Gamification refers to the use of game-playing techniques in a non-game context.
What are the goals of this technique?
It is about engaging with people, solving real-life problems, improving an offer, increasing productivity, fostering collaboration, etc.
Nevertheless, a distinction should be made between gamification oriented towards the general public, customers, prospects and gamification operations designed for an internal audience, i.e. employees.
Games have long been an essential part of our society. The first examples of gamification date back to the 1980s, with the emergence of airline loyalty programs. Today, there are many other such examples: Nike+; Runkeeper; Panini card collections; Duolingo; etc. Nor is it about to stop: it is estimated that the global gaming market will reach USD 10.2 billion by 2020.
All these examples follow a pretty simple principle: the more you run/buy/learn, the more points you collect/the higher the level you reach. In other words, it is about encouraging you to go always further, pushing you to compare yourself to someone or something else (with friends, or with the dream of having the complete Panini album).
Manage your teams like never before! That is the promise made by gamification in the workplace.
This combination of game techniques with business goals encourages employees to excel, in a motivating and fun environment.
How does this concept work?
Gamification is seen as a way of making relationships among employees more “fun”; of cultivating interest for your products; of finding that little interactive extra which will transform your traditional, and somewhat stale meetings into creative outbursts. More and more companies are developing employee gamification platforms. Gamification offers a great many possibilities for taking a new approach to long-standing, unsolved issues.
The best part is, it does not require any form of internal restructuring, massive hiring or massive undertaking of any kind.
Gamification also enables managers to get to know their teams better. Plato once said: “You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.” This only goes to show that Plato was a great pioneer of gamification.
Motivate your employees and make them buy into a corporate project, a strategy, values, etc.
These are key performance factors, and gamification is an efficient way to reach them.
From a sales point of view, for example, gamification can help boost performance and productivity and increase turnover.
If a sales representative is only one phone call away from moving on to the next level in the game, the chances are he or she will make that call before going home tonight.
“I don’t even know the people who work downstairs”, “there is no communication between sales and marketing”, etc.
If this is something you have heard before, then you need an inter-departmental game.
Gamification feeds off of the competitiveness and cooperation between teams.
Numerous studies carried out among employees regularly indicate that their main frustration is the lack of recognition.
Without even talking about the rewards which often go hand in hand with games, gamification can reveal unseen qualities of certain employees, who will feel valued and appreciated.
It’s a win-win.