Traditionally, the meaning of Gamification is nothing but, a usage of gaming techniques, mechanics and thinking in a non gaming context. If we go a little deep from work point of view then, in simple words Gamification at work is to make work more fun and interesting.
Understanding Gamification in the Workplace:
Gamification is becoming a trending concept and is widely used by many big organizations. also the concept of gamification has been incorporated in many eLearning strategies.
Bringing the concept of gamification to the workplace is very beneficial. It is a unique way of bringing game-oriented thinking and identifying the fun part in the work. This is what inspires the employee to complete their work on time without much stress.
Gamification at Work:
But, before that, employers and hr personnel got to know that, what the basic types of users that you would often encounter.
Further based on that, your programs can be implemented. So based on those pointers there are 4 types of basic categories of users namely –
1. The achievers:
These are those types of users who like to achieve, grabbing points, traveling different levels, collecting bonus gifts and so on. Single-player games interest them more than multiplayer ones.
2. The explorers:
As the name suggests, they like to explore more. Finding places, going through maps, reaching destinations interests them more than anything else moreover they feel restricted when the game doesn’t provides them the privileged to move and explore on themselves.
3. The social lovers:
There joy lies in socializing with people and the aspect that they love is of interaction. The fact that in a virtual world they meet someone adds up to their interest level. Dress up games; make up games interest them a lot.
4. The killers:
These types of users love to have a power-packed action game. There they get a chance to fight with a computerized opponent and save the day for people thus, these games give them a chance to add action in their normal life.
A Forbes article in 2013 stated that 70% of Forbes global, 2000 companies are planning to adopt Gamification.
As reported by Pew research centre, 53% of respondents agreed that advancement will come into place if Gamification is adapted by 2020.
These individuals shared an equal belief on the fact that – Gamification would be able to play a greater kind of role in everyday activities.
Gamification generates immediate feedback and engages the user appropriately. However, there are several things that an organization needs to know before taking a step further towards its implementation.
Now, that you are aware of what types of users you would get to see the plan of the program has to be accordingly. Here are the steps that are supposed to be kept in mind for implementing the program–
The Psychology Theory Behind Gamification at Work:
Before applying any strategy it is very important to understand its work performance and all the concepts related to it. The prime reason of successful inclusion of gamification at work is dependent on mainly 3 factors, they are
- Recognition
- Sense of competition
- Reward
Now all these factors also form an important part to improve employee engagement for the betterment of the employee. The whole concept lies in the merging of technology with the productivity factor laying along with the gaming mechanics.
Another important benefit of applying gamification at work is that it helps in taking better decisions at work and also upholds a great platform for achieving success in the professional front.
” Gamification is 75% psychology and 25% technology” – Gabe Zichermann, Gamification by Design”
The success of gamification tool relies on 3 important works
- Providing motivation for an employee to perform the task
- Applying strategy to break bigger works into small parts
- Finally executing the task and completing the work
Future of Work: Using Gamification in the Workplace:
1. Understanding your users:
There are different types of users with respect to the departments. Understanding these users and their needs are important.
There are different aspects that you have to take into your consideration like:
- What interests them
- What doesn’t interests them
- What would motivate them
- What is the unique selling feature and so on.
2. Use the right feature:
Using the right feature is important to yield an accurate result. The whole idea might go wrong if the features are misplaced.
To give an instance – using a competitive feature to motivate in a department which requires teamwork and collaborative effort might fail to throw the desired impact.
Hence it is important to understand and analyze the nature of the user and environment.
3. Transparency:
Transparency is vital if you wish the process must turn out to be a success. An employee must know the rules, he or she must know what his or her aim is and what is expected.
Otherwise, he or she won’t be able to give a better performance. Thus, transparency is important.
4. Should be positive:
The design should be such that it will encourage employees and not bring him to shame.
It should be positive, making and influencing employees that success is possible. The set up of the environment must be positive providing rewards for the progress.
5. Easy on the interface:
It is vital for setup programs to be user-friendly. They should be designed in such a way that it becomes easier on the part of the operation.
If the programs happen to be tough to understand, then the entire idea of Gamification would falter.
6. Respecting the culture:
There are different cultures that are breeding under office culture. Different industries demand different culture and thus, the Gamification of work has to be something that is related to the office culture.
Keeping a set up that doesn’t suit with the culture might just fail to connect with the employees.
7. Law and Privacy:
Every country and state has a law and policies that the company has to adhere to.
The Gamification at work should be such that, it shouldn’t violate the law and policy and at the same time privacy of the user should be respected.
8. The factor called Novelty:
People are fancied for novelty. If the programs are kept unchanged for a long period of time, chances are more likely that employees would soon become least bothered about it. So, it is essential to keep the newness alive always.
9. Keeping the pace:
Keeping pace with new technology is highly essential if you want your people to get hooked and attracted to the new system that you have introduced for them.
An outdated system might not wonder them and hence in order to keep the interest level high, you must keep the pace with changing technology.
Users can get timely feedback due to the usage of game mechanics and techniques. Gamification at the workplace enhances the performance of the employees.
In the end, it brings back the interest of a user or employee through its creative charm. This is one of the ways of making work much more fun and enjoyable.
Examples of Gamification in the Workplace:
Sample -1:
“A fitness business or any personal training may extend their hold to clients just by providing different virtual individual training and assistance, incorporating a versatile application to screen body effort level, improve the structure and deal with the number of reps to completely coordinate the clients’ wellness level.
To give some examples of wellness applications that are as of now utilizing the incredible gamification idea to guarantee fitness fun are Zombies, Run! and Superhero Workout“.
Sample -2:
“Coca-cola incorporated the component of the game plan in 2006, urging shoppers to gather their points and get compensated with energizing prizes. They incorporated gamification as a feature of their prevalent ‘My Coke Rewards’ battle and they could finally engage around 20m lifetime individuals in the long run”.
Conclusion:
Gamification is the future of work; it is embracing the pressure of work with a creative medium. It things are programmed properly then this can provide a better kind of positive impact, while larger companies are planning to adopt this system gradually this will be taken in by medium-sized companies as well.
So where are you heading in your quest of creativity? Are you ready to mix the play with your work?
