How Gamification Is Not Only Fun but Also Cost-Effective

By Chris Daily

Gamification is a proven method of increasing the productivity of a workforce. Studies show that 90% of employees show more employee engagement and productivity when they engage in a task that makes use of gamification. With this in mind, are you sure that you can afford not to use it?

Gamification is so much more than just playing games. To help you understand why gamification is so popular, below we have listed what it is and why it can help you and your workplace succeed. Read on and discover why gamification can help you reduce your training costs. Also, learn how it will help your employees enjoy the job they currently have all the more.

What Is Gamification?

There are several ways of encouraging people to complete a task. There is punishment, reward, teaching people the task is in their interest, and so on. Many of these sound like they are for children, but in truth, some form of each of these methods exists for adults too.

Gamification is when you take these methods and incorporate game design elements and game-based rules into them. It applies game elements to activities that usually have nothing to do with gaming. The aim of doing this is to increase the motivation of people to complete tasks and increase their moment-to-moment engagement.

Despite being a lot more widespread than ten years ago, gamification has made some serious inroads in the area of corporate training. A lot of this expansion came shortly after several studies appeared talking about the role of dopamine on the brain and how to trigger this.

Gamification started early for most of us in the form of game based learning with the classic example being a spelling bee. Other gamification examples included performance starts, grades, and levels of achievement (valedictorian). Most of us have encountered gamified learning in the form of educational video games such as Duolingo. As technology evolves, a learning management system (LMS) will start to look like a gamification platform and feel like a video game. Game thinking and game principles will boost student motivation and boost user engagement.

For several years, employers had a gamification strategy of rewarding their workforce with extrinsic motivation. For example, higher pay, benefits, or a company car. By adding gamification elements, they finally had a way to create extra intrinsic satisfaction in one's role.

Extrinsic vs Intrinsic Motivation

All jobs have some level of these two kinds of satisfaction. They help to push you to do a good job on a day-to-day basis, and not having the proper balance of both in your gamification strategies could spell disaster for your workplace motivation.

There are stark differences between what each one does:

Extrinsic Motivation: This is when you think about the conditions of your work or the external rewards you might get. Factors such as your pay, your boss, workplace benefits, or the fame you get for your job all count as extrinsic motivations.

Intrinsic Motivation: This type of motivation comes straight from the work you are doing. It allows you to feel satisfied with the tasks you have completed. Either you start to feel like you are making a difference in the world, or that you feel satisfied with the amount of work you have done.

Gamification lies in the world of intrinsic motivation. It encourages you to gain extra satisfaction from every task you complete. This is because successful gamification encourages you to consider it as extra motivation in the form of points, experience, or other numerical benefits.

You feel a real sense of progress if you feel like your task has built towards something. This is true even if you are otherwise performing the same daily role.

Increased Retention

One of the other benefits of gamification is its ability to increase the amount of knowledge that people gain during training. Studies performed on nurses during evaluations of clinical knowledge have shown this to be true. Results showed that their e-learning motivation increased when using gamification to help teach.

Human beings learn well through play. This starts when they are very young and interact with their toys, but does not completely stop as they grow older. The method of play they have instead changes from an interaction vs discovery model to one that encourages progress.

Some of the other reasons people respond well to gamification in training are the following:

An Environment With No Risks

Making use of virtual spaces to engage with training can have its benefits. First of all, it means that the learners do not have to worry about causing problems by getting the wrong answer.

This does not mean making use of a VR environment. It can even be a roleplayed scenario via computer text in a manner akin to a text adventure. Game designers can incorporate game design elements and game mechanics within the structure of the scenario or story.

When displaying the choices people make in these virtual environments, the UI matters. Even something as simple as using icons as part of the gamification elements to denote specific decisions can help people who work better with visual memory.

Direct Feedback

With gamification, you can also allow someone to know how well they did at a task straight away by giving immediate feedback. Not only this, but you can reward them when they do well with a points-based system as part of the game mechanics.

Someone who knows they will earn extra points by correctly submitting their work will likely go the extra mile. Many of the users of such systems learn a great deal and will work towards making their work better if they know they will get something more out of it. This is true even if the thing they are getting is points that employees can compare with others.

Motivation Through Competition

Many people receive motivation, even in the workplace, by competition. With those who are most invested in this kind of work, gamification gives a safe and harmless method of focusing that energy.

As one example, you could encourage engagement by including game elements, such as a leaderboard, in your learning modules. Then, regardless of if you have a prize for winning or not, those who aim to do better than others will push themselves to learn more. This motivation can create team players out of lone wolves through camaraderie.

Reduced Cost of Training

Gamification has a much better impact than traditional learning on individuals when they learn. If you end up teaching your workforce through gamification techniques, it can be faster than not. This is because the learners do not need to go over the same course material more than once as they engage well with it the first time.

Gamified Onboarding

More benefits to the impact of gamification can come into play when the employee is new to the company. As part of a larger onboarding experience, they can run through a series of "workplace tutorials". In essence, they can earn their place in the company.

As they continue to engage more with their onboarding experience, the new employee can start to assimilate more into the company.

While this happens, those performing the teaching can also have a very detailed view of what the employee knows. They can see the exact lessons that they have learned and what they still need to work on.

This visibility prevents wasted time in re-teaching someone things they already know. It also lets the employee start working on things that match their training as soon as possible.

Increased User Engagement

User engagement is the amount that a single person seeks to make use of a product. In the realm of gamification, it means how often a user tries to make use of the gamified system.

In a company, you will want your workforce to make use of the systems you put in place to help them work. Otherwise, you will end up with wasted money and time implementing such systems.

One of the benefits of gamification is that it has a much higher level of user engagement than many other internal systems. The use of gamification techniques that include scores, levels, achievements, and so on often brings users back to seek out their progress.

Also, gamification can often have impacts on engagement outside of working situations. There are even possible watercooler moments as workers discuss achievements with one another. This can get people excited to do work before they even get back to their desks and motivate them to get back to work fast.

Higher Levels of Adherence

One of the questions that come with gamification is whether it will motivate people to do the absolute smallest amount of work possible. That is, employees will work out how to cheat the game design and game mechanics to "game" the system and gain experience points or progression, subverting good work. That's always a fear.

One of the best ways to solve this is to consider incorporating non game contexts into a system where one gains the most from adhering to company policies.

If we take the example of someone needing to send a customer service response to a customer. You could of course start with incorporating game elements that encourages users to complete the basic sending of the message giving the smallest amount of points.

Then, you score the message by using a third party or internal team based on several factors. The tone of the message, whether they included all the necessary information, or if they signed it off correctly could all come into play.

Soon, employees will learn that they will receive the highest score for the best-composed messages (or, in general, the best work). After that, they will aim for not only speed but quality in their work.

Where Can You Learn More?

This article has been a strong primer on the concepts of gamification and why it can help you and your company succeed. It has also talked about some gamification examples that can be incorporated into your daily work life. Adding game elements and game design can be confusing. There is so much more to learn, and we offer a helping hand to those looking to invest in gamification.

If you have questions or want to know more, you can always talk to one of our team about what we can offer you. Our people are always willing to discuss the possibilities in a gamified workplace, so send us a message today.