Today’s new hires aim for a sense of purpose, engagement, and growth outside of salary expectations. Also, the dynamics of workplaces across the world have evolved through years. Onboarding effectively on-premise or virtually can increase productivity and improve employee engagement in organizations. A structured onboarding program is crucial to retain top talent and provide job satisfaction. Onboarding is more than orientation, it presents companies an opportunity to engage employees, convey a larger picture of their business – brands, goals and culture. Game-based onboarding activities are designed with the goal of educating employees, encouraging them to complete a task, rewarding them and naturally leaving a lasting impression.
Gamification For New Employee Onboarding
A new hire for the first few days is involved in going through a lot of documents and maybe watching few organizational level videos. This makes the onboarding days tedious for the new hire. Therefore, it is essential to find ways to make onboarding interesting. How can organizations implement gamification for the onboarding training? The gamification strategy is supported by several game elements that make onboarding interesting as well as motivating for the new hires. Let’s look at the most widely adopted game elements of gamification for new hire onboarding.
- Progress and Achievement: Rewarding the employees after completion of the assigned tasks and duties makes employees feel valued in an organization. For example, you can create a list of all the tasks which you want your employees to finish during their onboarding. Once all the tasks are completed you can mail them a note stating “good job”. As a result, the employees will feel valued and appreciated for their work. Employees who feel valued and appreciated for their work increase performance in the entire business. Research shows that 69% employees who participate in well-structured, engaging new employee onboarding program are more likely to stay with the organisation.
- Leveling Up: “Leveling Up” in video games refers to the process of completing certain tasks before the player is allowed to undertake further steps. An employee orientation follows a similar format. It is necessary to set a list of goals that you want your employee to achieve before giving them additional responsibilities. For example, you may ask your new hire to write sample articles before he/she can start working on the actual article. Motivating employees with these types of goals will make it easier for them to become more productive.
- Quests : You can improve employee onboarding by utilising gamification quests is another way to improve new hire onboarding within an organisation. A quest is intended for any training subject, regardless of what it is. For example, instead of making your new hires watch an hour-long video on “Code of Conduct” make them research the policy by interacting with each other. With this way of learning, they will enjoy the learning process as well as understand the policy.
Gamification has endless potential when it comes to onboarding. Gamified onboarding training helps employees learn about the organization more efficiently. Another example of an organization that introduced gamification for employee onboarding, Deloitte is a multinational professional services network. The company introduced an onboarding game for new analysts in 2018 named “Zombie Apocalypse”. The game focused on the consulting skills and software and it was ultimately a hit. The company noticed an annual reduction in analyst onboarding costs. Gamification plays a key role in employee engagement through onboarding, and it is what the organizations need to build proper connections that engage learners proactively in fulfilling their roles.