The development of technology such as the internet, smartphones and online gaming has significantly changed our lives. Now it seems that the generation who grew up with powerful consoles and sophisticated, multi-player, role-playing games is having an impact upon how businesses manage and develop their employees through gamification.
If you think that’s a bit far-fetched, consider the concept of game playing. It’s been around a lot longer than Angry Birds and World of Warcraft, and many managers and business people believe that game playing and office politics happen around them all of the time!
And game playing has many uses in the management, development and engagement of employees. For example, games can be so engaging that they bring out a range of qualities in those who play them, including desires to achieve, compete and work with others (as many games these days can be played online in teams).
These are qualities that companies value in their employees so it makes sense to encourage their continuance in the workplace through appropriate triggers and settings. Here are some suggestions on tactics that businesses can employ to produce results.
Gamification as part of the recruitment process
Recruitment is an ideal function in which to motivate applicants and attract talent through gamification because there are a number of logical stages within the process. This means that you can offer incentives to potential candidates to encourage them to move forward in the recruitment process, particularly if you have sufficient web and social media presences. For example, the Marriott devised a hotel-themed online game for Facebook to encourage users to see what it’s like to manage a kitchen. While you probably won’t have the budget or need to invest in such a project, you could use your Facebook page to develop a game like process that takes candidates through the recruitment process.
The other side of this is to bring a contest element to any employee referral programme that you have in place. You could introduce an award for Best Referrer to encourage staff to “refer a friend” they think has the right skills and qualities for any vacancies you have.
Fun and games in your performance assessments
Changing the language used within performance reviews could bring out the competitiveness in employees, encouraging them to strive harder. Rather than describing an employee’s performance as below, at or above expectation, the business could introduce levels (which are linked to certain behaviours and possibly pay increases or promotional opportunities) and achievements (a common term used in gaming that could relate to spot bonuses and other one-off rewards).
While introducing leaderboards that relate to individual performance is probably inadvisable, the idea may work well at team, area or regional level. This has proven to encourage team engagement and a
healthy amount of competition.
Include gamification in your training design
If you have often wondered about the effectiveness of passive learning such as videos, presentations and seminars, implementing a game-playing element could increase learning. Not only can you introduce an interactive and games-focused approach to the training activities themselves, but you can also provide quick rewards and recognition – such as badges, titles and status symbols – throughout the training.
Does this sound a little gimmicky or perhaps even silly? Then consider how Deloitte, a huge audit, tax, consulting and corporate finance company, has changed its development programme for senior executives. It has included gamified elements such as badges and leaderboards, resulting in a 50% reduction of the time taken to complete the training programme.
Career development
Development plans often revolve around tasks, competencies and behaviours but they sometimes lack a concrete link between behaviour and career progression. By introducing levels, employees will be much clearer on what needs to be done in order to achieve career ambitions. The definition of those levels is entirely at the discretion of the business in terms of what should be recognised and rewarded. This is something we are currently working on with Philip Dennis Foodservice in North Devon – an SME with just over 200 employees.
In addition, gamification makes it much easier to highlight best practice or to emphasise initiatives that the company wants to promote. For example, the behaviour of an employee who has ‘levelled up’ a number of times could be used to demonstrate to new staff what they need to do in order to meet expectations. Alternatively, special rewards or ‘fast track levelling up’ could be given for employees who become on-the-job-trainers, mentors or coaches.
Enjoy the paperwork!
Gamification can even work to improve those administrative procedures that are important but are mostly regarded as boring by most employees. Many organisations struggle to get certain pieces of paperwork, such as contracts of employment, emergency contact details forms and even expenses claims, completed promptly by employees.
Introducing a game playing element that promotes the employees who have the best record for submitting paperwork promptly will encourage a better response. This can also be extended to operational systems such as overtime information required for payroll purposes, staffing rotas and production volume records.
Of course, gamification should be simple, measurable and monitored to ensure that it is delivering within overall objectives. That means ensuring that there is sound logic behind the initiatives adopted rather than just trying to make certain activities more fun.
