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New Hire Orientation Games - 7 Activities to Get Started on the Right FootMaking Orientation Day Fun for You and Your Employees

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MindTickle enables businesses, trainers and individuals

to transform their existing online content (PPTs, Videos,

documents) into an interactive learning experience.

MindTickle engages the learner and makes learning

efficient, effective and delightful through a unique

combination of game mechanics (points, medals, badges

and leaderboard) and social tools (profiles, comments, chat

and walls).

The platform has been globally adopted by several Fortune

500 customers, and over 26,000 users have benefited from

MindTickle products.

MindTickle has global sales presence with headquarters in

the United States, and development / operations team in

India.

About MindTickle

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“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.”

Benjamin Franklin

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Author

Mohit has a diverse work experience spanning across

14 years and four continents. Prior to co-founding

MindTickle, he was a Director in PwC’s management

consulting practice at New York, and has been a

senior member of product teams. He was awarded

“Entrepreneur of the Year” by Startup Leadership

Program (SLP) in 2012. Mohit holds an MBA degree from

ISB and MSEE from Stanford University.

Mohit GargMindTickle Founder @mindticklemindtickle.com

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Table of Contents

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New Hire Onboarding Games Facilitate Team Building

As a human resources professional, you know how important the first few

days of a new job are for new employees. They are a little anxious but

excited and will need help in understanding your business’ culture and how

they fit into this new family. The great thing is that you are in control of this

experience and you can suit the experience to your business’ needs creating a

great new hire orientation experience. It is important to remember that new

hire onboarding should make someone feel like they are becoming part of a

team or a family; it should be a fun experience!

What better way to do this than with games? No I am not talking about LIFE

or Monopoly since they are individual focused rather than team focused.

(However, those games are awesome so I wouldn’t rule them out.) We’ll focus

more on larger group games accommodating larger new hire classes. New

hire onboarding games have been seen to create a positive energy in the

workplace that facilitates team building, which improves productivity. Here

are 7 solid games, how they are played, and their importance to new hire

orientation. By following this guide you will create an interactive and exciting

work environment that will get new hires motivated from day 1.

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Who doesn’t like a good scavenger hunt? While reading about this game, keep

in mind it can be played in many ways. One way is the classic game where you

take objects, hide them, and leave clues at each location so teams can find

the objects in consecutive order. You can also do what someone has a called a

signature hunt, which will be described later. However, a third way is to make

a game out of learning the company handbook.

Here is what you will need:• New Employees that are eager and excited to learn

• Two handbooks

• Two lists of questions regarding specific information in the handbook

How to Play:After you’ve divided the new employees into two groups (or more small

groups if you have a lot of new hires), give them each a handbook and a list

of the questions along with a writing utensil. See which team can answer the

most questions in a certain amount of time, or go question by question giving

them an allotted amount of time to find the answer. You can even give an

incentive if you like; but don’t make things too competitive. You want to keep

it light and fun for these newbies.

Why it is Helpful:This method of a scavenger hunt is useful for teaching new employees how

to understand and utilize a large amount of information. Clearly this is not a

game that requires enough energy to work out; therefore, this is a good team

building game and a good way to synthesize a large amount of information in

a fun way.

Scavenger Hunt

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Do you ever meet someone new and immediately forget their name? Better

yet, have you ever met a group of 10 people, but you can only remember two

names? If that’s the case then you will understand why this game is important.

Here is what you will need:• A picture of each employee

• A written or typed out copy of each employee's name (you can cut

this into small pieces of paper)

• Motivated new hires

How to Play:Before you begin the game, introduce the new hires to the members of their

team. This way they attempt to become familiar with everyone’s names before

they play the game. After this is done, and you have the required materials, sit

down with the group at a table.Then have them try and match the picture of

each face to the correct name.

Why it is Helpful:This game is important because it helps to not overwhelm the new hire. They

can’t be expected to remember everything the first time, so its better to ease

them into the position. This will help them become familiar with the team and

make them feel a little closer to each team member. The idea is to build the

confidence and trust of the new hires while making them feel at home.

