Cool Games for New Hire Onboarding

Ready to gamify your new hire onboarding? 

Many organizations around the globe have needed to adopt a remote approach for onboarding processes, due to public health restrictions forcing more than 50% of American workers into teleworking during the pandemic. Even as some companies start to strategize on how to bring staff back into the office, 54% of workers say that even after the pandemic, they would prefer to continue working from home.

Despite the comfort and flexibility that working from home provides, there are still many aspects of in-person work that are hard to replicate when an entire office full of staff is scattered around the city, country, or even around the world! One of the most challenging aspects of our working life to translate has been new employee onboarding.

For any new hire, the first few days of a new job can be stressful. There’s so much to learn that it can feel exhausting. Plus, it’s especially difficult to feel like a part of the team if you’re physically separated from the rest of your colleagues.

Fortunately, there are lots of ways that employers can help new hires combat the stress and anxiety of the first few days at work.

Gamifying Your Onboarding Improves Employee Success

One of the best ways to improve the onboarding process is by adding in some fun games. These games can facilitate employee bonding, help to make learning new processes easier, and can help employees retain information for longer.

Did you know that most employees forget up to 70% of what they learn within 3 days if they’re using traditional modes of learning? Gamifying your onboarding is a great way to help fight against this trend, and make sure the important information you’re telling them in the first few days of work actually sticks.

Here are a few ideas for games that you can incorporate into your onboarding to help new employees thrive.

Work-Based Zoom Quiz

One of the most important aspects of onboarding is introducing new hires to your work culture and company history. A great way to do this is through a work-based Zoom quiz. 

Make sure new hires know it’s coming, and give them plenty of time to research everything they need to know. Then, provide incentives to whoever scores the most points, like a restaurant gift card or even some luxury office supplies.

This quiz helps employees tap into their competitive side, and encourages them to really dig into the company history in a way that they probably wouldn’t have if they were just handed a book or a PDF file.

Virtual Scavenger Hunt

A virtual scavenger hunt is another great way to spark a bit of friendly competition among employees. If you want to encourage a bit of collegial bonding, create teams by mixing people from different departments, or allow people to compete on their own. There are almost unlimited possibilities for the virtual scavenger hunt list, so feel free to make it as wide-ranging as possible.

Take the Myers-Briggs Personality Test

Encouraging employee bonding is great, but it can be tricky to get people to open up without asking them to talk about topics that just aren’t work-appropriate.

A great way to encourage people to open up but maintain their privacy is through a Myers-Briggs personality test. These tests start with an introspective questionnaire, then assign each person a personality type. Offering employees a Myers-Briggs test and giving them the option to discuss their results with members of their team is a great way to encourage more openness and bonding among colleagues.  

Group Happy Hour or Coffee Breaks

There are lots of opportunities to construct creative employee onboarding experiences, but something that’s just as effective and simple to execute is a group happy hour, or even just a coffee break. Giving employees unstructured time to get to know each other is always valuable, even if it’s over Zoom.

Get New Ideas for Creative Employee Onboarding with 1Huddle

Looking for ways to spice up your next remote employee onboarding week? 1Huddle is a great resource offering tons of different games that you can customize and even design yourself. Our proprietary game-building platform was created using science-based insights to help you design games that encourage employee learning and development.

Want to try it for yourself? Request a demo today.