Onboarding Gamification: Level Up New Hires Through Creative Play

Few humans can resist a good game. There’s something so fun about scoring points and climbing leaderboards — alone or as a team. Gamification can inject that same high-energy spirit of cooperation or competition into your onboarding process. It turns mundane tasks into exciting challenges, and leverages the power of play — which has been proven to help build engagement, inspire learning, grow employee happiness, and even increase resilience at work.

By gamifying onboarding in your organization, you can create an unforgettable first impression and set the stage for a workplace that’s more engaging and efficient right from the start.

Why Gamify Your Onboarding Process?

Implementing gamified elements can create a more immersive, engaging onboarding experience that celebrates every new hire’s journey into the company.

You can also expect to see the result in your most important outcomes, as gamification:

Boosts Engagement and Participation

Traditional onboarding can be a snooze fest with heaps of paperwork to complete and hours of training. Gamification turns necessary learning into compelling gameplay, adding narrative and challenges that increase engagement and participation rates. By incorporating elements like stories, points, levels, and badges, companies can transform mundane tasks into exciting challenges that new hires are eager to tackle. A 2023 academic study showed that the adoption of gamification in Human Resources can significantly impact employee engagement.

Accelerates Learning and Retention

Gamification isn’t just fun; it’s also backed by science. Interactive and competitive elements help reinforce learning by enhancing memory retention. Through quizzes, missions, and challenges that repeat key information in varying formats, new employees are more likely to absorb and recall information when it matters most. A study from 2023 agreed, saying “when employees perceive that e-training systems are easy to use, this fosters their sense that they are useful and that employees’ perceptions of the ease of use and usefulness of e-training systems foster positive attitudes.”

Speeds Time to Productivity

Implementing gamification in training has been linked to higher productivity. New employees often achieve competency in their roles faster because gamified elements like point scoring and levels can accelerate the learning curve. The same recent study we cited above showed that adoption of gamification can impact productivity — especially when accompanied by appropriate recognition and other engaging factors.

Gamification can also serve as a social catalyst, easing the integration of new hires into the team. Multiplayer challenges or team-based missions encourage interaction and collaboration among team members. This can not only help people break the ice but also build key relationships that are crucial for a great work culture. One 2021 study showed how playing games together can help employees bond better, noting that the games let them “practice at forming and working effectively with other players in teams.” When engaged in games, said researchers, employees enter a state of ‘flow’ — feeling “like they are in control, their curiosity is engaged, and they enjoy themselves” and when playing games as teams, employees “experienced greater flow and exhibited greater performance on subsequent team tasks.”

Enhances Company Culture and Values Introduction

Embedding company values and culture into a game format will make even abstract concepts more tangible and memorable. For example, a game scenario that rewards points for collaboration or innovation can subtly teach new hires what behaviors are valued and rewarded within the company. The more you can associate culture and fun, the better!

Creates a Positive and Memorable First Impression

First impressions are lasting impressions. A gamified onboarding experience is a fantastic way to set a positive, dynamic tone right from the jump. It’s a vibrant “Wow!” experience that communicates that your company is forward-thinking and values creativity and innovation. That will make new employees feel excited and valued from the start.

Drives Healthy Competition and Motivation

Healthy competition can be a great motivator. Leaderboards, points, and rewards pit new hires against friendly benchmarks, encouraging them to engage more deeply with onboarding content. This can not only speed up the learning process but also inject a sense of accomplishment and urgency. That said, studies show that gamified cooperation can be as, or even more, effective than gamified competition.

Offers Scalability and Consistency

Gamified elements can be standardized and scaled across multiple departments or locations, ensuring that every new hire has a consistent onboarding experience regardless of when or where they join the company. This standardization will help you make sure that you maintain quality and fairness in the process.

The Science of Gamification

So how does this all work, according to behavioral science? This is what Harvard Business Review observed in 2024:

“Gamification can enhance engagement because its mechanics activate three core elements of our motivational system. First, we need to feel autonomous; the desire to direct our own life. Games allow us the ability to choose a path. Second, we need to feel competent; the desire to be demonstrably effective. Games allow us to experience progress towards mastery. Third, we need to feel relatedness; the desire to be connected with others. Games allow us to work with and against others and build a community around a shared interest.”

Our behavioral science-based Enboarder Engagement Model is also a great framework to understand which components need to be in place for gamification to work:

Engagement: The game should be fun with motivational elements like badges, points, awards, etc. For example, Arden University uses an Onboarding Excellence Award to motivate hiring managers to provide a stellar onboarding experience. New starters are prompted with a survey in Enboarder asking them to nominate someone who supported them during the onboarding process. Then the company encourages and celebrates those managers with a special gift basket.
Nudge: People should be nudged so they know which action to take at what time within the game.
Ease: Make the game easy and intuitive to play.
Connection: Games are more likely to take off when they involve the whole team.

Real-World Ideas for Onboarding Gamification

Alright, let’s turbocharge that onboarding process with some epic gamification ideas! These aren’t your average, yawn-inducing orientation activities; we’re talking about turning the mundane into fun and the ordinary into extraordinary. So buckle up, and here are a few onboarding gamification examples to inject some fun into those first days at the office!

1. Quest for Compliance:

Turn those must-do compliance tasks into a quest! Each form completed, video watched, or quiz passed earns points. Reach the compliance goalpost to claim a small prize!

2. Skill-Builder Challenges:

Create skill-based levels that employees need to “unlock” by completing certain tasks or training modules throughout the onboarding process. As they level up, they can gain access to special virtual badges and maybe even real-world perks.

