Your employee onboarding process goes beyond teaching new hires the ropes of the new job. It provides an opportunity to use fun ways to introduce new team members to a new work environment.
Unfortunately, most businesses need a better onboarding process. According to research, one in five employees reported that their most recent onboarding was poor.
It has even become more challenging with the rise in remote and hybrid work. How can you make the onboarding process more interactive and fun for new employees?
This article will highlight twelve fun ways to introduce new employees in a virtual setting. We’ll also show you how to use a digital game-based system like Adact to create branded games and gamify events for your team.
Fun ways to introduce new team members online
Welcoming new hires on board doesn’t have to be a rigid process with zero engagement.
You can break the ice, engage employees and help them get to know each other using the icebreaker games below. It has proven, that over the past few years, the gamification industry has witnessed substantial growth.
1. Two truths and a lie
This icebreaker game is a fun way to help new and existing employees share valuable details about themselves that they think are worth sharing.
The game is simple – every player gives three statements but with a twist – two statements will be true and the third will be a lie. The other team members are left to figure out which one.
This team-building exercise allows employees to get creative while learning fascinating facts about each other.
Adact, our game-based platform, allows you to launch a classic icebreaker game like two truths and a lie.
How to create this in Adact?
I suggest using the new Trivia Builder campaign type we just released in 2024 for your gamified employee onboarding efforts.
You can read more about it from the blog post on the right
2. Company Jeopardy Game
Employee onboarding games don’t have to be limited to only personal information. You can also introduce your company facts to spice up the onboarding process.
For instance, you can help new hires to gain accurate knowledge of your company’s culture, core values, history, mission and more.
In order to make the onboarding engaging and fun in a gamified while we will not just show them a list of questions but we will turn it into a Jeopardy game experience.
For every category you can come up with interesting and entertaining questions. Such as
What is our company’s most important value?
Which of the following is our new logo?
How many employees did we recruit recently?
We even have a Ultimate Jeopardy Questions List. Get inspired from here: The Ultimate Jeopardy Trivia Questions & Answers Collection
How to create it in Adact?
Creating a fully custom Jeopardy game for your onboarding needs takes 5 minutes. Read more about creating jeopardy game.
Related: How to make a trivia game and the Best trivia app
How to Make Your Own Jeopardy Game Online
3. Would you rather
Would you rather is another classic example of fun ways to introduce employees to a new work environment.
The game works like this – each team member should choose between two options in the form of the question: would you rather?
Here’s how you it could look like if you set up a would you rather game using Adact:
But in order to make your onboarding as gamified and fun as possible we also recommend you to include two very important features that Adact provides for setting up your onboarding gamification.
The purpose of would you rather questions is to reveal the participants’ preferences and promote good conversations. This suggestion is very high in our list and it just takes 30 minutes to set up the gamified onboarding with Adact.
#1 – Use the setting “Show how other players answered!
Here people will immediately see whether other colleagues they are similar to other colleagues or not. In this example the results are 50/50!
#2 – Show the most popular options at the end of the game
How to Create a Leaderboard for Gamification
Are you tired of boring marketing campaigns that make you want to snooze instead of engage? Get ready to level up your marketing strategy by
4. Personality test
Most of us are familiar with using personality tests in the workplace. While there are some popular personality quizzes like Myers-Briggs and the big 5, you can design a personality test for new remote employees.
Set up a personality test with questions that will help uncover an employee’s strengths, weaknesses and personality traits.
This not only gives you an insight of the values and characteristics of the employee but also allows the employee to compare their results to their colleagues.
Adact would recommend using a personality test as a gamified onboarding campaign during new employee retreats or events where you have some discussions and meetings happening anyway. Use it as an icebreaker where employees can compare their results.
How to create it a Personality test with Adact?
It is as simple as ABC – Just choose your questions and connect possible results with different options present in the questions!
5. Digital Scratchcard
Hey – who said scratched and lotteries are only meant for Marketing. Everybody likes some surprise and delight! That’s why we also recommend including a little bit of surprise and delight when onboarding your new employees with Gamification. Scratchcards aren’t limited to marketing deals, giveaways or coupons. You can use this feature to reward your new employee.
6. Guess who
This simple game improves team relationships and helps each employee shine.
You can ask new employees to state an unusual fact about themselves or share something personal like baby photos. Then other team members are left to guess who is connected to each statement or photo.
