human resources
by Sarah Espigares, Community Manager at SRGEurope to engage your audience, such as employees, in order to complete a job that might otherwise not be appealing to complete. It can also be used to boost productivity. Gamification takes advantage of the competitive nature of humans and their inherent attraction to games and works in conjunction with the “incentive theory” which states that if we receive a reward for an action, we are likely to repeat this action to earn more rewards thus making the action a habit through regular repetition. What’s Gamification in a business setting? Gamification for business is also known as enterprise gamification and it is growing in popularity with the aim of increasing staff productivity, creating a positive work environment and providing useful and applicable job training. Badgeville, a company that specialises in online behaviour platforms and one of top companies specialising in gamification, are now creating gaming platforms specific to the workplace. Companies such as IBM, Samsung and Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd are using it. Enterprise gamification works along the principle that if you can make an employee’s job more fun with the use of game techniques, you can motivate your staff to complete necessary tasks that might not otherwise be appealing. The idea is that it leads to higher productivity in staff and an improvement in quality and performance. Technology research company, Gartner, predicts that 70% of Tech firms will be implementing gamification into their business by 2014. The industry of gamification is seeing phenomenal
growth only paralleled by that of the social media industry. Professionals such as project managers have seen the largest use of gamification so far since the second half of 2010, but other areas such as Sales, Customer Service and Product Management are benefitting from the frameworks that gamification seeks to create. How can you incorporate gamification into your business? The premise around enterprise gamification is to create a game based around work activities. Some of the techniques used in implementing gamification into daily work routines are points, badges and leaderboards. A points system is a great way of tracking employee performance and progress, but they can also be used as a motivation technique. Humans are drawn to collecting or attaining things whether it be an actual object, level or social recognition. Points make that achievement visible both to themselves and their colleagues. Including levels and benefits when these levels are achieved can add more intrigue to the challenge. Badges serve the same purpose in that a physical badge is presented to employees when
they achieve a goal which can also be followed through with additional prizes, recognition or even a promotion. The concern lies in that if badges are overdone and become too easy to achieve then they may lose their value. The goal needs to be one that requires a serious effort on behalf of the employee, but is still attainable. Leaderboards can also be implemented alongside a points system, badges or on their own. They are a great way to measure different aspects of a job such as team contribution, support of colleagues and feedback received and given. The large benefit of leaderboards is that they promote recognition for a job well done on a social level. There is one potential downfall in using a leaderboard in that there are winners and losers when it becomes social, and not everyone wants to work in an environment where they feel they are part of a competition. There is a balance between motivating staff and creating a stressful and non-constructive environment which needs to be considered. Games have been around for centuries and have become a massive industry and past time. Is it any surprise they are finding their way into the office? You can expect to see a lot of companies implementing gamification into their place of work and potentially with great results. n
Enterprise gamification works along the principle that if you can make an employee’s job more fun with the use of game techniques, you can motivate your staff to complete necessary tasks that might not otherwise be appealing
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