Companies are borrowing lessons from video games in their never-ending drive to encourage staff, adding scoring, digital badges, and other game-like features to routine work procedures to make tasks more exciting.

In this post, we’re discussing gamification in full detail, so you can understand more clearly how it’s all done.

We have included the following:

• What is gamification?
• Does gamification in the workplace work?
• 5 Benefits of gamification in the workplace
• 3 Disadvantages of gamification in the workplace
• How to use gamification at work
• 3 Examples of gamification in the workplace to inspire you

Let’s get reading.

Table of Contents

What is Gamification?

Does Gamification in the Workplace Work?

5 Key Benefits of Gamification in the Workplace

3 Disadvantages of Gamification in the Workplace

How to Use Gamification at Work

3 Examples of Gamification in the Workplace to Inspire You

What is Gamification?

Gamification uses game design elements and game ideas in non-game settings. It can also be described as a collection of actions and methods used to solve issues by using or employing the gamification features of the game components.

According to gamification adoption statistics, businesses are embracing gamification not just to increase employee job engagement but also to increase sales. 

What’s more, the increased number of organizations that obtained a good return on investment due to gamification demonstrates its favorable influence on business.

The following are the major conclusions from the gamification stats mentioned above: 

• Employees report that gamification makes them more productive (89%) and happier (88%) at work
• 43% of workers are unaware of any gamification components at work
• More game-like aspects in staff training software are desired by 33% of respondents
• Gamification is used in training for 61% of respondents
• 89% say that gamifying their job would increase productivity
• According to 78% of respondents, gamification in the hiring process would make a firm more appealing

Does Gamification in the Workplace Work?

Gamification has grabbed the globe by storm in recent years. 

To increase productivity and engagement on the job, more and more successful firms are adding gaming components to employee training and work experiences.

According to a detailed review, extensive studies have revealed:

Game-based learning is more engaging, according to 30% of workers:

While gamification enhances 90% of employees’ productivity, it also promotes on-the-job engagement. 

For example, a poll of 500 company employees found that 30% of respondents claimed that gamification increases their desire to be involved at work.

Plus, the same poll revealed that gamification motivates 27% of individuals to be more productive on the job and assists up to 20% of people in staying focused and avoiding distractions at work.

A gamified workplace boosts employee satisfaction by 89%:

A whopping 89% of those polled indicated that gamification made them happier and more productive at work. In contrast, 53% of American employees are dissatisfied with their jobs. 

As a result, gamification has the potential to have an enormously beneficial impact.

Also, a gamified workspace may assist with employee retention rates and increase employee satisfaction and productivity, as 69% of workers said they would remain at a firm for more than three years if it implemented gamification in some capacity in the workplace.

5 Key Benefits of Gamification in the Workplace

Gamification can help you enhance your workplace in several ways.

The benefits can be as follows:

Benefit #1: Increases employee engagement and productivity

Employee productivity and engagement are increased by gamification in three ways:

Focus: Interactive activities are divided into tiers that meet specific KPIs while keeping workers focused and task-oriented. 

Gamified parts are often divided into smaller targets that seem feasible, an essential aspect of training given workers’ new, distracting work situations. 

Also, employees gain badges or awards for completing tasks, and incremental job improvements make them feel like they have mastered crucial abilities.

Learning: Since many workers are onboarded remotely, it might be challenging to guarantee they learn the essential skills for their roles. 

For example, contact centers can assess how new and current staff are progressing and give further training as required by including game components such as targeted trivia sessions. 

Furthermore, the sessions can be arranged so that managers and supervisors can concentrate on the areas where workers need to focus the most. 

It’s also beneficial for current personnel to learn new materials or procedures.

Motivation: Employees can accumulate points that can be used to buy purchases in a rewards marketplace when they complete a gamification target or adequately answer trivia questions. 

The more employees engage in gamified training, the more points they gain to spend on enjoyable rewards. 

Supervisors can also monitor progress toward specific KPIs along the route. 

Benefit #2: Encourages and develops teamwork

Many components of gamification include a competitive element, which enables workers to engage with one another and compete against one another while also learning essential aspects of their jobs. 

It’s critical that workers feel that they are an integral part of the team at all times.

When individuals with similar perspectives work together toward the same objective, no challenge cannot be overcome. 

In addition, implementing gaming into the workplace makes this possible by bringing together individuals who share interests and opinions in the same activity.

These days, employees anticipate being involved in company culture and activities; this is an entertaining method to fulfill those expectations. 

Consequently, businesses must sustain a positive work culture that fosters the development of both people and the company as a whole.