Photo Match

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The signature hunt is essentially a combination of both the scavenger hunt

and the photo match. This is a fun game that allows the new hires to interact

with current employees.

Here is What You Will Need:• A pen and a piece of paper for each new hire

• A list of current employees

How to Play:There isn’t too much required for this task, but new employees can take a lot

away from it. This game is played by sending the new hires out into the office

on a mission: to get a signature from each current employee. It is also a good

idea to tell your current employees to engage with the newbies with a

2-3 minute conversation.

Why it is Helpful:This allows your new employees to integrate themselves into the workplace.

They get a one-on-one conversation with team members while trying to

remember their name; this one-on-one time helps with team building by

allowing everyone to interact with each other.

Signature Hunt

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Instead of making everyone go around the room and say an interesting

fact about themselves, why not spice it up a little bit. This is essentially

like watching the show Baggage on the Game Show Network without the

embarrassing/odd revelations.

Here is What You Will Need:• There are no required items for this game except living people who

can talk. :)

How to Play:So how does this game work? You bring all of the new hires and current

employees into a room and have them write three facts about themselves on

a piece of paper; however, the catch is that one of the “facts” is not true. You

then put these facts/mini-stories into a hat and draw them out one by one.

The group will then vote on who they think matches the description, or in

other words who this fact belongs to. The real fun comes from guessing which

messages aren’t true.

Why it is Helpful:The point of this exercise is to have a fun icebreaker that doesn’t follow the

typical orientation process. This game adds flare since people can write down

one funny fact that will, hopefully, take everyone by surprise. It helps with

team building by building a sense of trust in a humorous way.

StoryMatch

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A team building exercise – Now this is an exciting game that I wish I

played in the onboarding process. This game involves bringing new and

current employees together in an environment that fosters teamwork and

brainstorming.

Each team is provided with a basket of materials:• cardboard

• masking tape

• straws

• pipe cleaners

• paper clips

• newspaper

• an egg

How to Play:So how is the game played? Well, after giving the basket to each group, you

tell them to build something that will protect the egg when dropped from 8

feet in the air. They are given 10 minutes to build their device, and to pray that

they don’t have to clean up the floor.

Why it is Helpful:This is an excellent game because it simulates a stressful business

environment. You are given little time to work with what you have and create

a product. Teamwork is essential or else your team will fail; plus it will be a lot

of fun to watch.

Egg Drop

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This game is a fun and competitive way to familiarize new hires with the

policies and procedures of your business. If you’ve ever watched the Game

Show Network and seen shows like Jeopardy or Family Feud, then you will

understand where I am coming from.

Here is What You Will Need:To play this game you need to allow the new employees to prepare and look

through the company guide or policy rule book as a review before you play.

The materials of this game are really left up to you and the type of game you

design.

How to Play:One way of doing this is to create a game similar to Jeopardy where you

create categories of questions with each question being a different amount

of money. You can also do Family Feud style for questions that involve a list of

steps or procedures (i.e. What are the five things you can do if…).

Why it is Helpful:This game requires trust between the members of each team, as required in

business, and the knowledge that comes along with the job. It helps people

learn on the fly and creates a sense of group identity.

Policies and Procedures Game Show

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This is not quite a game, but it is definitely a great way to learn who everyone

is. How does this work? Each lunch or coffee break, a software application

selects two groups of four people to sit together and talk. Each person in the

group is from a different department, allowing people to really expand their

social groups and understand each part of the business (and the faces behind

it).

Lunch Roulette

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All of these games will make for a high impact new hire orientation

experience. New hire onboarding is the new hire’s first impression and

is so important. You want to start new employees off on the right foot

so they understand they have a place in your business. Team building

is like a form of networking for these new employees; it provides them

with co-workers who they are comfortable with asking for help or

clarifications. If people are afraid to speak up, they may end up doing

the work incorrectly; however, with a positive work environment they

will produce higher quality work.

The key to onboarding is to create a friendly environment that fosters team

building and positive energy. So have fun with the new hire onboarding

process and let your fun, but professional, self out so you can better connect

with your new hires!

Key Takeaways for New Hire Orientation Games

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