Imagine you are sitting Infront of a desk with a monitor and peripheral devices, you have the usual office stress and anxiety and one of your colleagues cooks up an idea of integrating games into your office work.
This “idea” is known as Gamification. This article has been ideally formulated and it starts from the definition and then discusses the purpose of gamification, its aspects in professional learning and how it affects the employees. If you continue reading, you will find yourself in the section where we discuss its importance, and the ways it can be implemented in the workplace. At the last, you will be enlightened with the real-life examples and how gamification made companies better in performance.
What is Gamification?
Gamification is the practice of incorporating game concepts into nongame surroundings such as a web page, social network, educational management system, or company network in order to improve involvement.
Purpose
Gamification’s purpose is to engage customers, employees, and partners in order to motivate them to work together, share, and engage.
Gamification in Professional Learning.
Gamification in professional learning is a powerful strategy for engaging and motivating employees or students. By incorporating game elements and mechanics into learning activities, employers can create an environment that encourages active participation, knowledge retention, and skill development.
How in Professional Learning?
Many businesses use gamification to develop internal competitions in order to promote an aura of positive competitiveness in their employees. Gamification may make your staff feel thrilled about learning a new subject by using points, stages, and rewards as additional incentive.
Gamification – Employees
Work gamification is a simple however efficient way of engaging and encouraging workers throughout non-game operations. It may additionally render those boring things on the list that need to be done more enjoyable.
Think about how keen your teams are on taking part in necessary courses on issues such as good work if they can earn scores and incentives along the way. Leaderboards, rankings, and medals are examples of gamification ideas.
Importance Of Gamification
The author of the book The Gamification Revolution, Gabe Zichermann, once said,
” When you reward customers for engaging in fun, easy activities, they engage more often and more deeply,”
Moreover, the statistics say that 55% of the Americans are looking for employment opportunities only for the company that uses gamification to increase efficiency.
Gamification allows students to successfully use their talents and connect lectures to real-world challenges. As a result, gamification can dramatically improve the learning process by providing students with beneficial feedback in an enjoyable and captivating manner.
Now after the definitions, the importance and its effect, let’s discuss how it can be effectively used in Professional Learning.
Important Note
For gamification to successfully increase employee engagement, the employee should be familiar with the game and know the rules of the game, see if the game is fair, and understand the game properly. Without these, there is a lack of interest and therefore no employee engagement or motivation.
Ways It Can Be Used in Professional Learning
– Points, Badges, and Leaderboards – Friendly Rivalry.
Introducing a system centered around points in which employees receive points for fulfilling learning activities or reaching specified milestones can foster a sense of achievement and competition. Badges can be rewarded for completing particular stages of learning, and rankings can be utilized to highlight the top achievers, encouraging friendly rivalry among staff.
– True Motivation – Progression and Phases.
The real source or the true boost of motivation comes only when you see yourself improving or leveling up. We all have experienced leveling up a game and progressing through each stage and earning the rewards, it’s truly a different kind of happiness.
Therefore, create learning programmes which enable individuals to advance via levels or phases while they gain novel skills and information. As employees progress, accessing fresh material or difficulties can create a sense of success and encouragement to keep learning.
– Storytelling and Narrative – Characters
Integrating dramatic aspects into learning sessions can improve their engagement and relatability. Employees are able to connect with learning content on a more profound level and will find it more engaging if situations, characters, and stories match practical difficulties.
– Regular Challenges and Rewards
To completely get the employee’s interest and engagement, daily challenges and rewards such as spin-to-win or scratch-to-win. These types of rewards radiate the vibes of an arcade store and attract employees on a different level. Time restraint quizzes, mini-challenges, or short-term contests can all be used to encourage employees to take an interest in and participate throughout the learning process.
Now, let’s have a look at how gamification leads companies to a boost in productivity.
Examples Of Gamification in Real Life
Technology based businesses are utilizing game mechanics concepts to improve employee performance. Exploring many ways, implementing ones that work, and improving those which fail to achieve the intended outcomes.
Target – Boosting Performance
According to this article, RedCritter Tracker, Playcall, and Arcaris are a few instances where gamification management applications were used to boost performance.
Gamification was utilized by Target to increase cashier consciousness of their efficacy. Target motivated staff members by making the checkout process more game-like, encouraging them to get into a rhythm while cashing out clients.
The Ford Motor Company – Canada
Bunchball assisted the Ford Motor Company throughout Canada when they wanted its customer service and sales employees to become acquainted with new automobile models, options, technology, and finance programmes. The use of Ford’s training platform (Learning Management System – LMS) increased by 417%. Its younger audience members were particularly engaged. As a result, consumer happiness improved and revenues increased. This training program can also be used as an example of professional learning through gamification. Due to this, the young audience was kept engaged and due to the prices and rewards, it was also regularly motivated.
Summarized
It is critical to keep in mind that gamification must be carefully planned, with particular goals for learning in mind. The gaming components and mechanisms should enhance rather than overpower the learning process. Employers may create an exciting and motivating atmosphere that supports ongoing development and advancement among their employees by implementing gamification tactics into professional learning.
