Training Industry Magazine - May/June 2019 - 50

CASEBOOK

DELOITTE'S JOURNEY
TO GAMIFYING ONBOARDING
FOR NEW ANALYSTS
BY MELISSA SCHNURE, ANDRÉS PETERS AND KATHARINE SUETTINGER

In this age of digital disruption, when
companies are encouraging employees
to be more agile, it's no surprise that
employees expect the same from learning
and development (L&D) organizations.
Modern learners tend to crave flexibility
in where and how they learn and
typically seek out experiences that
actively engage them. But what does
it take for an organization to embrace
technology and design a learning
experience for the modern learner? For
Deloitte's Human Capital practice, it was a
zombie apocalypse.
LEADERSHIP'S CALL TO ACTION
Two years ago, a L&D analysis revealed
that while spending to onboard new
analysts to the Human Capital practice
was high (relative to other career levels),
feedback on the experience did not
demonstrate an increase in the program's
value. The team continually heard that
participants wanted an experience that
allowed them to work at their own pace
and focus on topic areas based on their
own development needs. So, the L&D
team set out to design a more costeffective, engaging way to deliver three
full days of in-classroom content.
Working with business stakeholders,
the team weighed the benefits
and drawbacks of several options
and determined that a fully digital,
gamified solution that - while more
labor intensive from a design and

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development perspective - would yield
the most impactful outcome in the
long run.
Taking cues from pop culture, they
determined the theme of the game - a
zombie apocalypse - and situated the
learner as the main protagonist whose
role is to find a cure and save humanity by
making informed choices to complete a
series of challenges in a self-paced, digital
experience. The purpose of the game, titled
"The Chosen Analyst," is to provide training
around basic consulting skills - including
PowerPoint, Excel, professionalism and
more - that were previously developed via
in-classroom modules. The newly gamified
approach enables analysts to work at their
own pace, rather than forcing them into a
one-size-fits-all timeline. The virtual nature
of the program also has the added benefit
of significantly reducing time out-ofmarket for these professionals.
THE DESIGN PROCESS
The design team brought together
individuals from across the organization,
including instructional designers, graphic
designers, learning program managers
and, importantly, existing analysts in
Deloitte's Human Capital practice. The
existing analysts' role was to provide
perspective on the realities of how their
roles worked within the context of a
project. This insight allowed the team to
sequence the activities in a way that made
sense and was realistic to the analyst

experience, despite it being framed
around a zombie apocalypse.
In order for the game to be successful,
the team based the design on two major
objectives: developing a compelling
storyline and ensuring the activities were
seamlessly integrated into the story. To
tackle the first objective, the design team
held virtual "table reads" during which
team members would walk through
the entire story as one character to
both identify any awkward phrasing or
unnatural language and determine the
appropriate tone for the character.

MODERN LEARNERS
CRAVE FLEXIBILITY IN
WHERE AND HOW THEY
LEARN AND SEEK OUT
EXPERIENCES THAT
ACTIVELY ENGAGE THEM.

To meet the second objective, the team had
to determine the right size for each activity,
balancing microlearning principles and
the need to provide learners with enough
content to meet the learning objective. Final
activities included drag and drops, multiple
choice questions and activities outside of
the game, such as data analysis. Learners
were given a maximum of three attempts to
complete each activity correctly, after which
they were provided with the correct answer,
Training Industry Magazine - May/June 2019

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