How Gamification Can Take Your Business to the Next Level

How Gamification Can Take Your Business to the Next Level

The workplace is no place for games, right? Not anymore. Gamification, an idea originally created as a way for brands to incentivize and encourage consumers to engage, has entered the enterprise level.

As a younger generation, armed with their smartphones full of games and apps, enter the workforce, many employers are finding new ways to incentivize, train, and challenge their staff.

So What’s This Gamification All About?

Gamification is adding game-like experiences to non-game apps, services, and processes. This can be applied to various different industries, but gamification as a business tool is how the term has become more than just a buzzword. The hours spent training new and current employees on procedures, processes, and technology is extensive.

It can be consuming for human resource departments, and most employees just try to find a way to suffer through and get the information they need. There’s also rarely a great way to test employees on the subjects covered. But building on a layer of gamification to training, using the ideas of game theory and game mechanics, can make a training session challenging, interactive, and rewarding. Tasks don’t just become an endless checklist — they are a way to get to the next level.

This also creates a new challenge for HR professionals. How do you make training and the workplace more engaging? It’s a new way to look at employee skills, retention, and ongoing instruction. And it can only lead to improved experiences in the workplace.

Play for Pay

Companies such as Hilton Garden Inn have created interactive, 3D training programs for employees. BankersLab created a simulation-based experience for bankers to learn lending strategies. Companies are helping employees to learn real skills, simulating real experiences, and doing it in an entertaining environment.

A recent study by Deloitte said,

[quote]It’s a trend [gamification] that analysts claim will be in 25 percent of redesigned business processes by 2015, will grow to more than a $2.8 billion business by 2016, and will have 70 percent of Global 2000 businesses managing at least one “gamified” application or system by 2014.[/quote]

Gamification can be incorporated into the workplace by using a variety of tools:

  • Badges
  • Leaderboards
  • Progress Bars
  • Virtual Currency
  • Point Systems
  • Feedback and social interactions

Find Inspiration for Your Enterprise Games

Current games and applications available on any mobile marketplace can provide a wide range of ideas for adding a layer of gamification to your organization. Download and play the top games. See how you are instantly rewarded for the right moves, how getting to the next level gives you a sense of accomplishment, and how the game showcases that you’ve made a mistake.

Study how the games pull you in by showcasing what level you are currently at, and how the higher levels are displayed in a way that makes you want to reach them. These apps are rich with ideas and built on concepts that can make your employees lead scorers.

Chris Luck is the CEO and Founder of Appiteks, a company that produces iPhone apps. Appiteks launched its first game in October 2012, Boomie vs. Pirates. The game reached the Top 100 Free Puzzles and Top 100 Free Action games on the iTunes App Store in its first week. Chris has had a passion for games since he was a little kid and is excited to have the ability to continue the dream of building games and placing them into the hands of millions of people all over the world.

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