Game mechanics are the rules and systems that make a game engaging and fun. They can also be used to motivate and inspire employees to learn new skills, take on new challenges, and grow in their careers. In this article, you will discover how game mechanics can enhance employee development and performance, and how to apply them in your own workplace.
Game mechanics can help employees develop in a variety of ways, such as providing them with clear goals and feedback, creating a balance between challenge and reward, fostering a growth mindset, and building a sense of community. Through game mechanics, employees can set and track their own goals, receive immediate and constructive feedback, and celebrate their achievements. In addition, they can find the optimal level of challenge that matches their skills and interests, as well as receive meaningful rewards. Furthermore, game mechanics can help employees embrace failure as a learning opportunity, experiment with different strategies, and seek feedback and improvement. Finally, they can collaborate and compete with others, share their achievements and challenges, and receive support and recognition from the community.
Encouraging individuals to earn rewards for exemplary work is a victory from my perspective. It not only grants them the acknowledgment they deserve from their peers but also provides an avenue to strive for objectives that could, in turn, lead to additional incentives such as cash bonuses or points within a reward system. These points can subsequently be redeemed for tangible items, allowing individuals to acquire things they desire or require. When there's an opportunity to receive valuable rewards for a job well done, it serves as a powerful motivator, inspiring folks to go the extra mile to ensure the excellence of their work.
If you want to use game mechanics in your workplace, you need to design and implement a gamified system that aligns with your organizational goals, culture, and values. To do this, first identify your objectives and metrics. What do you want to achieve with gamification? How will you measure its impact and effectiveness? After that, define your target audience and behavior. Who are your employees and what do they need and want? What behavior do you want to encourage or change? Then choose the game mechanics and elements that will motivate and reward your employees. How will they fit with your objectives, audience, and behavior? Finally, implement and test your gamified system. How will you communicate it to your employees and get their feedback? How will you test and refine it to ensure its quality and effectiveness?
Peer reward systems like WorkTango is a great example of this type of system that I first hand have seen work wonderfully within multiple studios I have worked for. It allows employees to have a point pool every quarter. Points = money in the end. You hand out points to your teammates for doing a good job, helping you on something, helping someone else, having a great idea in a meeting, etc... It is just a great way to allow employees to give their peers a bit more encouragement and after some time they can cash out for cool rewards. Great system.
Game mechanics can be used to encourage employees to take on new challenges in different contexts. For instance, a sales team can use a gamified system that awards points for completing sales-related tasks such as making calls, sending emails, or closing deals. These points can be used to unlock badges, levels, or rewards like gift cards, bonuses, or training opportunities. It can also feature a leaderboard that displays the top performers and their achievements, creating a friendly competition and recognition among the team members. Additionally, a learning platform can use a gamified system that offers quests, challenges, and feedback for learners to acquire new skills and knowledge. For innovation platforms, gamified systems invite employees to submit and vote on ideas for improving the organization's products, services, or processes. Rewards like points, badges, or recognition are given for their participation and contribution with feedback and support from experts and managers. Finally, the best ideas are showcased along with their impact and employees can collaborate and iterate on their solutions.
We have developed gamification software for sales agents and the results were excellent. Having visuals, incentives and friendly competition amongst co-workers is a force to be reckoned with. I am surprised that more organizations are not using gamified solutions in the workplace.
At game studios, team participation in regular playtests can be a challenge. Increase engagement with "missions" or "quests" associated with the playtest. For example, to test a particular enemy, a quest could be "Kill [#] of [this] enemy type." Integrating these activities into the game would be ideal, as it can also come in handy when you are running external playtests. However, if there's no easy way to do this inside the game, then completion could be on the honor system. To reward completion, you can enter participants in a lottery for a gift card, or another reward that is appealing for both on-site and remote employees. To foster friendly competition, post playtest stats to an internal leaderboard (ie "Most playtests completed")
These systems apply to customers as well as employees. For example the Starbucks rewards system is a great example of a gamified rewards system that many people use daily.