3. The Great Scavenger Hunt:

Organize an office-wide scavenger hunt for new hire cohorts that helps them discover important locations (like the emergency exit, the best coffee spot, or the print station). Here’s the catch – they need to talk to designated colleagues on different teams for clues! Each discovery earns points and snippets of insider info. You can use Enboarder to help you organize a scavenger hunt – many of our customers are already doing this!

4. Onboarding Olympics:

Host a series of fun, job-related competitions. From rubber band archery to a rolling chair obstacle course, let your imagination roam and let the games begin!

5. Meet and Greet:

Ready to ramp up those relationship-building skills? Dive into a getting-to-know-you game! Far from a typical awkward mixer, your new hires will connect with one another to earn points on a leaderboard. Enboarder offers a version of this called the Connection Networking Game. Using Connection Cards, employees are invited to scan each other’s cards and engage in a lively chat to unearth their “secret fact” and earn a point. This also helps populate their personal leaderboard, turning those first-timers into fast friends and well-connected colleagues in no time!

6. Role-Play Roulette:

Have participants spin a digital wheel to receive a role-play or improv scenario they must act out related to their job duties or scenarios they might encounter with customers. Award points for participation, creativity, and accuracy!

7. Feedback Frenzy:

Looking for some feedback on your onboarding process? Reward employees for giving constructive comments on the experience with a points system that can be exchanged for company swag.

8. Culture Quiz Whiz:

Who said learning about company culture can’t be fun? Host a trivia challenge or send out one-question pop quizzes, where fun facts about the company’s history or culture can earn points and prizes.

9. Mystery Mission:

Every week, you could send a mystery mission related to their job or the company culture. Completing it reveals clues to the next mission and accumulates points.

10. Achievement Unlocked:

Set up a series of achievements for various onboarding milestones, like completing all training modules or making their first sales call.

11. House Challenges:

Group new hire cohorts into teams, where their accomplishments can earn points for their “house.” Award points for various activities or challenges, and watch team members cheer each other on or bond.

12. Progress Puzzle:

Each task or module completed adds a piece to a virtual puzzle. Completing the puzzle reveals a special welcome message from the CEO or a special reward.

Onboarding Gamification Ideas for Virtual/Remote Teams

We know there are differences between virtual onboarding and in-person experiences. Here are three gamification onboarding examples to consider for gamification in onboarding a hybrid or remote team.

Emoji Storyboard:

Challenge new hires to tell their first week’s story using only emojis in a dedicated Slack channel or team chat. Colleagues can guess the activities depicted, fostering interaction and a few laughs. Points are awarded for creativity and engagement from the team.

Virtual Escape Room:

Set up a virtual escape room that revolves around finding clues related to the company’s history or core values. Teams collaborate to solve puzzles and unlock the “room,” which is actually a treasure trove of company secrets and fun facts.

“Who’s Who?” Bingo:

Create a bingo card filled with interesting facts about team members (without naming them). New hires must then figure out which fact corresponds to which team member through virtual meetings or chat interactions. This activity encourages new hires to get to know their colleagues on a personal level, turning the usual meet-and-greet into a fun detective game.

Let the games begin!

5 Tips for Implementing Gamification to the Onboarding Process

Whether you’re aiming to rocket up retention rates, supercharge engagement, or streamline compliance, gamified onboarding can help. But you’ll want to be thoughtful about how you design your game rules and follow onboarding best practices. Here are a few principles to consider.

Define Clear Objectives

Before you start gamifying the onboarding process, think about what you want to achieve. What is your onboarding agenda and how can gamification contribute? Are you aiming to increase retention, boost engagement, or ensure compliance? Set specific, measurable goals. This clarity will help you design game elements that aren’t just fun but are also effective in achieving your organizational objectives.

Choose the Right Tools

Select tools and tech that can seamlessly integrate employee onboarding gamification into your existing onboarding workflow. Look for great communication and workflow tools in your onboarding solution, and also consider how to implement features like leaderboards, points, badges, and interactive challenges that are customizable to your needs. Enboarder’s flexible platform can help you deliver fun scavenger hunts, networking games, surveys, and more..

Foster a Culture of Recognition

Gamification thrives in an environment where achievements are recognized and celebrated. Ensure your onboarding process includes mechanisms to celebrate milestones — big or small. This not only motivates new hires but also fosters a positive company culture from day one.

Monitor, Measure, and Iterate

Like any strategy, the success of your gamification should be monitored and measured. Track engagement levels, completion rates, and feedback from new hires to gauge the effectiveness of your gamified elements. Use this data to tweak and improve your approach, ensuring it remains relevant and engaging — and be sure to use gamification onboarding apps that help you to gather that information easily.

Level Up with Accomplishments

Great gamification will double down on the idea of accomplishment. Even the most tedious tasks can be fun when gamified. People don’t mind “grinding” if it feels like it leads to a “level up.” As behavioral and gamification expert Yu-Kai Chou reminded us in a recent gamification event, gamification can help alleviate the “grunt work” if a reward is to be given.

Experience Enboarder for an Interactive Onboarding Experience

Who said work can’t be fun? Add some gamification excitement to your onboarding experience with Connected Onboarding from Enboarder. With nudges and touches that break through the noise and get noticed in the best way, Enboarder transforms a traditional onboarding process into a vibrant, interactive, gamified experience that not only educates and informs — but also brings people together.

By integrating gamification, Enboarder helps to create a dynamic onboarding environment that encourages your new hires to learn, acclimate, and connect to each other in a meaningful way. With an intuitive design and customizable features, Enboarder also ensures that every step of your onboarding process is not just informative but also irresistibly engaging.

Ready to revolutionize your onboarding? Experience how Enboarder can make onboarding a key player in your talent retention and development strategy. Experience the Enboarder solution, today.