69% of employees are more likely to stay with a company for three years if they experience great employee onboarding or employee induction. And 20% of employee turnover happens in the first 45 days of the employee joining the company.
Surprised…..so what do you think these statistics indicate? Well, in my opinion, these statistics are a wake-up call for induction teams and onboarding teams of an organization to revamp their employee induction to match the current requirements of faster, efficient and effective employee induction programs. One such solution, which is proving to be a head turner is gamification of employee induction training. More about this a little later in the post.
Employee induction training or employee onboarding is a crucial part of the employment process and goes a long way in creating a great first impression of the organization. It showcases the new joiners, what the company culture is and its long-term vision and sets the expectations in terms of work etiquettes, code of conduct, job role etc. A good employee induction training also helps the new joiners connect with the organization and establish working relationships with their co-workers.
So what are the challenges which the modern day organizations face in employee induction training?
1. Induction not happening within the first month of the employee joining as traditional induction training involves clustering batches of new joiners together over a certain period of time.
2. Too much information overload can happen in a traditional employee induction training due to continuous and long drawn process spread over a period of a few days, because of which the learner might not be able to recall and apply the information at work.
3. Lack of engagement and interactivity in a traditional induction training can make the induction process boring and disengaging.
4. Frequent changes in the induction content involving either new business units, processes or people can lead to information getting redundant and the need to pass on the revised or information to the new joiners about the changed process.
Is there a way that the traditional induction training can evolve to a better and more effective employee induction training?
Definitely…….
How would you feel if your employee induction training involved playing a game and winning points and badges?
The adrenaline rush of winning, scoring, earning rewards, badges…….
Your new joiners are players of a game and have leaderboard positions, where they will be competing with other new recruits.
They can unlock new levels by solving the challenges and achieving the set milestone. Won’t this be fun and engaging?
This is what we can call as gamification of the employee induction process.
What is gamification of employee induction training?
You might have already heard about gamification. To know more on gamification of learning, you can read my blog here.
In gamified induction, you are gamifying the induction process by including the game elements and game mechanics. Simply put it is the application of game mechanics to induction training programs, with the use of game mechanics and a compelling game design making the entire induction process becomes more enjoyable and engaging and ultimately leading to enhancement of learning effectiveness for a new employee.
Now let us evaluate the reasons why you must opt for gamification of employee induction training?
1.Increases retention and recall of the learning content
Gamification of employee induction can help to increase the retention and recall of the learning topics in contrast to the hours of classroom lecture that can lead to information overload and subsequent reduction in the retention of the topics by the learners.
When it comes to implementation, the new employee may not recollect what s/he learned in a classroom training. With gamification of the induction training, you can make the learning process fun, engaging and interesting to the learners. When the learning process is fun and engaging, learners will enjoy it and this leads to increased retention of the topics and helps in building up positive reinforcements which finally helps the learners to implement it in their job roles.
2. Creates engagement among the learners
With gamified induction process, you are able to drive the engagement level among the new employees.
A traditional classroom training on induction can be converted to a fun, engaging and interactive manner by implementing gamification.
You can include various game elements, game mechanics like the challenges and tasks etc to make the modules engaging. Try including a scenario with applied gamification to induct the employees, you should see the building up of engagement and interactivity.
It makes the programs enjoyable and engaging and enhances the learning effectiveness of new employee orientation.
3. Good gamification has an inbuilt positive reward mechanism
Who doesn’t like the rewards? Gamified induction can include the reward structure that helps the learners to achieve awards, points, and scores for completing the tasks, milestones, and challenges.
For example, include practical case studies in your gamified module and if the learner makes the right choices to solve it, reward him with virtual points, badges etc.
Organisations can customize the reward options here according to the industry, work nature etc.
For example, there are many organization which uses extrinsic rewards like discount coupons, cash, gifts etc.
This can surely motivate the fresh hires as they feel that their efforts are valued and rewarded.
4. Gamification blends well with other learning strategies
For example, elearning gamification can be combined with the other learning strategies like scenario based learning, simulations. Even the new technologies like VR and AR can combine with gamification to make effective learning modules.
With new technologies like Microsoft Hololens etc, I am definite that the future of gamification will be very interesting.
5.Create a positive perception of the company
Onboarding is essentially an employee’s first impression with a company. If your organization has a decade old traditional induction strategies that are old-fashioned and mundane, employees will carry on that same perception about the organization.
Convert your traditional classroom induction into a gamified one and make your new joiners feel wow. This can build the reputation of your company.
6. Gamifying employee induction can be a right strategy to engage the millennials
A lot has been discussed about the millennials and their decreasing attention span. With a classroom induction training, you cannot tackle the less attention span of the millennials as it can only make the experience little boring for them.
Explore around you and you can see the millennials or the Gen Y actively engaging on social media platforms, apps and most importantly they enjoy playing games.
With the millennials ready to replace the older generations at work, I feel that it is time to formulate strategies which can engage them.
7.Learn without the fear of making mistakes
In a gamified module, the learner can learn without the fear of making mistakes.
For example, the developers can use simulations and scenarios to simulate the environment etc where the learner can enjoy the learning process. He can explore and watch the consequence of his actions and choices without the fear of any consequences.
These are seven strong reasons that explain why you must gamify employee induction program. If you are looking to gamify your induction program and want to know more, feel free to contact us anytime.
