Why Some Brands Refrain from Engaging with Mobile Games and Gamification in Serious Business Processes
In recent years, mobile games and gamification have shown the potential to revolutionize various business processes by enhancing engagement, productivity, and motivation.
However, despite their promise, many brands remain hesitant to integrate these concepts into serious business functions such as Human Resources (HR), Supply Chain Management (SCM), Legal, Sales, and Marketing.
This article explores the reasons behind this reluctance, highlighting the undeniable benefits that gamification can bring to these critical areas.
- Perceived Lack of Professionalism Explanation: Gamification and mobile games are often associated with entertainment and leisure. Introducing these elements into serious business processes is trivializing important functions. Impact: HR departments might worry that gamified training programs could undermine the seriousness of employee development. Similarly, legal teams could be concerned about maintaining the formal integrity of their work.
- Concerns About Effectiveness Explanation: There is scepticism about whether gamification can deliver sustainable business results. Some fear that the novelty might wear off, leading to decreased engagement over time. Impact: Sales and marketing teams might question the long-term benefits of gamified campaigns, while SCM managers might see gamification as a potential distraction from their precision-focused operations.
- Complexity and Implementation Costs Explanation: Developing and implementing gamified solutions can be complex and expensive. The investment required may not seem justifiable if the ROI is uncertain. Impact: HR departments might find the costs of gamifying employee performance reviews prohibitive, and SCM might face significant IT investments to integrate gamification into their processes.
- Resistance to Change Explanation: Established corporate cultures are often resistant to new and untested methods. This resistance can be particularly strong in larger organizations with deeply rooted traditional practices. Impact: Legal and HR departments might be slow to adopt gamification due to their reliance on long-standing practices and the potential disruption that new methods could cause.
- Data Security and Privacy Concerns Explanation: Gamification involves collecting and analyzing user data to personalize experiences and track progress. This raises significant concerns about data security and privacy. Impact: HR departments may be wary of the extensive data collection required for gamified performance tracking, while legal teams might fear potential data breaches and misuse.
- Regulatory and Compliance Issues Explanation: In regulated industries, compliance with legal and industry standards is crucial. Gamification can introduce challenges in ensuring all activities meet these stringent requirements. Impact: SCM and legal departments must ensure that gamified processes comply with international trade regulations and industry standards, adding complexity to their adoption.
Undeniable Benefits of Gamification
Despite these challenges, gamification offers several compelling benefits that can enhance serious business processes:
- Increased Engagement and Motivation HR: Gamified training and onboarding programs can make learning more interactive and enjoyable, leading to higher engagement and retention rates. Sales: Gamified sales competitions and leaderboards can motivate sales teams to achieve targets by fostering a healthy sense of competition.
- Enhanced Learning and Development HR: Gamification can turn mundane training sessions into interactive experiences, improving knowledge retention and skill development. Legal: Gamified compliance training can make understanding complex regulations more accessible and engaging for employees.
- Improved Performance Tracking HR: Gamified performance management systems can provide real-time feedback and personalized development plans, helping employees improve continuously. SCM: Gamification can optimize supply chain processes by incentivizing timely and accurate reporting, leading to better overall performance.
- Strengthened Collaboration and Team Building Marketing: Gamified team-building exercises can enhance collaboration and creativity, leading to more innovative marketing strategies. SCM: Gamified collaboration tools can improve coordination among supply chain partners, leading to more efficient operations.
- Customer Engagement and Loyalty Sales and Marketing: Gamified customer loyalty programs can increase brand engagement and retention by rewarding customers for their interactions and purchases.
- Better Data Collection and Analysis HR: Gamified surveys and feedback tools can provide richer insights into employee satisfaction and areas for improvement. Marketing: Gamification can enhance data collection from customer interactions, providing valuable insights for targeted marketing campaigns.