Benefit #3: Encourages creativity and out-of-the-box thinking

Gamification might encourage employees to think creatively by placing them in high-stake situations. 

You can incorporate numerous components into the challenging game to acquaint them with the most perplexing scenarios they may experience in real life. 

Consequently, e-learning games are ideal for stimulating professional and innovative thinking.

Benefit #4: Provides a clear call to action

Gamification provides workers with immediate performance feedback and guidance on what to do next by linking with workplace applications. 

It’s also perfect for onboarding new employees. 

So, following a series of steps may lead to higher performance.

Benefit #5: Can be a great feedback mechanism

Periodic performance updates—we advise assessing an individual or team against their own benchmark rather than on a leaderboard—become excellent feedback mechanisms if performance tracking is computerized and integrated with business apps. 

Leaderboards and other gamification feedback systems can be provided regularly using automatic (and therefore objective) updates. 

In addition, these provide ongoing individual and collaborative feedback, whether they take place daily or monthly.

3 Disadvantages of Gamification in the Workplace

Although gamification in organizations can help employees with several challenges and business goals, the concept can have some drawbacks.

These disadvantages can include the following:

Disadvantage #1: Can easily be done poorly

Companies often choose the most generic approaches to adopt gamification. 

They sometimes force point systems, badges, and scoreboards on every activity rather than developing imaginative, collaborative experiences that blend competition and cooperation. 

In addition, they can fail to provide relevant and enjoyable workplaces for their people.

Disadvantage #2: Can feel forced and unfun

Coercion occurs when a firm pressures its staff to participate, encouraging dishonesty.

This makes individuals explore methods to cheat almost from the beginning of gamification solutions or competitions.

It’s unsurprising, however, that a game-based work environment may readily attract workers to cheat or abuse loopholes to increase their income, promotions, and increases.

Disadvantage #3: Its novelty wears off over time

It might be challenging to introduce novelty into the experiences to keep them new and engaging. 

Additionally, it may become onerous for employees to keep themselves motivated with awards, leaderboards, and tasks they would not usually appreciate. 

Therefore, workplace gamification may not provide a significant long-term advantage.

Adding game-like aspects to all work while ignoring the long-term well-being of those who use the program is patently unsustainable. 

However, gamification can bring fun, purpose, and incentive to the workplace when typical traps are avoided and game elements are thoughtfully integrated.

How to Use Gamification at Work

Gamification can be used to achieve several goals at work.

Yet if something doesn’t match your business or work criteria, you should consider not implementing it. 

Let’s check some of the gamification programs that most companies implement here.

Use gamification for employee training

When gamification is included in employee training, it will seem natural in the workplace. 

By including gamification components in your e-learning courses, you can take advantage of all the advantages of gamification in learning and create a culture of friendly competition.

The most well-liked gamification aspects are as follows:

Points: When individuals complete activities, meet a goal, or use the learning platform, they get points.

Leaderboards: Employees can compete to accumulate the most points and place first among their classmates. 

Also, leaderboards can be a fun and engaging supplement to the educational process.

Reward accomplishments, success, and admirable conduct with virtual badges that trainees may collect and display on their profiles.

Rewards: In addition to badges and points, tangible incentives like coupons, gift cards, and discounts can encourage employee recognition and employee morale even more.

Create a points-based leaderboard

Friendly competition can dramatically boost employee engagement, performance, and overall experience.

The competition can be gamified and quantified by establishing a scoreboard with points by selecting a scoreboard with points. 

For sales representatives and high-achieving workers who desire to go above and beyond, game-based employee reward systems can create a great sense of empowerment.

Host friendly company competitions

Not every gamification strategy should concentrate exclusively on productivity. 

Sometimes, having fun together can boost employee morale and motivation in the work environment, enhancing fantastic vibes of solidarity.

Also, team members can compete against one another and win prizes, for instance, by organizing business events like costume contests, cook-offs, or even hackathons.

Offer rewards

Workplace gamification incentives must be relevant to and appealing to workers.

For instance, if you have a “star employee” program that recognizes excellent performance, can a badge be sufficient to sustain employee motivation over time? 

The attractiveness of badges will likely fade with time. 

Therefore, employees can be motivated more by the prospect of a higher incentive, such as a five-star weekend getaway.

Though not the sole reward to be considered, monetary awards are also an option. 

Let everyone know the goals of each game

Assume you want to utilize gamification to motivate your sales staff to complete a certain number of contracts in three months. 

Before beginning this initiative, you must make sure the team is aware of the following things:

• Game objectives
• Criteria for determining the winning
• Prizes for winning, coming in second, etc.
• The advantages of reaching the goals for both the person and the company
• Rules, particularly those that exclude an employee

From the outset, the game’s rules should be pretty clear to all participating workers. 