+5 Bonus ideas below to introduce new team members
In this section, we’ll share more ideas on how you can introduce new hires to a new office environment.
Buckle up and lets spit ball the last ideas Adact would be happy to help you turn into a reality.
If any of these ideas feel like you want to give a shot then don’t hesitate to book a call with Adact representative!
7. Ten things in common
This team introduction idea is another way to improve team bonding and rapport with each other.
Participating in this onboarding activity may surprise most employees with how much they have in common.
To get started, pair up employees, with each group having an equal number of new and existing employees. Instruct each group to list ten things they have in common.
The more specific the list is, the more fun the game will be. Once each group completes its lists, everybody will vote on who wins based on the most interesting list.
8. Office scavenger hunt
Rather than the typical office tour, you can let new hires explore the office space with the office scavenger hunt. This fun onboarding game allows you to get creative by hiding various objects at strategic corners in the workplace and assigning new employees to find the hidden objects for themselves.
You can divide your employees into groups or let them explore the office individually. Make the process fun by hiding funny items in different rooms or sending employees to retrieve common office materials.
You can incentivize your employees by giving a prize or gift card to the first group or person to complete the scavenger hunt.
9. The Marshmallow challenge
The marshmallow challenge is another excellent example of an icebreaker game that challenges an entire team to build the tallest freestanding tower with a marshmallow at the top. The employees can use masking tape, barbecue sticks, string and a marshmallow.
The brain-challenging exercise encourages participants to think quickly and collaborate to achieve a common goal.
As a result, it can positively impact your new employees, helping them to get more comfortable in the work environment and build better relationships with their co-workers.
10. Gifts & decoration greeting
What’s a better way to make new hires feel welcome than showering them with onboarding gifts? Existing team members and company executives can offer onboarding gifts like:
- Computer accessories, such as storage cards, wireless speakers, portable chargers and more
- Coffee mugs, water bottles and teaspoons
- Stationary like notebooks, office pens and more
- Greeting cards, customized stickers and more
You can make this new employee onboarding activity more interesting by using one of the fun games Adact provides – open the box.
All you need to do is have teams set up different gifts and include the new employee’s details.
11. Onboarding pal
The onboarding pal is one of the most fun ways to introduce new employees to a new office environment. In this case, you can assign a colleague to engage a new employee by sharing general information about the company, from company culture to other business activities.
This introduction activity reduces the new employee’s loneliness, anxiety and awkwardness from engaging with a new company.
12. Company bingo
Company bingo is a fun employee engagement game that you can use to promote healthy competition.
Since bingo is a classic game most people are familiar with, it is ideal for one of your onboarding activities.
To play this game, you need a bingo board that contains several prompts or information related to all players. You can divide the players into groups of four or five people, then each group is expected to use bingo cards to cross off any information related to the players.
- Here are some examples of prompts you can include in your bingo board:
- Born in the same month
- Has visited more than ten countries
- Loves working from home
- Speaks up to three languages
The goal is to make the options as fun as possible while team members learn more about each other.
Conclusion
Your onboarding process doesn’t have to begin and end with the typical employee onboarding emails. You can take it a step further by using virtual onboarding activities like personality tests, guess who, company trivia, one truth and a lie and much more.
Think of these icebreaker games as part of team-building exercises and an opportunity to introduce new hires in the most engaging way possible.
Our game-based platform, Adact, provides many fun ways to introduce new employees. You can launch marketing games and creative campaigns in minutes without any coding.
Even more, Adact provides customization options that allow you to design your games according to your company’s onboarding needs.
You can sign up for free to explore some of our creative campaigns.
See also how you can use Adact and Gamification for
Fun ways to introduce new team members: FAQs
How do you introduce a new team member?
You can use fun gaming activities to introduce a new hire like:
– Personality tests
– Company bingo
– Trivia
– Ten things in common
– Guess who and more
How do you introduce a new team member virtually?
You can use virtual gamification systems or online activities to encourage interaction among remote workers. Some of them include:
– Company trivia
– Two truths and a lie
– Virtual team photos
– Guess who
How do you make onboarding fun?
You can add a few icebreaker games to your onboarding program to make it fun and interactive. Some of them include:
– Virtual gifts
– Advent calendars
– Digital scratchcards and more
