Gamification in onboarding refers to the addition of components that make the process more enjoyable, competitive, or encouraged by a variety of prizes to any job the user must do in order to be “activated.” If your product onboarding process is enjoyable, it might have the same addictive qualities as a video game. Gamification frequently incorporates a “reward” component, which serves as an incentive to promote desired actions. The most common reward elements include:
- Points \Badges
- Leaderboards
- Coupons for savings
- Elements of competition between various users.
In a 2019 survey, 87% of workers claimed that gaming components increased their sense of social connection and belonging at work. This is an increase from 81% in 2018, and strong growth is expected to remain in the coming years. 90% of workers reported being more productive when using gamification at work. Gamifying onboarding is one of the most successful methods for increasing employee engagement and productivity when using gamification.
How to Use Gamification in Onboarding
Onboarding is the process of introducing new employees to your company and getting them up to speed with your company culture, values, and expectations. But it has traditionally been tedious and time-consuming for both employers and employees. Motivating new hires and keeping them engaged during the onboarding process can be challenging. But what if there was a way to make onboarding more fun and rewarding? Gamification makes onboarding a unique and engaging experience for new employees.
Here are some ways you can use gamification in onboarding:
- Use badges to reward employees for completing onboarding tasks.
- Create a leaderboard to encourage friendly competition among employees.
- Offer rewards for employees who complete onboarding tasks within a specific timeframe.
- Use game mechanics such as leveling up, points, and progress bars to show employees their progress during onboarding.
- Make onboarding more social by incorporating social media into the process.
- Use gamification to create an engaging and informative welcome video for new employees.
The Benefits of Gamification in Onboarding
When it comes to onboarding new employees, many businesses are turning to gamification as a way to improve engagement and retention. To engage users and encourage them to accomplish their goals, gamification incorporates game mechanics and elements into non-game contexts. There are many benefits to using gamification in onboarding, including the following:
- Improved Engagement: Gamification can improve engagement by making onboarding interactive. Employees are more likely to stick with the program if they enjoy themselves.
- Increased Retention: Gamification can help increase retention rates by keeping employees engaged. Employees who are having fun are more likely to stick around and less likely to look for other opportunities.
- Boosted Productivity: Gamified onboarding can also increase productivity as employees learn more quickly and retain more information.
- Enhanced Collaboration: Gamification often encourages teamwork and collaboration, which can be beneficial in onboarding as team members help and learn from each other.
- Greater Job Satisfaction: Employees who go through a gamified onboarding process often have greater job satisfaction overall. They feel like they’re part of something fun and exciting, which leads to a positive attitude toward their job.
How To Get Started With Gamification In Onboarding
In onboarding, gamification can help new hires feel more comfortable and engaged as they learn about your company’s culture and values. It can also help them retain important information more effectively. Here are some tips for getting started with gamification in your onboarding process:
Make it interactive: Add elements that will encourage new hires to interact with each other and you. For example, you could create a scavenger hunt or an online quiz that tests their knowledge of the company.
Keep it fun: The goal is to make learning fun, so avoid making the game too difficult or competitive. Remember that the focus should be on engagement, not performance.
Give feedback: Provide positive reinforcement throughout the game by giving feedback on progress made and goals achieved. This will help keep players motivated and engaged.
Make it relevant: Be sure to tie the game elements into the overall goal of onboarding new hires into your company culture. For example, if you’re trying to teach them about your company’s history, you could create a trivia game about past events or noteworthy figures.
Progress Scale: First, for audiences who might not want a fluffy mascot granting them medals, progress bars are a quick win and a scaled-back gamification aspect to test. They are also fantastic for designing tooltips and offer quick ways to get beyond a learning curve.
Provide badges: Some product consumers may prefer to get badges and awards as they advance through the onboarding tutorials and beyond.
Streaks and Leaderboard: Leaderboards are a tried-and-true tactic for encouraging healthy competition among your users and fostering a sense of community inside your product. This could assist your company’s internal employee engagement, or you could go further and create a competitive community around your product and niche.
Hero’s journey of storytelling tactics: This may not have a direct connection to gamification strategies for user experiences, but whether or not you are aware of it, many brands are taking this into consideration. The Hero with Thousand Faces is the basis for the 12-step framework known as The Hero’s Journey. It is a narrative framework that directs every hero’s journey. It’s a tried-and-true favorite with all kinds of viewers and is most popularly applied to Disney protagonists. This is what gamification is like.
Redeemed awards: It can be very challenging to put this gamification strategy into practice. But if you have the time and the means, it’s definitely worth the effort. Awards are a fantastic method to motivate your users, especially when it’s a reward specifically designed for them.
Levels: Be it level one or level 100, levels are a fun and interesting method to keep your users interested. By completing particular onboarding requirements, you may motivate users to advance in the ranks. Naturally, their skill level and the difficulty of their assignments will increase as they become more familiar with the goods and services provided by your company.
Prompts and challenges: Gamification can be applied to in-app prompts that provide a more challenge-oriented element to user onboarding, even though they don’t always reward behaviors or keep track of levels. create a culture of self-service onboarding where users may learn at their own pace rather than simply spoon-feeding them something they can accomplish on their own. Make sure to recognize each accomplishment.
Conclusion
A key component of gamification is originality. Users get less interested in the system the more they use it. Therefore you need to spice things up continuously. Additionally, use media sensibly when creating video onboarding tutorials, visuals for product tours, or any other type of media.
Using free employee onboarding software might prove to be of immense help, especially for users who are new to the term ‘gamification.’ If you’re thinking about gamification for the first time, keep in mind that this will definitely be based on your user base, and thus, you must choose the steps wisely and accordingly.
About the Author
Martin Brown is a business professional who is always looking for new opportunities and likes to share his knowledge with others in the field. He has been working in the industry for over 10 years and has a deep understanding of what it takes to succeed. Create. Cultivate. Consume. Learn. Explore.
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