After all, nobody wants to participate in an unfair race.

Additionally, remember that having a sense of purpose is just as crucial as feeling successful for all learners. 

Ensure the game’s ultimate goal is explained just as clearly as the requirements and prizes for winning.

Don’t leave anyone out

Gamification at work often makes just the highest performers feel valued. 

In other words, gamification works best when it is seen as an incentive that helps workers feel they are contributing to the business. 

As a result, praising participation is equally as crucial as recognizing accomplishments.

Consider the prizes you may provide for finishing a training program, finishing a work challenge, or meeting your KPI benchmark. 

Furthermore, publicly acknowledging individuals is often a practical approach to promoting participation.

Track success

To improve, you must measure your accomplishments and failures, just like you would with any new effort. 

Gamification has numerous advantages, but it is not a cure for everything. 

In other cases, gamification might provide advantages beyond what you expected.

Therefore, create a basic analytics dashboard to monitor how your gamification program is doing against the objectives you established. 

Keep track of the number of workers who engage in the program, the number who accomplish the objectives, and how much overall job performance improves during or immediately after the gamification program.

Also, if you discover poor participation rates, you may want to reconsider how you reward and acknowledge people. 

If overall work performance does not increase as much as predicted, your gamification program may need to be adjusted to better align with your company objectives and employee KPIs.

The best method for developing your gamification strategy is to collect and evaluate relevant data.

Let participants reflect on their performance

Workers must have the chance to reflect on their strengths and faults and document where gamification has excelled and failed at work.

Assume an employee doesn’t close enough deals as part of the sales team’s three-month challenge. 

What more might the employee have done to attain the goal?

The gamification technique should conclude with a quick overview of the game or challenge’s major accomplishments and failures. 

So make sure to include the positive things that each employee accomplished throughout this session so that others might learn from them.

3 Examples of Gamification in the Workplace to Inspire You

Various businesses have integrated gamification into their workplace for development.

Whether it’s for training purposes or onboarding, there’s always something gamification can speak to.

Let’s check below some corporate examples that did that.

Example #1: SAP

SAP is a significant supplier of enterprise resource planning systems and typically offers a range of constantly evolving services such as business analytics, supply chain planning, quotation to cash systems, and master data management. 

In such a fast-changing market, SAP sales representatives must always stay updated on the newest products and services to respond to the flood of client requests. 

Although several papers and resources are available for sales representatives to study, we are familiar with how often advised learning is put to the bottom of our To-Do lists.

SAP developed Roadwarrior, a type of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” multiple choice game in which sales reps mimic a “pre-call planning” session with a client to inspire and engage sales reps in staying up to date on the newest goods and services. 

To illustrate, sales reps can level up and earn badges by answering questions correctly. 

A leaderboard is arranged in a zero-sum competition, where users can challenge team members to a quiz war on the gamification platform to topple a top-ranked leader.

Example #2: Deloitte

Deloitte’s employee onboarding process was digitized and gamified extensively.

New hires establish groups with other new recruits and learn about privacy, compliance, ethics, and processes online. 

Also, they ask their team preset questions that everyone must respond to. 

The team then discusses the answers and options to arrive at a single solution. 

Furthermore, this strategy blends functional learning aspects with teamwork, resulting in a greater sense of belonging from the first day a new hire begins.

Deloitte has produced a virtual workplace tour that is put up in a videogame style. 

It begins with an airport scenario where visitors select their destination—Beijing, Shanghai, or Hong Kong. 

The visitors will then “fly” to that location and arrive at the local Deloitte virtual office, where they can speak with personnel and get a taste of the culture.

Example #3: Cisco

Cisco employs gamification in various projects, one of them being learning and development. 

The company began applying gamification ideas in its social media training to motivate employees to develop their skill sets. 

Marketing representatives learned how to utilize Twitter to serve their clients better. Salespeople learned to use LinkedIn to reach out to clients, while HR professionals learned to use LinkedIn to find applicants.

Also, Cisco has three levels of certification to monitor and promote progress in implementing new skills. 

By integrating team tasks, the entertainment element is boosted, and for accomplishing various tasks, players can learn badges.

Now Over to You

Gamification in today’s workplaces and enterprises is more important than ever. 

Whether you are looking for new methods to engage remote workers or a better training plan for the future, it’s one approach to improving your corporate culture.

Make sure to regularly check our blog to get your hands on the latest posts and keep being inspiring!

If you have any further questions, feel free to reach out to us anytime; we look forward to helping you.

Featured image by Andrey Metelev on Unsplash