A recent survey found that 8 out of 10 employees are stressed at work. Take time to truly reflect on that; 80% of the workforce is having trouble finding constant happiness within their current workplace. It’s shocking to think that the majority of people will have worked from college on to obtain a career within their industry, only to feel dissatisfied when they reach their desired position.
So, how are companies dealing with employees being stressed at work? Well, enterprises are experimenting with gamification to motivate their employees. In fact, it’s predicted that over 70% of Global 2000 companies will have at least one gamified platform that will be used for employees.
What is gamification?
In case you aren’t familiar with the term, gamification is the use of game-thinking and game mechanics in a non-game context to engage users and/or solve problems. Gamification means involving the use of mechanics to attain certain behaviour or achieve a purpose. Gamification means using the internal desire of a person to compete with others inside the office, or home or anywhere else. An instance can be the McDonald’s Monopoly sticker game or Emirates Skywards. Collecting stickers or points to encourage a customer to buy more of the product or any other goals the company may have in mind.
Gamification uses feelings and motivations that come naturally to people such as achievements, rewards, status, competition, self-expression and co-creation. Gamification then uses points, badges, levels and various challenges to make better use of these motivations. Companies have applied gamification within their apps or websites as a way to engage customers with their brand or product. Allowing customers to earn points, rewards, and most importantly recognition within online communities.
Using game dynamics, companies will be able to motivate their employees. More importantly, employees will be able to have some fun at work. That being said, gamification will be able to influence workplaces in a variety of ways. Here are a few:
Gamification creates less stressful environments
No surprise here, when people play games, they find themselves having fun. Now, if a company were to apply game dynamics to certain aspects of an employee’s job…what do you think will happen? That’s right, they’ll have fun doing their job. Gamified work apps will have the ability to motivate people to have a lot of fun doing the jobs that they’ve grown accustomed to.
An excellent small-scale example would be a story that I heard from one of the speakers at the gamification summit in San Francisco this past year. The speaker shared a story of how he applied a game dynamic at his first job at a restaurant. He and his colleague would race to see who could wash the most dishes in a set amount of time. The winner would buy drinks that night. So they’d keep tabs throughout the night and speed through their work.
It’s a very simple (boring) task really, but they treated plates as their point system and drinks as their reward. Through this, they were able to do their job more efficiently, and they eventually got praised by their management for being hard workers…when in actuality they were two young men just having fun. So, although I may not have the numbers to back this (yet), I do believe that if employees are having fun at their job (especially while getting recognised), the work environment will naturally be less stressful.
Social atmosphere
Games naturally bring out a social side to us humans unlike anything else. Sports, board games, video games all allow us to interact with others just for the purpose of having fun. Online computer gaming is quite a phenomenon if you think about it. It’s an act that people usually do in solitude, but within a split second, you can be connected to millions of people playing the same game. All for the sole purpose of working together and accomplishing silly tasks (like killing zombies). Gamification will naturally lead people to have a social atmosphere.
People will be motivated to work together to figure out problems within their workplace. Imagine having people earn points and rewards for doing something as simple as meeting a deadline early? More than that, earning recognition and respect from peers has proven to be even more motivating than any tangible reward.
Intrinsic motivation to complete tasks
Why do you keep going back to playing games? You feel motivated and happy to do so. Gamified apps will create behaviours leading people to feel intrinsically motivated to complete tasks.
Aside from getting work done efficiently, the real benefit to an employee who is intrinsically motivated to complete tasks is that they’ll be happy. Although it may not sound like much, consider that 80% of one of the largest workforces on the planet claim to be stressed at work.
If a person is intrinsically motivated to do work, they’ll not only deliver high-quality work but also create a less stressful and social atmosphere through the good vibes that they’ll be providing. People shouldn’t have to feel stressed at work. Gamify the office experience and create a fantastic atmosphere around your office. What are your thoughts on gamification? Do you believe it’ll be a highly effective tool to diminish stress at work, or at least influence the work environment?
Ways gamification can be applied in the workplace
1. Grab attention
With loads of businesses launching products annually, businesses need to be louder to grasp the attention of the customer. A simple product launch or advertisement cannot achieve success. The business could employ Gamification to catch the attention of the customer and make the business a better choice over its competitors. They can also use Gamification within their workplace to pique the interest of their employees and engage them.
2. Encourage engagement
Once you have the attention of the customer or employee, you need to explain the game to them in an easy way and show them the benefits it holds for them. Once this is done, the business can focus on the motive they have for Gamification.
3. Boost productivity
Gamification can bring in fun and competition into the workplace that is healthy for the organisational performance. Hanging a leader board in the office can boost competition and increase productivity. The person who tops the leader board for a month should be rewarded.
4. Enhance sales
Gamification can help increase the sales of a company by enticing the customers to buy more products or encourage employees to reach more sales goals. Various reward points encourage customers to buy more, hence the increase in sales. As far as the employees are concerned, creating a reward system can motivate them to reach their sales goals for the week or month.
5. Amplify lead generation
Not only is Gamification beneficial in terms of current customers, but it also increases lead generation. A game that has some rewards after some challenges may attract more customers that a deal that does not do so.
6. Develop customer loyalty
Gamification motivates a customer to come back to the business. Therefore, the resultant loyalty is very beneficial for the business. If a customer likes gathering points on Emirates Skywards and is close to gaining a free flight if he adds a few more, he will come for his next flight to Emirates.
7. Improve social media commitment
Using Gamification also helps a business if it uses social media platform for rewarding the customer in some way. For instance, a firm can offer a free basket of their goodies to one of those who likes or shares their post. It also increases the exposure of the Facebook page to new audiences.
8. Perk up customers’ product knowledge
Posting a video or article that needs to be read to get the customer a level-up can help a business by making customers more aware. This upsurges the chances of a word of mouth chain by their customers.
9. Complement customer service
An increase in complaints and after-sales calls from customers can use up a firm’s time and resources. More knowledgeable customers can help others out with their know-how of the product.
10. Promote additional reviews
Customer reviews can make or break a business. They also help other customers out by showing how the product was useful and whether they would use it again. A firm could offer rewards for one out of the numerous customers it has for leaving an honest review.