How to gamify your onboarding process?
Why gamify the onboarding process in the first place? Well, one of the biggest issues with employee onboarding in this day and age is that it has become far too much about checking certain boxes and not about creating a positive experience for new hires. This is an unacceptable premise, considering that 69% of employees, according to a study by Aberdeen Group, are more likely to stay with a company for three years if they experienced great onboarding.
Are we missing something here? Isn't retention the name of the game in 2023? We are living in an era where valuable employees are constantly aware of all the options that are open to them and with the lines between industries blurring with each passing year, they don't even need to stay in their lanes anymore!?
While many factors go into retaining employees and it is a complex discussion in its own right, we can't disregard the massive part the onboarding process plays in retaining employees. First impressions, last.
Gamification in the workplace
When put simply, gamification is the use of game-design elements in non-game contexts. Whether you are implementing game elements such as badges, challenges, points, or simply starting a leaderboard, gamification has gone past being a simple trend and proved it is here to stay.
In this specific case, the positive effects of gamification in the workplace are very well documented. We know that game-based learning is one of the most effective ways of taking in new information in adults and young minds alike. We know that in a year when Gallup reported that %85 of all employees are either unengaged or actively disengaged, gamification is a methodology well-worth investing in.
The concepts of learning and engagement while relevant at all stages of one's employment, play a huge role in the onboarding process. So, let's have a conversation about gamifying employee onboarding.
Onboarding Challenges
Challenges are an inherent part of any game-design process and they are one of the first elements of gamification you should consider implementing in your onboarding process. Onboarding tasks have always played an important part in new-hire training. That being said, why not turn them into challenges they need to complete??
Dividing your onboarding process into levels that your new hires can unlock after completing a certain amount of challenges in each level is a fun way to incentivize hands-on learning. Your new employees can discover what it is like to be working in your organization as they make their way through each level. You can customize the levels any way you want.?
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The initial levels can entirely be made up of scavenger hunts, with challenges such as:?
"Discover the best burger joint around the office?" or "Find where you can access employee feedback templates inside our performance management system?"
These can help familiarize your new hires with their new workplace as well as the digital tools used in it. Gradually, these challenges should evolve into onboarding tasks to familiarize them with their new responsibilities.
Take Advantage of Leaderboards
Speaking of challenges and points! Why not create leaderboards to add a dash of friendly competition to your onboarding process? Who will be the first to reach the next level? Who will finish the onboarding program with the most amount of points? What will the rewards be? These are all questions that will bring a breath of fresh air to the way you onboard new hires.
Incentivise Making Connections
A new workplace is far more than just an office to explore and a fresh set of responsibilities to take on. It is also a whole bunch of new relationships about to be formed. So why shouldn't you give your new hires a nudge in the right direction??
Does your organization have its own company social network? Give badges to new hires who make the most friends in it. Making office trivia one of your onboarding challenges is a great way to incentivize making new connections. This doesn't just go for your new hires! Veterans should also be motivated to learn about their new teammates!
Closing Words
So these were some of the interesting ways we came up with to help you gamify your onboarding process. So let's throw the question out to you! Are there any interesting onboarding practices in your workplace? What are some of the creative ways you help new hires feel welcome? How would you go about gamifying employee onboarding? Let's start that discussion right here in the comments section.?
If you are curious about how you can use Teamflect as an onboarding software inside Microsoft Teams, you might want to give this video a look: