy company with a workforce spread across countries, offices, and operational sites. Every new joiner needs the same grounding: who the company is, how it works, and what it expects on health, safety, ethics, and inclusion. We built that grounding as a navigable induction portal: photoreal 3D virtual spaces that new joiners explore from their own screen, wherever in the world they start.

The challenge

Induction in the energy sector still leans heavily on slide decks and policy documents. For a global workforce that means an inconsistent first experience: what a new starter absorbs depends on which office they join and who happens to walk them through it, and engagement with document-led content is widely recognised as low.

Harbour Energy saw the opportunity to do better. They wanted every new joiner, anywhere in the world, to get the same considered welcome and the same standard of essential content, and they asked us to build it.

What we built

The portal is a set of photoreal virtual spaces that new joiners move through at their own pace, from a screen, with a simple menu to guide them. It opens in a virtual reception and welcome, then leads into dedicated areas for HR, health and safety (HSES), DE&I, and ethics.

Each space presents its content where it naturally belongs, so the induction feels like being shown around rather than being handed a pack of documents. The whole experience runs on Harbour Energy's own infrastructure, inside their environment and under their control.

How it works

We delivered the portal in phases. Phases one to four built out the core spaces and content, taking the portal live company-wide in December 2024. Phase five followed through 2025, alongside an analytics integration so the team can see how joiners actually use it.

Further commissioned update rounds are carrying the portal into 2026, refreshing content as the organisation changes. An accessibility roadmap is in progress, widening who the portal works well for.

The outcome

The portal has been live since December 2024 and has never stood still. Rather than a one-off induction project, it has become standing infrastructure: a multi-year, continuously refreshed induction estate that Harbour Energy has extended through phase five, analytics integration, and further update rounds commissioned into 2026.

That retention is the result that matters. When a global energy company keeps commissioning the next round, the induction is doing its job.