Gamification At Work: How Games Can Increase Employee Engagement
What Is Gamification?
Broadly defined, gamification is the use of game-like thinking in non-game environments.
Think back to the days of 5th grade history class. It may not have been especially exciting at the time, but if you were lucky, your teacher made the mundane textbook quizzes more memorable by adding one amazing incentive: candy.
Incentives and motivators are one way to gamify non-game environments.
Now think about your LinkedIn account and the “profile progress bar” that was once only 70% complete. Although this may not seem like a game, LinkedIn uses the game-like progress bar as an incentive to complete your profile.
From teachers to Fortune 500 companies, gamification continues to be one of the most successful ways to increase audience engagement.
Games At Work.
So maybe you don’t have the downtown office with beer on tap and 2pm ping-pong tournaments, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have fun at work. Games are a way to create a positive company culture while also increasing engagement in the workplace.
For example, instead of measuring employee progress on an spreadsheet and presenting the data during their annual review, create progress bars, badges, and fun weekly incentives.
According to Fast Company, “Spotify and LivingSocial have already replaced traditional reviews with mobile and gamified versions and reported that 90% of employees are voluntarily participating in the programs.”
The Numbers.
According to a recent Gallup report, only 13 percent of employees are engaged in their job, meaning that 87% of employees are either “not engaged or indifferent—or even worse, actively disengaged and potentially hostile—to their organizations.”
Considering these statistics and the fact that 183 million Americans are active gamers, now may be the perfect time to insert games and incentives in the workplace.
Check out the event games High Attendance clients use to engage their audiences.
