Gamification in the Workplace (Part-I)

Gamification has not only become a part of e-learning, but it is also quickly becoming a workspace essential. As an emerging futuristic developmental approach, gamification facilitates the effective employment of game mechanics in non-gaming milieus. In our blogs, Gamification in E-learning Part-I & Part-II, we gave a fair idea about gamification and its implications in the e-learning industry. In addition to its use in education, gamification is also deployed in workplaces to train and engage employees, to make work more enjoyable, and to enhance productivity.

This article analyzes how gamification is employed in the workplace to achieve the desired levels of productivity.

Gamification in Employee Training

Training is requisite to the corporate world. Tirelessly working in an office creates a monotonous environment that can affect the productivity levels of the employees. Gamification in a workplace educates, engages, and motivates employees, for the end goal of optimizing the workflow and attracting talented professionals. The use of gamification can be categorized into three broad categories:

a. Gamification for Training

An organization can use gamification to recruit and train the existing or new staff, inform them about new products, improve understanding of the company policies, introduce new software or technology, increase compliance, and to upskill the employees.

b. Gamification for Team Building

Teamwork is the backbone of any organization. Gamification helps foster healthy relations among team members by bridging the communication gap, building mutual trust and understanding, improving relations, and encouraging collaboration.

c. Gamification for Improving Results

Gamification improves results and helps achieve the desired objectives of an organization by creating a sense of competition among the employees. Leaderboards, rewards, and incentives work as stimuli to motivate and engage employees to produce better results.

Gamification in HR

Gamification in HR is employed in a business process/environment to recruit, train, engage, and motivate the employees, as well as to develop their skills. The gamification process kindles the competitive instincts. As a result, employees engage and absorb knowledge through a game, and experience a greater sense of achievement and encouragement to grow. The HR department of a company may use gamification to attract job seekers and to assess their future performance at the time of recruitment.

Some of the important applications of gamification in HR are listed below:

i) Training & Learning

Change boring training content into a game to engage the employees and to get better responses.

ii) Administration

Reward points for completing a certain task on time. This works as a form of extrinsic motivation for the employees.

iii) Employee Well-Being

Along with work, take employee wellness into account. The HR can create a challenging system to record the physical activity levels through wearable tech and maintain leaderboards to give rewards.

iv) Team Building

Create a collaborative approach while introducing healthy competition in a team.

v) Assigning Value

Assign a value to the employees in the form of rewards as they abide by company values.

Addressing Multiple Training Needs 

The scope of gamification in a workplace is extensive. It engages employees  in all departments. What’s more, it provides an impetus for better performance in the workplace. The common spheres where gamification is employed in the workspace include:

Benefits of Gamification in the Workplace

Gamification in the workplace offers countless benefits to the organization as well as the employees. Some of the important benefits of gamification in the workplace are mentioned below.

1. Higher rates of participation

A gamified activity encourages more employee participation as it is an interesting team activity that involves a reward.

2. Creative problem-solving

Gamification allows employees to apply their creative talent in their work to perform better and to get rewards. This induces creative problem-solving abilities in them.

3. Information retention

Information acquired through experiences is much easier to retain. Employees engage in various activities and learn by experiencing and performing in a game-like situation, initiating longer information retention.

4. Job satisfaction

Happiness at work makes work more enjoyable and reduces the burden on the employees. This increases job satisfaction, as the employees engage in competition and get recognition for their efforts.

Final Observations

Gamification of a workplace plays a crucial role in creating a positive work environment by making work seem more like a game one can enjoy. It is an accommodating approach that works well for all the various divisions of an organization. Moreover, it helps achieve unprecedented levels of employee productivity and growth for attaining the desired company goals.

However, gamification requires certain conditions to be met before an effective training solution can be implemented. Transforming a gamified training into a learning tool requires certain elements. This transformation helps in achieving the desired outcomes, rather than just creating a game.

For more information on Gamification in the Workplace, read Part-II of this series.

Research references: Digitalhrtech and Medium

Images sourced from Shutterstock and Vecteezy.

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