The era of Workspace gamification has finally arrived

The arena of workspace gamification is nothing new, but it seems as if more organisations are starting to see the benefits of implementing immediate and certain consequences management as a strategy to achieve long-term sustainable benefits. Virgin Active just announced their new Quest Points Incentive program to motivate members to stay motivated to exercise regularly. Callan Sexton, Exercise Director at Virgin Active South Africa writes that we need more than just the knowledge that something is good for us to keep us motivated. That is where gamification with regular and progressive incentives comes into play.

At Good 2 Great People we have toyed with the idea over the last 10 years, but only since the start of COVID, did we see significant positive results in our application of gamification principles in the workspace. We replaced our conventional performance management systems with a dynamic and digital Employee Engagement Live Leaderboard System and are proud to report that our customers have seen a rapid change in employee behaviours regarding productivity and teamwork. ?

Backed by peer nominations, employees receive instant recognition, coaching, and immediate feedback. This is achieved via a system where employees accumulate points for displaying target-driven behaviour. Monthly rewards in the form of Shoprite Checkers shopping vouchers are sent to the mobile devices of all employees who manage to accumulate enough points to earn special recognition. Monthly points add up to an annual score which is used to inform salary increases and relevant quarterly and/or annual performance rewards. Company branded clothing is issued to employees for achieving long-term performance milestones with great symbolism and status linked to each level.

The one critical business number that matters most in a financial year is included in the Employee Engagement Live leaderboard. This keeps everyone informed and is used to facilitate business understanding to the lowest level of the organisation. We all know the expression that business is like a game. There is a goal, there are rules, a scorecard, and consequences involved for winning and losing. It is still a huge challenge for many organisations to share business results with employees. It all boils down to what extend management is willing to apply transparency and the willingness to facilitate business understanding throughout the organisation. Most companies are quick to talk about transparency, an open-door policy, and that they are one team working together, but only to observe that these are empty words. Most of the time the goal is clear to all, the rules are well defined, but management and employees look at two different scorecards. Just imagine the trust created when management and employees can look at, and understand the same scorecard!

Click on the YouTube link below to get a quick overview of one of our Live employee engagement designs which have been successfully rolled out in different industries.

https://youtu.be/TYRKtL3WqDM