17 Exciting Ideas to Make Onboarding More Fun

Accepting a new job offer—whether for the first time or for an executive level, is an important milestone in every employee’s career. They see themselves growing within their role and climbing the success ladder at your company. And you can do your bit by helping them set the right foundations.

This starts with employee onboarding. To design an onboarding process that retains new talents, enrich it with expertise, fun and engaging activities, and social connections.

To get you started, we’ve curated 17 different activities—from affordable to more resource-intensive. In other words, here are some ways to make your new hire’s first days and weeks unforgettable.

1. Creative videos for a warm welcome

Onboarding employees is a continuous process in any thriving organization. This makes it difficult to share company information to every new hire individually. Creating welcome videos versatile to every department and role can be of great help here.

You can benefit from plenty of services online that allow you to create short but effective videos in minutes. A nice welcome video will give the new hire a clear idea about your company’s ethos, culture, and goals, giving them a reason to stay.

It’s also important to mention that corporate video production doesn’t have to be expensive. The fee you pay is a small price if it increases retention and makes the new hire feel welcome.

And lastly, don’t forget to share your video on your social media platforms. They’re a great place to reach new talent where they already are.

2. Invite new hires for lunch or an event

Food brings people together! Organizing team lunches acts as an icebreaker amongst new hires and their colleagues. This also creates an opportunity to bond outside workspaces. It also eases the anxiety of an overwhelmed new employee on the first day. You can select any restaurant near your office or ask your new hire to pick one of their choice.

Corporate events are not just about getting to know everyone formally. You can even make them fun! Organize a game night or a scavenger hunt that brings all your people together. It doesn’t have to be grand, as long as your employees are enjoying and connecting over topics besides work.

Such events are best guided by a group leader or an event manager. If it’s managed by HR, always ensure it doesn’t feel like a lot of work!

3. Send a care package full of goodies

Sending care packages is one of the easiest ways to impress your people. It can be anything from branded office supplies to a range of snacks. Whether your organization is working remotely or at the office, giving a bunch of sweets or savoury treats will swipe anyone off their feet.

There are many programs that let you send different food items to your remote employees. For example, Snacknation is a well-known platform offering a variety of fruits, snacks, and beverages. You can create a one-time package for onboarding or sign up your employees for monthly packages.

If your employees are relocating from a different city, including a city guide would be a thoughtful addition. To take it a step further, you can create one yourself too! Include a list of restaurants, tourist attractions, or things to do that your existing employees strongly recommend.

This not only makes your new employee feel welcomed at their new job but also ensures they feel comfortable living in a new city.

4. Gamify your orientation

It’s very important to make new hires feel at ease, especially when they are in a room full of unfamiliar faces. You can do this by including engaging activities or short games at the start and end of the orientation.

Activities like ping pong, wine tasting, and trivia are known to be good stress busters for new hires. They create a positive work environment and wellness amongst all your employees.

This doesn’t have to be anything mega or expensive! For example, you can create a puzzle that reveals what kind of animal each person is based on their personalities. This might sound silly at first glance, but it’s a great way for new hires to get some off work.

5. Host trivia nights or happy hours that solidify relationships

It’s time to get competitive on trivia nights! There are loads of games you can host online or in person that require little equipment. All it takes is creativity and the right mindset. We’re talking about Bingo, Pictionary, Scattergories, or even charades.

Activities like these encourage teamwork and interaction between different departments within the company. This only makes your new hires feel comfortable during their first days, but also ensures they enjoy your workplace. You can take it further by sending out small prizes or trophies to the winning team.

6. Organize a scavenger hunt-like-office tour

A scavenger hunt might seem like an old-school activity at first. But it’s actually one of the most effective ways to familiarise the new hire with your office. The best part? It doesn’t require any money or planning ahead!

You simply create a list with clues that will take them all around your office so they can meet employees across different departments.

You could switch it up a bit and turn this into a competition. One where the winner gets to plan an activity during the onboarding! It’s not only an effective way of introducing new hires to their colleagues, but it also makes them feel like a part of your team from day one.

While this activity is best done in a physical setting, there are also alternatives for remote employees. There are countless free online games that the entire team can participate in.

7. An online introduction call, but better

Make a great first impression through a personalized introductory video. This acts as a great conversation starter amongst your new hires and existing colleagues. Having something to talk about besides work will bring your people closer, which will visibly impact their productivity.

Give them the freedom to use green screens, or quirky presentations. You can make it more interesting by bringing one of your employees to ask the new hire 73 questions (like how Vogue does it) and record it.

Some hints/ideas on what your new hire can talk about:

• Their role
• Their hobbies
• Where were they previously working
• What are they looking forward to
• What excites them
• A quirky fact about themselves

8. Create group wellness programs

Show support to all your employees with physical and mental health perks. Connect your team over fitness challenges, where they can support each other in more ways than just being colleagues. This will bring your people to step away from their desks and foster a healthy work environment.

Fitness challenge ideas may cover topics like:

• Nutrition
• Food journaling
• Outdoor fitness activities
• Easy exercise for beginners
• Indoor exercise activities
• Ways to boost energy to workout

9. Set up a coffee date

The first few days at work are a perfect time to connect with new hires over coffee dates. This will help you learn about their expectations, personality, working style, and so much more.

The universal love for coffee will open doors to interesting conversations. Schedule a blind date amongst your colleagues, or ask them to plan it out themselves. It shouldn’t matter whether you set it up on their first day or fourth since all employees should feel like a part of your organization from day one!

To ensure this is not a one-time thing, you can give corporate membership cards to different cafes. This ensures they continue to bond in the coming weeks/months.

