Onboarding is the process by which new employees acquire skills, knowledge and behaviours necessary to work in their new organizations.
Employees are increasingly changing jobs and having to learn and unlearn new skills, knowledge and values, this is why onboarding is important for both companies and employees. When this is done well, it leads to employees feeling welcome and having positive attitudes to their new workplace. This then leads to increased employee retention, productivity and commitment.
It is absolutely normal for newcomers to feel a bit lost in a new environment, and it’s up organisations to provide a socialisation process which allows a safe and interesting environment to learn values and culture.
There are four building blocks of successful onboarding that are often called the four C’s.*
1. Compliance
The lowest level which includes teaching the newcomer basic, legal and policy-related rules and regulations.
2. Clarification
Refers to ensuring that newcomers understand their job and related expectations.
3. Culture
The broadest category, and includes providing employees with a sense of formal and informal organisational rules.
4. Connection
The building of the interpersonal relationships and information networks that newcomers have to establish.
Remote onboarding
Remote working is not new. Ever since organisations discovered that teams could work remotely and could leverage online collaboration tools, working remotely has become a reality for many, allowing them to reduce commutes, manage work life balance and work for companies in different geographies.
The increase in remote work has led to teams having to develop remote onboarding strategies. This has increased exponentially in 2020 because of COVID-19, and seems likely to become a standard part of onboarding in the future, especially now that some companies are changing completely to remote working.
If the onboarding process is such an important process, how can you ensure that its online version is equally effective? According to Linkedin and their online onboarding process, there are a few strategies everyone should follow:
Spread out the onboarding over a number of days
Don’t be afraid to over communicate
Emphasise your company’s culture and values
Make online onboarding interactive to keep participants engaged and connected
Maintaining engagement with the new employees, while exposing them to a lot of new information in an online onboarding process is challenging, but that’s where collaborative remote learning and Gamoteca come in.
Gamoteca and its game-based learning experiences improve user engagement, build empathy and facilitate human-to-human interactions in the learning process.
Onboarding Game
Maintaining engagement with the new employees, while introducing them to a lot of new information in an online onboarding process is challenging, but that’s where collaborative remote learning and Gamoteca come in.
Gamoteca and its game-based learning experiences improve user engagement, build empathy and facilitate human-to-human interactions in the learning process.
The brand new Onboarding game is a two-player experience, between a new joiner and their manager. The game includes fun and personalised activities to introduce a new joiner to the organisation/team, while allowing the new joiner to contribute with their own ideas and “superpowers”.
During the course of the game, the new employee gets a personalised briefing from the manager on the vision and values and is encouraged to meet other team members and learn from their perspectives.
The newcomer also gets to share their ideas to ensure that the organisational culture is being constantly renewed with fresh perspectives.
The game uses video-based coaching and feedback and should ideally be completed within the first week of joining. This game is meant to augment face-to-face interactions (in-person or virtual) with the new joiner, and not replace them.
Sharing the game with new staff
If you want to play this game with the newcomers in your organisation, make sure to download the Gamoteca app, available for iOS and Android and play the game using this link or use the Browse tab on the app to navigate to our featured games.
After downloading the app and signing up for a Gamoteca account, you will find the Onboarding game under Featured Games. As a manager, you can take the lead by starting the game, and inviting the new joiner with a game code. You can also start the game as a new joiner and invite your manager.