The Goal of workplace gamification is not different than that of performance management. It is only the definition of Work Gamification that differs.
According to Arthur Carmazzi, the definition of work gamification is: “The systematic creation of positive motivation structures that trigger and maintain excitement and interest in applying personal talents and innovation for the achievement of organizational goals…and for people to enjoy it.”
Why work gamification – statistics from examples
- An article in SHRM shares “Since introducing gamification, Kettner said the number of calls, opportunities those calls generate, and new customers that have signed up for Cato’s products and services have increased by more than 35 percent.” and continues with “Brennan said 30 percent of his company’s clients have adopted gamification to boost worker performance and learning capabilities.”
- In its November 2012 press release, Gartner predicts that “by 2015, 40% of Global 1000 organizations will use gamification as the primary mechanism to transform business operations. In the same report, they also predict that – “by 2014, 80% of current gamified applications will fail to meet business objectives, primarily due to poor design”.
- According to Gethppy, Only 31.5% of US employees are found to be fully engaged at work – a figure that dips amongst millennials, and with millennials set to become 75% of the global workforce by 2027, gamification could be the solution to keep employees as enthusiastic about their work as they are about Pokémon Go.
- According to Badgeville, a leading supplier of workplace gamification, some companies have raised user engagement by 40%.
- Gamification is 80% psychology and 20% technology according to Arthur Carmazzi a system that affects an individual’s sense of value and self-worth creating a regular sense of anticipation will be successful, technology only makes it easier in his Work Gamification book: GAME ON – Reinventing Organizational Culture with Gamification
- As per the MarketsandMarkets report, the worldwide gamification industry is likely to be valued at around $ 11.1 billion by the end of 2020, right from $ 1.65 billion in the year 2015.
GAMIFICATION SUCCESS FACTOR 1 – Recognition is only a small part of work gamification
Gamified work processes and employee engagement are traditionally focused on employee recognition… but the root cause of motivation is not “being recognized” but feeling a sense of personal value. While recognition definitely plays a role in that sense of value, one of the reasons for gamification failure is the weight placed on recognition and missing out on the rest.
The key to gamified fulfillment is the creation of emotional gratifications in Personal Achievement, a sense of Belonging, a sense of Challenge and to make anything fun, you need to include the element of diversity… making the gamified process different than the normal state of being or working.
this means we must go beyond the leaderboard to create a simple but emotionally gratifying gamified user experience
GAMIFICATION SUCCESS FACTOR 2 – Diversity gamification elements must include THEMES
If you think surfing is fun, you are probably not a surf instructor, even the most fun thing becomes commonplace when you are doing it consistently. So to succeed and improve employee engagement through gamification, changing it up with superheroes, secret agents, pirates… or whatever flips our cookie Is going to be an essential part of the gamified process.
Creating diversity must be included throughout the user experience. For example, if you are creating a pirate theme, you don’t earn points, you earn pieces of eight and doubloons. You start as a Meity and work your way up to captain. overcoming obstacles is BLOWING THEM OUT OF THE WATER! Teams are ships and departments are territories… the theme includes the language… using the terminology itself reinforces the game and its objectives.
GAMIFICATION SUCCESS FACTOR 3 – The importance of Resurrection
Gamification in the workplace can go very wrong if only the same people keep winning and it seems like the elements of gamification do not support others to advance and win. According to Arthur Carmazzi’s Work Gamification Index as described in his book Game On, work gamification techniques achieve the best results in employee motivation when everyone has a chance to win.
This is achieved by applying resurrection and multiple “lists” in Gamification Elements and processes.
The inclusion of a limited time in game mechanics before a “restart” or resurrection, begins an opportunity for others who may not have a full set of competencies but have high potential, to achieve a level of win state.
The challenge is to find way to help people win, even a little and this can be done with lists. Lets say one of the measurements is a leaderboard that addresses the full scope of the behavior objectives, but let’s say innovation-related behaviors are also a part of the bigger picture. While users/teammates may not be able to get enough scores to be on the mainboard, they can be on the Innovation board and can feel a sense of making progress and ultimately pursue higher levels of competency.
These 3 examples of gamification Impact Employee Productivity and can also be enhance is a mobile app designed for work gamification. Squadli is a gamification app that can support the benefits of gamification by measuring behaviors and even include peer to peer measurement to expand the employee experience for gamifying work-related tasks
