The Surprising Ways Gamification Can Engage Employees
Discover how gamification tech drives meaning for employees and results for employers.
With employees quitting in droves, executives need to find a way to boost productivity and reduce churn. Pranav Tyagi, founder and CEO, Tango, discusses how gamification technology can help executives increase employee engagement and enjoyment and offer surprising ESG reporting benefits.
The pandemic permanently altered how we live and work, with the lines often blurring between the two. Despite the increase in companies pushing for a full-time return to the office, work will never go back to how it was before the pandemic. At least not entirely. When companies required workers to return to the office after two years of more flexible work formats, employees left in droves and the Great Resignation occurred, tipping the scales and placing the power in the hands of the employee rather than the employer.
The pandemic forced companies to enact sweeping changes to keep employees healthy and safe while remaining productive. Now, as many companies have implemented a permanent hybrid work model, a new challenge arises for executives: how do I retain employees and keep them engaged? With nearly 40% of workers signaling they would quit their jobs without flexible or remote working options, according to a Morning Consult survey, executives have to figure out new ways to drive meaning for their employees that aren’t based solely on in-person attendance. One way to address this issue is through gamification technology.
What Is Gamification?
Gamification is a surprisingly powerful tool to help executives generate greater meaning for employees in the workplace and navigate high turnover rates. It can also help drive progress toward an organization’s ESG goals, which public companies may be required to disclose on SEC filings under new proposed rules. But what does gamification look like and how does technology come into play?
Games capture people’s attention by playing off the brain’s natural work and reward feedback loops for keeping them engaged. Gamification leverages this psychological response to motivate people in a non-gaming environment, often to take on a task or challenge they would not otherwise feel motivated to do. Because it is based on human psychology, gamification can be applied to any industry. It can be used to curb bad habits, encourage good ones, motivate individuals to meet goals, and create a greater sense of community among teams and workplaces that are now more fragmented and physically disconnected.
Despite the term “gamification” being coined in 2002, the concept is not new and has been heavily connected to technology for some time. You have probably experienced gamification in applications you use daily without ever realizing it. Rideshare ratings, step goals on smartwatches, and rewards for retail purchases are all examples of gamified interactions. You might not have even noticed you were interacting with gamification because every company dangles a different carrot to keep its consumers entertained and engaged.
See More: Gamification in Recruitment: All You Need to Know
Gamification Benefits for Employees and Employers Alike
It is no secret that remote work can leave employees feeling disconnected. Without in-person brainstorming sessions, spontaneous water cooler conversations, and post-work happy hours, remote employees can miss out on essential team bonding known to boost camaraderie and morale. Previously, workplace gamification efforts relied heavily on office attendance to update leaderboards, prove involvement in initiatives, and share in on the fun of workplace competitions. But technology makes it possible to expand traditional gamification capabilities to an entire enterprise, even remote or out-of-town employees. This can lower anxieties remote employees may be feeling related to the lack of connection they feel to their peers and the visibility they have into office dynamics.
Gamification tech helps engage employees by making everyone visible on a single platform. Employees can compete or collaborate with their peers across an organization and see progress against goals in real-time, such as top-seller competitions or fitness challenges. Employees are then recognized for their hard work on a virtual leaderboard or prizes, fostering a sense of belonging and purpose at a company.
One of the key driving factors in gamification’s success is tapping into people’s competitive nature. Friendly competition is enjoyable and motivating for employees, encouraging them to collaborate. Challenges that require teamwork, such as hitting sales goals or even group fitness challenges, can help employees get to know one another better while working toward a common goal. And gamification offers employees an easier entrance into goals that may feel abstract, such as lowering a company’s carbon footprint.
This is where the benefits of gamification tech start to transcend the employee-employer line. For employees, gamification can help make work more enjoyable, which is known to increase productivity — a major benefit for employers. Not only can gamifying office initiatives improve current employee retention and productivity, but they can also lead to greater talent acquisition for employers. According to McKinsey, social initiatives, such as a bike-to-work challenge, can boost employee motivation and productivity, which creates social credibility and leads to more talent attraction. Gamification can also aid in accelerating onboarding and job training. Even mundane tasks such as office cleanliness instructions and desk booking protocols can be gamified.
Perhaps the most undervalued benefit of gamification tech is the data it can provide executives. When deployed, executives gain direct insight into what motivates their employees and what initiatives they are most interested in. Corporate gamification tech can engage employees in company-wide environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals, such as lowering a company’s carbon footprint and allows executives to access real-time data on progress toward those goals. By having a platform that tracks how often employees are taking environmentally friendly modes of transportation to work or turning the lights off when they are not using a room, executives have tangible data to measure and report on. And the data collected through gamification can take initiatives even further. For instance, an energy conservation competition (such as turning off office lights) can provide insights into how space is used, which might be helpful if companies are looking to expand or downsize their space.
Dangling the Carrot
For executives looking to invest in gamification methods for their company, they first need to determine what will motivate their employees. Company-wide recognition? A lunch with the CEO? Gift cards? Whatever the dangling carrot may be, once employees have something to chase, gamification can become a powerful tool for executives looking to drive meaning for employees who may be feeling disconnected after two years of disrupted work. Gamification tech opens the participation pool to all employees across an enterprise regardless of where and how they work. In exchange, it can give executives real-time data about their workforce.
Have you used gamification technology in your workspace? How has it affected employee engagement? Share with us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
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