There are several benefits in using gamification or game elements at the workplace for recruitment, training and for increasing motivation. According to Garner’s webinar Gamification Trends and Strategies to Help Prepare for the Future on November 2012, there are numerous ways in which gamification enhances employee engagement.
“Virtually all areas of business could benefit from gamification as it can help to achieve three broad business objectives
1) to change behavior;
2) to develop skills; or
3) to enable innovation.
The most common use of gamification is to engage a specific audience and encourage them to change a target set of behaviors. By turning the desired behavior change into a game, people become engaged and encouraged to adopt new habits. Gamification is increasingly being used in both formal education and in corporate training programs to engage students in a more immersive learning experience. Innovation games are typically structured quite differently than games designed to change behavior or develop skills. Innovation games use emergent game structures that provide the goals, rules, tools and play space for the players to explore, experiment, collaborate and solve problems. Innovation games generally use game mechanics to create a more engaging experience, but the key is to engage lots of players, solving problems through crowdsourcing.” (Garner, 2012)
Another benefit of using gamification software is also that it can ease employees’ ability to give and receive feedback. “Gamification software can help alleviate the disconnect many employees feel from their supervisors by providing instant, positive feedback – the kind of feedback and recognition that positively reinforce behavior” (Watson, 2014).
Even though there are also challenges in using gaming elements in the workplace – for example finding the right game design that suits digital natives as well as digital immigrants, creates the right balance between competition versus collaboration and taps into employees’ intrinsic motivations – overcoming these challenges means gaming elements can be used to positively impact “customer engagement, employee performance, training and education, innovation management, personal development, sustainability and health.” (Gardner, 2012) According to Klosowski, there is “no evidence shows that gamification could motivate someone to do something they don’t want to” (Klosowski, 2014), however “when extrinsic rewards such as badges are paired carefully with a goal that you already have intrinsic motivation for, the effect can be positive (Chou, 2013). With the right game design, the benefits of gamification trump the negative aspects and challenges.
Many companies have benefitted from using gamification in enhancing employee engage, satisfaction and increasing productivity. According to Schawbel, “the list is practically endless. Google, Microsoft, Cisco, Deloitte, Sun Microsystems, IBM, L’Oréal, Canon, Lexus, FedEx, UPS, Wells Fargo and countless others have embraced games to make workers more satisfied, better-trained and focused on their jobs, as well as to improve products and services. Google and Microsoft have created games to increase worker morale, quality control, and productivity.”(Schawbel, 2013) With the global business world facing the great challenge of increasing employee engagement from 13 percent, gamification is a serious tool for this problem.