Games are a great tool for micro-learning and edutainment. Some companies run onboarding games for new employees to utilize emotions to make some important information stick.

I interviewed Floor manager Martin van der Meer from UP events in the Netherlands. UP Events runs several game products with Loquiz but in addition, they use Loquiz to onboard new team members.

Tell me a bit about where and when your onboarding game runs?

We have run the game on our training days for the new people. This day is meant as a basic training, knowing our core values, products and basic work skills everybody needs to know before they can work here. We have had the onboarding game as a finish for this day so it was a playful way of recapping the info of the day.

Why do you use the game to onboard employees?

For us, we hire and train entertainers, not a group of people that learns best by sitting and listening. We also want people to interact with new colleagues in a free environment (not dictated too much by the organization of the day/management). The people playing are also the future instructors who will be guiding these games so it is their first introduction to Loquiz as well.

When did you start to run the game the first time? Are you still using the game?

No, this has been adjusted many times. This is also a reason why we have fully implemented it in a way we think is EPIC, because we grow and change so fast that every onboarding game has to be custom made to that day.

What is the goal of the game?

A playful recap of important stuff about our company, a first impression of the Loquiz mechanics and for new colleges to interact with each other without any management around.

What kind of prizes/rewards are for the participants?

None.

How many people were involved to create and run the game?

15 participants each time, many people had ideas towards creating the game, which made it into an ownerless product (full of compromises).

Can you share some example tasks in the game?

What is the special strength of this colleague? Who do you have to reach about sickness? What are our top 5 values? Make a video presenting yourself to the staff.

What is the best part or task of the game that you personally like? What seems to bring out the best emotion and feedback from the players?

Video and photo tasks, that will get people a bit out of their comfort zone.

What advice would you give to someone who plans to set up such an onboarding game with Loquiz?

Skip the to educational tasks, fun should be most important, and the best chance people remember some important stuff.