I don't play, I work: how gamification helps in adaptation of new employees?

One of the 9 winning projects this year is the development of the project team of the Higher School of Management. The students proposed a methodology of infrastructure solutions for the adaptation of new employees. It is based on the gamification of corporate learning. In simple words, an employee adapts to a new company thanks to a game quest application.

Project authors

• Oleg Letunovsky, a postgraduate student in "Management" direction
• Svetlana Pototskaya, "Mathematical modeling of technical and economic systems", Master's degree, II course
• Sergey Murtuzaliev, "Mathematical modeling of technical and economic systems", Master's degree, II course
• Nikita Konovalov, "Mathematical modeling of technical and economic systems", Master's degree, II course

“Adaptation in a new place is necessary so that employees can fit into the team faster and the employer can spend less. But how to make this process faster and better? We came up with the idea of combining it with elements of gamification when game mechanics are introduced into everyday life. It has long been proven that we absorb information best while playing. Why so? For a person it is interesting to go through various tasks and get points for it.

On average, adaptation takes from 3 to 6 months. During this time, a new employee is given a work plan which he or she must carry out, familiarize themselves with regulatory documentation and business processes, understand the specifics of the work and get to know the team, and carry out the first test assignments. During the adaptation period, the employee is assigned a mentor who helps him or her. Usually, it is one of the experienced employees. And often this adaptation period becomes a parasitic process not so much for the new employee as for their mentor. And we try to minimize the risks of loss to the company by replacing the real mentor with a virtual one. According to our estimation, the economic effect of implementing our solution in the company consists of two components - reduction of the adaptation period and minimization of distraction of other employees for the adaptation of a newcomer. We expect the employer to reduce costs by 15–30%”, - Oleg Letunovsky.

“The aim of the project is to develop a mobile application where a beginner will familiarize himself with the virtual world of the company in the process of playing the game. The most important thing here is the algorithm and methodology. The tasks that are developed for specialists for the adaptation period are based on a system of QR codes with information about departments and employees, with route diagrams, for example, where and how to find the canteen. Do you need to get stationery? Scan a QR code, follow the route and take a photo of the found item. For successful completion you get points. The result of the game will be useful for the employer to determine how motivated the employee is to work in the company further”, - Nikita Konovalov.

“We also want to use artificial intelligence. It will take care of customization - it will select an individual pool of tasks, analyzing the results of the first stage, and build a further adaptation plan.

The project has great potential - the game form can be used for training employees, improving their skills, and reorienting them to new jobs. In today's age of digitalization and robotization, this is very important”, - Sergey Murtuzaliev.

“We plan to implement our solution in the form of software - details are needed, which will be offered on a subscription basis to companies from all areas of business. For state corporations with a level of secrecy, the solution will be offline. Currently, we have developed a concept for a software solution, are actively participating in competitions to share experience with other scientific teams and are looking for external funding for software development. We plan to create a test version for testing at the RUDN site by the end of 2024”, - Svetlana Pototskaya.

The scientific supervisor of the project - Oksana Ovchinnikova, Doctor of Economic Sciences, Professor of the Department of Applied Economics, Department of Mathematical Modeling and Information Technologies of the Higher School of Management, RUDN.

A total of 9 projects won the competition. Scholarships will be awarded to teams from the Faculty of Physics, Mathematics and Natural Sciences, the Institute of Ecology, the Higher School of Management, the Medical Institute, the Faculty of Philology and the Institute of Foreign Economic Security and Customs.