Gamification: How best to implement and leverage it in your workplace
Gamification is now being used across a wide range of organizations for a wide range of uses. Some organizations are using gamification like a loyalty program, the further employees progress in the game, the more bonus or reward points they earn, which they can then use for real workplace rewards, such as gift cards. Other organizations are using gamification to help employees manage health and wellness programs, placing employees on teams to create a healthy competitive atmosphere where employees can help push each other further down the path to a healthy lifestyle. Some employers are looking to make gamification fun, others are more focused on achieving the goals of the game. However you use gamification in your workplace it is important to offer real rewards to employees as a result of the game, so the motivator actually affects productivity, loyalty to the organization, and long-term retention rates. It is also important to use the metrics gamification systems offer to ensure the goals for your program are being met. There metrics prove the ROI for these employee incentive and rewards programs, and are what will make them sustainable into future years, and budgets.
For more information on maximizing gamification in a number of different ways, check out this article in Venture Beat.
3 Key Points to Gamifying Your Workforce
Gamification continues to grow in the workforce motivation realm. The gamification market was estimated at around $100 million a year ago, and is projected to from to $2.8 billion by 2016, according to M2 Research. Five years from now, every new employee entering the workforce will have grown up with mobile devices and Facebook, this means the demographic in the workforce is accustomed to constant gaming and media stimulation. To ensure your gamified employee motivation and recognition is executed properly follow these 3 easy steps:
Games in the Workplace Motivate Your Employees
Using gamification as a tool for employee motivation is a fairly new strategy, but continues to prove its effectiveness in many different applications. Gamification can be used for Health and Wellness programs, to motivate a company to complete a specific goal, or as a running motivator to balance the seriousness of the workplace with some old-fashioned competition and non-disruptive social interaction. Keeping gaming in the workplace up to date, simple, and competitive are the most important, and often challenging aspects of this type of reward and recognition program. Gaming is not as effective or engaging if employees cannot view the standings and identify their competition continuously. Gamification of employee engagement can also help create a model for future engagement efforts. Since the game takes feedback from employees it creates incredibly useful data on how to engage your specific employees and what will get them excited about work, the competition, and socializing with their co-workers. This data can hel pemployers decide how to spend their rewards budget. Whether your workforce is interested in extra vacation time, a gift card to a favorite restaurant, or another type of reward the gaming data will help you determine how best to reward your employees. Gamification provides incredible ROI because it solicits a consistent feedback loop from employees to management and helps to retain employees and keep them satisfied in their professional setting. How do you use gamification in your rewards program?
For more information on gaming in the workplace check out this article from Mashable.
Using Gamification for Recruiting, Career Development, and Health and Wellness
Using gaming to engage employees has been proven effective in a number of different scenarios. Here are three stages of the employment process where gamification has been successful. How does your company use gamification to engage employees?
Deep Dive into Gamification for Employee Motivation and Rewards
If you are immersed in the world of employee motivation, recognition and rewards; you’ve been hearing a lot about gamification: a business tool to integrate key techniques and mechanics into the workplace via “games”. Simply put, integrating interactive games as a tool within training or incentive programs improves employee engagement, motivation and productivity. GCP’s gift cards are well engrained in such programs as game points can be accumulated to select a really useful “prize”, like lunches at
SUBWAY, Health and Beauty items at
CVS/pharmacy, high quality, trend forward, and professional fashions from
The Limited…GCP’s gift cards are carefully selected for B2B programs like employee rewards. GCP’s recent blogs lead to gobs of the evidence that gamification should be looked at seriously within incentive programs,
Incentive Experts Point to Gamification as Top Incentive Trend,
Snowfly’s 16 Key Findings for Success white paper,
IRF’s 12 Trends in Rewards and Recognition for 2012,
Gamification Keeps Employees Engaged and Brand Image Strong…but this blog offers you a deep dive into the mechanics of gamification, data on participation levels, performance and reward successes, and what you can expect long term. Take a deep dive into gamification with “
Snowfly’s Gamification in the Workplace: 15 Key Discoveries”, by Dr. Brooks Mitchell. His work has been published and referred to in hundreds of publications, including Forbes, Wall Street Journal, Fortune, and the New York Times.
