Part 2 is here!
In our previous post, we talked about the gamification of onboarding programs and what HR or human resources can do to simplify the onboarding process.
Check out more highlights from the webinar with our Director of Products, Ashley McAnulty, and get more insights on employee onboarding and orientation.
How do you start an employee onboarding program?
If someone wanted to start their onboarding process fresh and new, what would you say would be an important lesson to start with? If someone was just starting and creating their own onboarding platform and using something like Boots Camp, what would they need to do first?
Knowing your content is the most important. Knowing who you want to onboard, new hires, interns, even if you’re using this platform for clients. Anyone who will be the player of this experience, really defining your content, what you want them to know, what you want to tell them, and allowing us to help you customize that information and make it fun gamifying it. That’s definitely a very important lesson.
How do you make your employees more engaged?
Danielle, owner of DS Fine Art Marketing:
You mentioned earlier gamifying, making it fun and exciting and engaging for new hires. I know you mentioned that one issue that we’ve seen in the past, especially for new hires, is that they don’t feel like they’re engaged. They don’t feel seen by their new companies.
Ashley, Director of Products at Strayboots:
Yes, that’s definitely an issue. This idea of gamifying makes the game obviously more engaging, but it also makes it more fun. It makes it very memorable. It takes these mundane tasks that I have talked about a few times now, and it just makes them more fun and more enjoyable. They remember when they take a photo somewhere or meet somebody new, and they can ask them personalized questions or know where to pick up their paychecks and who is the person who runs that office. These different types of things and challenges that we can customize and make fun and interactive really help cater to them, remembering them, versus just sitting in a classroom and being told them, and then asking all these questions again later.
A great example of a fun employee onboarding experience
At Strayboots, we are working with a company called Cone Health. They have different campuses at different hospitals throughout North Carolina. On four different campuses, we offer four different customized games that they can use to onboard new employees. Utilizing our technology that is just straightforward and specific- makes it easy for them. We use that platform and all the different support systems within it, all the tracking and its features, to customize their specific needs to their campuses. They all play different times, different types of questions they need to ask, and different locations. We can work with Cone Health to customize all their different campuses and still introduce information that is important for all of them to know on all different campuses that are generic Cone Health information if that makes sense. We’re able to do all sorts of things to customize to their needs- no matter what they are.
A lesson learned during the pandemic
Danielle, owner of DS Fine Art Marketing:
What’s one lesson that you’ve learned in the past couple of months during the pandemic that you think has really helped you build, create the games?
Ashley, Director of Products at Strayboots:
That we’re all human and humanize these experiences and remember that yes, we’re employees at work, in a job, but this idea of remembering that we’re human. We miss seeing each other, and we miss talking to each other, and we miss not even just learning about the company but that engagement that we have with our neighbor in the cubicle next to our office across the hall or us. I think adding in some fun gamified things like getting to know your managers or a fun fact about your CEO really makes that important and engaging, and it brings a human level to the game.
Working from home, we all learn really interesting things about each other, dogs, babies, even neighbors. One of the questions that came up in our webinar was, “what was the oddest orientation you’ve ever created or a question you’ve ever created?”. We’ll try to answer it without mentioning any names…
Ashley, our Director of Products, is currently designing a game with a client around their office, including the art, making the game visually appealing. At one of the gyms, very close to the office we are going to include in the game, the company said that their CEO has a picture of them doing squats within the gym. They said, “Can we incorporate that, and can we have them go and maybe flex, or take a picture near this?”. Ashley said that she just thought that was great and very funny, and that was exactly what we mean by gamifying and bringing in personal experiences. That was a funny and cool example.
Virtual employee onboarding vs. in-person onboarding
Danielle, owner of DS Fine Art Marketing:
You said that Bootscamp could do this virtually and in-person. Have you found that there is any barrier to entry for virtual onboarding people who are sort of stuck to sort of get started with virtual onboarding?
Ashley, Director of Products at Strayboots:
I don’t think so. I think that we’ve been ahead of the game for a long time when it comes to the virtual platform. A lot of our events/ scavenger hunts and orientation programs are self-run once they’re designed. We’re very friendly to the virtual world. Then, this makes it very easy for people joining new companies, even at home, to be engaged. As I said, we really spend a lot of time customizing the content. It’s usually a very fluid experience. Also, on top of that, anybody can come back to us at any time and say that they want to edit the game or add something. They found something in the content that they had somebody ask a question about or wanted more information about, and we can definitely do that throughout the process.
Creating a Strayboots orientation game with love
We love to customize our clients’ content. Getting to know the companies and learn about who they are is key for us. This is part of the fun that they get to have when we work with the event planners. They always get very excited to plan these events because it’s usually when they get to let loose, they get to add something fun, and it’s not just a part of their mundane. It’s adding a new element for them. They get very excited about that. Bringing that excitement to companies and making something fun for them is a top priority, as we all have busy days at work, and we all sometimes don’t want to get out of bed to go to work. Bringing this to them and giving them excitement about going to work definitely is rewarding.
If you are looking for a unique onboarding and orientation day solution for your new recruits, make sure to talk to us about Bootscamp. We promise you that your game will be created with love, excitement, and our undivided attention!
Enjoy the full webinar here:
