What is Gamification?

The concept of gamification has been around since the 1960s but the concept seemed to be loosely defined, hence creating confusion in the markets, unreasonable expectations and failure in implementation. An updated definition was required to let people know exactly what gamification is and what its purpose is.  

Back in 2014, Gartner Inc sought to redefine ‘gamification’. They defined it as “the use of game mechanics and experience design to digitally engage and motivate people to achieve their goals”. 

This explanation proved to be a quite interesting one. Not only does it cover the types of gamifications –  structural gamification (‘game mechanics’) and content gamification (‘experience design’), it also highlights the importance of engaging audiences and driving motivation.

What is Gamification for Organisational Development?

In recent years, Gamification has quickly overtaken the world of Learning and Development. Professionals across the globe are realising that gamification for organisational development is one of the best ways to motivate people to change behaviours, develop skills and to drive innovation. 

According to a study by eLearning Industry, 89% employees claim that if a task is gamified, they feel eager to complete it and are in a competitive mood.

Gamification for Organisational Development is simply a way to engage employees in their training, but by keeping them interested in training, organisations are enabling employees to achieve their goals. Using gamified activities is estimated to increase motivation by 48%.

Game Mechanics for Organisational Development?

Gamification has two types – Structural and Content. WIth the idea of making learning and training more fun and structured, structural gamification or game mechanics refers to the use of points, bullets, challenges and leaderboards.

Gamification mechanics is a way of exploiting a user’s underlying motivation of improving their skills by offering them extrinsic motivation like rewards, points and standings. 

Game mechanics include:- 

Points – Points are means to measure accomplishment and monitor progress by keeping score and establishing status. 

Levels – Levels are indicators of milestone achievements. As and when participants accumulate a certain number of points, their level in the training or as an employee automatically rises, probably also increasing the difficulty level of the module. 

Challenges – Challenges not only help keep people interested, they are a way for organisations to test the employees knowledge and skill by assessing them through unique business challenges. 

Leaderboards – One of the best ways to motivate employees into contributing to tasks with all that they’ve got, is by adding a social aspect to points and comparing them to others. This gives individuals a chance to stand out of the lot and form new relationships with their counterparts. 

Pillars of Gamification for Organisational Development?

Gamification within organisations has a significant impact on employee engagement, motivation, and psychology. These 4 pillars of Gamification act as its motivators of performance :-

Achievement: Everybody has the innate want to be well-versed and proficient in something. We work to attain mastery in our skill sets, profession or hobbies. 

Recognition: When somebody has their work acknowledged or appreciated, it makes for the strongest form of motivation. 

Competition: This gamification pillar appeals to people’s desire to make a mark by standing out among their colleagues. Healthy competition is what gamification roots for, clumsy implementation of the same can poison initiatives and thus relations. 

Valuables: This addresses avoiding the loss of something or gaining something new. Value can be added to something like points that one will earn over the course of their module or even a competition to win funds for an idea or gain a promotion.

Employee Engagement and Culture – An Important Aspect Of Success

Business leaders, all over the globe, have been challenged with harnessing their organisation’s culture for marketplace success. An outgrowth of leadership itself, one’s culture can be moulded to meet organisational goals. 

A Booz & Company study from 2013, surveyed 2,200 executives, managers, and employees from a range of companies across the world to understand culture’s role in enabling organisational change.

In the study, 86% of C-level executives and 84% of all managers and employees believe that culture is critical to their organisations’ success. 60% see it as a bigger success factor, bigger than their strategy or operating model. About 75% of the respondents of the study felt that their company needs significant culture restoration talking closely about the proportion of people disengaged at work.

Employee gamification training or gamified training modules is one of the most effective ways to let employees know that their organisation cares.

How are Businesses currently using Gamification?

The power of gamification for organisational development can best be seen through improvements in employee morale and productivity. Organisations that have implemented gamification in their learning and development functions are Coca Cola, Microsoft, The Protein Chef and many more.

The Protein Chef has a program in which they reward employees with free protein bars for reaching their health goals on a monthly basis. UBS Financial Services Group also gamified their six-week online onboarding training program. Not just companies, countries to use gamification techniques to propel success. The United Nations used gamification techniques to help The World Food Programme reach their goal of distributing food to 100 million people in 2016.

Benefits of Gamification in Business

There have been various studies conducted to understand a learner’s 

• Gamification can create a buzz among diverse groups of employees and can thus be implemented on all kinds of training. 

A major part of today’s populace has spent their time around games. They connect with gamified content. Customer service, sales training, technical training or onboarding, gamification can be applied successfully to all types of training. 

• Gamification drives employee motivation

Gamification elements like points, badges and leaderboards encourage and motivate employees to do better as they make learners feel responsible for their position among the group and their peers. 

• Gamification delivers a customised learning experience

Gamified training modules can be moulded in accordance with the learners skill level. On lower skill levels, like novice or beginner, learners get instant feedback on their performance and thus, pointers on where they can improve. 

• Gamification provides a virtual environment for learners to improve their skills in the real world

When employees get to practice their skills and behaviour virtually in a gamified setup they are in a scenario where they can learn from their mistakes and explore the best possible ways to improve upon those skills through relatable scenarios. 

• Gamified simulation improves decision-making skills

A gamified training puts learners in scenarios where they need to make frequent, important decisions. People learn from their mistakes thus it is best to build those scenarios for them virtually to prepare them for when such a situation arriese in reality.

How can Gamification Boost Business Results?

Rebuilding employee trust by increasing employee engagement is vital to stay relevant in a world of continuous change. Organisations that fail to move with these changing times are already losing ground. So, how does gamification help businesses in staying relevant and boosting results?

• Engagement:

Employee engagement is directly linked to organisational development. Without engagement, an organisation is unable to align its force towards one goal. Through gamification, employees are involved for personal and social growth. This is essential to motivate employees and keep them excited for what’s next. 

• Learning and Onboarding

Gamified training can keep learners interested right from the start at the onboarding process. Employees start at the beginner level and advance as they grow in their understanding of the company’s regulations and processes. This gives them perspective about their involvement in the company. 

• Adapt to Change

Human competitive spirit coupled with the excitement and desire to progress in the levels of a game and more importantly, the company. This keeps them engaged throughout and thus helps smoothen the process of adapting to changes.

• Alignment with organisational goals

Gamification is the best way to promote desired behaviours that lead to organisational goals. It connects employees and companies through objectives that align with organisational values. 

How Multiversity can help you with gamification for organisational development?

At multiversity we work with brands to build robust, microlearning, gamified solutions for an immersive learning experience. Over the last few years, we have built multiple gamification solutions for leading businesses across the globe. With quick bursts of specified information and various interactive learning experiences, we encourage the thrill of Interactive learning, 

Prepare for your future today with forward-thinking tactics and technologies with us at Multiversity. 

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