Ah, that perennial ‘employee engagement challenge’ that continues to confound HR and internal communication teams around the world. Jen Norton believes that gamification is part of the solution. Here are her suggestions on implementation for increased engagement.

As much as workplace games may not be a miracle cure for a low morale or productivity, using a gamification psychology can have a positive impact on some of those everyday work-place challenges – especially when they are designed and implemented successfully. However, with such a wide variety of solutions on the market it can be difficult to make the right choices for your business.

When staff aren’t engaged, when they’re not fully invested in what they do, productivity spirals downward. Many internal communications professionals and business leaders are looking to introduce gamification in the workplace to boost morale and engagement. It’s also an excellent way to ignite involvement even among those far-flung team members. This blog offers some thoughts on and a potential roadmap to an effective engagement strategy.

Okay, so what is gamification?

It’s the process of using game-based components – involving competitions, rewards or scoring – within a workplace setting to motivate teams to become actively absorbed with their work. It’s a mechanism for applying ‘gaming-mechanics’ into a ‘non-gaming’ context as a tool to boost employee immersion which culminates in measurable gains in ROI.

What’s the difference between gamification and ‘gamified elements’?

Many platforms provide custom and complete gamification tools for business, and there are even platforms that have adopted gamified elements within existing product offerings. Given the complexity of the market it’s essential to take soundings from experts in the Gamification sphere.

Employee engagement is easy to lose and difficult to inspire

With Gallup’s well-documented research pointing to a crisis in global employee engagement we need to create new methods for making our work-place more absorbing. Disengaged teams suffer from demonstrably lower morale and less productivity. Unengaged employees tend to bring their colleagues and teammates spiralling down with them.

Closing the productivity gap

Gamification platforms – or other existing solutions with gamified elements – can promote immersion, productivity and revenue growth across your business. Often used to motivate sales teams to reach targets, the meaningful feedback it generates can also be used to reduce staff turnover, increase training efficiencies and contribute to a concrete improvement in overall morale.

Harness the entertaining aspects of games

Gamification technology can offer solutions to employee involvement challenges by helping teams to better understand an employee’s responsibilities, to track task-related outcomes and – through metrics – track employee progress and measure improvements.

Applying gamification to e-learning management

Leading customer engagement companies offer intuitive solutions with a number of platforms via gamified learning – building, tracking, and improving employee and customer training through a bespoke, client-branded web portal. Incentivesmart is one such company that builds these customised systems for increasing engagement and for driving towards desired outcomes.

Can gamification work for your business?

Every business can benefit from happy, engaged and motivated employees – where customers are valued more, and productivity is higher. But many workplace gamification applications fail to measure up to the desired business objectives due to a lack of specific, creative and meaningful activities.

Next week I will be sharing my checklist with specific ideas on how to succeed with your gamification efforts.

Meanwhile, if you’d like some further insight into nurturing a well prepared, happy and motivated team, all within your marketing budget, get in touch today.