All employees need time to get used to their new roles and responsibilities, but they also deserve the opportunity to get involved with everyone else as soon as possible.

10. Cook together

This can be via Zoom, at your office, or you can organize it as an event. Sharing meals is an excellent team-building activity. You can invite a chef to prepare the meal and have your people follow the instructions.

Make this a monthly or bi-monthly event where you celebrate different cuisines from cultures around the world. Of course, the scale of this event is largely dependent on your budget. You can do this in teams or include all employees at once.

Depending on the time and budget of the event, you can even invite your employees’ family members too. This makes it more fun and will encourage more employees to participate.

11. Follow a mindful Monday routine

Most of the ideas mentioned here are team-building activities. This one follows a different path of developing healthy habits. Include a mindful Monday session in every employee’s schedule. This can be a 15-minute meditation or deep breathing exercises.

This will help your people gain control of their coming week and set a calm tone for their workday. A study by Harvard mentioned such routines help reduce stress, anxiety, depression, and burnout.

As an employer, you will observe that employees who are healthy and happier will be more efficient and productive. Not to mention, it’s also easy to schedule and organize sessions that focus on your employees’ mental health.

12. Ask them to list three things they are looking forward to about joining your team

This is a great way to learn more about your new employees and what they enjoy about their work. Ideally, this is better done on the first day, but you can also schedule it after you get to know them personally. Not only an icebreaker but asking such questions will ensure that everyone in your team shares similar views on work.

It doesn’t matter whether you ask this question in person or over a video call. Alternatively, you could even create an auto-reply email for new hires with the same instructions.

It’s a great exercise to know your people at an individual level. On the other side, this allows newcomers to learn the right values of your organization. They will be able to demonstrate that they can do their job and that you can rely on them with high-value tasks.

13. Schedule a “show and tell‍”

Show-and-tell, something we did as kids, gives us a glimpse into people’s lives. This is a super easy activity to follow if you’re working remotely. Ask your employees to share their hobbies or a favorite place to work in their homes.

You can create a collage of this and upload it on your office wall or share it via company-wide email. Include a fun, interesting fact about your employees with their pictures. They make for great conversation starters at corporate social gatherings and also make newcomers feel like they’re a part of your family.

You can create a meme office wall where employees can create memes on one another based on these interesting facts. This is a light-hearted way to take the tension out of the new employee’s first days and weeks.

14. Create a welcome board

It can be fun and useful, especially if many people are working in your office and a new hire needs to get to know them all quickly. It’s a great icebreaker and also helps them interact with more people, especially during these remote times.

Creating such a welcome board is not difficult since you could even print out pictures from Google or Facebook! You don’t have to ask everyone for one, but it shouldn’t be too hard to get a few pictures.

15. Offer them free snacks in the break room

Offering new hires free snacks in the break room is one of the easiest ways to spark conversations. Such quick mid-work chats can help take mind off of work, and is a great place to make plans for future activities.

You can have a vending machine with a mix of healthy bites and candies. Or you could also offer smoothies and coffees at a subsidized rate.

As mentioned before, you can order online from a specialty snack store, or you can just head to your local supermarket and stock up on a variety of snacks.

16. Have a welcome sign for a positive start

Although welcome signs are a traditional concept, they help create a valuable first impression. You can get as creative as you want to - from having a handwritten note to a quirky greeting card. If you’re feeling your new hire’s enthusiasm, greet them with a high-five – it takes the formality out of the way. Such signs can also make people feel more comfortable about their surroundings.

17. Mix up your formats

For most companies, sending a list of documents is the first and only step in their onboarding process. Although we understand the importance of getting all the necessary paperwork done to nail your onboarding - we strongly recommend you include engaging activities.

Once you think you’ve perfected your onboarding, brainstorm how you can mix different games/activities to give your newcomers a fresh start. Perhaps you can include a variety of team-building and self-learning formats.

Moreover, not every new hire will be the type that learns through reading, so it’s a good idea to offer different choices.

Videos are a great addition to your onboarding material stack. Unlike a document, a video allows you to make the content more dynamic and show your own personality. Besides learning more about your company, they get to hear your employees talk and express their passion for the job, department, and company.

While videos may take longer to prepare than a handbook, they have the advantage of being more interactive. At the same time, they can be reused in the same way as an article would be.

Leverage Deel for scalable and effective onboarding

Deel Engage offers a range of features designed to support remote and in-office onboarding. Here are some ways you can leverage Deel Engage and save hours—all while making onboarding more engaging for your people:

1. Seamless Slack integration: Engage allows for onboarding directly within Slack—this integration helps new hires access onboarding materials and participate in onboarding activities within their primary communication tool
2. Customizable onboarding workflows: Easily create customizable onboarding workflows tailored to specific roles—include automated tasks, training modules, and checklists so that new hires receive a structured and personalized onboarding experience
3. AI-powered LMS: Create interactive courses (with AI), track progress, and assess learning outcomes
4. Interactive and engaging content: Create interactive onboarding content, including video tutorials and quizzes, for a more enjoyable and effective onboarding process
5. Continuous improvement and feedback: Collect feedback from new hires about their onboarding experience—use them to refine and improve the onboarding process, ensuring that it meets the needs of all employees and adapts to changing requirements
6. Evaluate new hire performance: Evaluate your new hire’s performance and share constructive feedback to help them grow in your organization

Additionally, Deel HR, our truly global HRIS solution, is always included for free.

Book a demo to see how our solutions will help you implement the latest onboarding trends for increased employee retention.