The power of gamification makes it a business requirement

61% of US companies are now leveraging the power of gamification… Are you doing it too?

Do you ever ask your kids to do chores? If they start dragging their feet, do you ever change a game by timing them? See how their excitement immediately increases? Adults are pretty much the same. We respond much more positively to tasks when they are associated with a challenge, competition, praise, or reward. His human nature. Like the proverbial carrot on a stick, extrinsic motivation is very effective at increasing participation and productivity. Entrepreneur and experience designer Yu-kai Chou says that to successfully gamify an activity, it must tap into at least one of the eight core drivers of human motivation. :

• Epic meaning and calling
• Development and performance
• Empowerment of creativity and feedback
• Ownership and Possession
• Social influence and connection
• Scarcity and impatience
• Unpredictability and curiosity
• Loss and avoidance

The best companies are capitalizing on this and using technology to get more out of their employees or to increase customer engagement. This is known as gamification: the application of game mechanics to everyday activities with the aim of driving people’s behavior.

Benefits of gamification

The power of gamification is clear: 90% of employees indicate that gamification makes them more productive at work. On average, employees experience a 48% increase in engagement with a gamified work experience. Organizations that integrate gamification reportedly see a profit increase of up to seven times that of their counterparts. The exact effects of gamification are enormous. A survey of 500 companies found that 30% of employees felt more engaged as a result of gamification. Unsurprisingly, the majority (61%) of US companies now use some form of gamification to train their people.

Elements of gamification

The following five P’s are the most common game elements in successful products:

1. Goal
   This instills the feeling that you have been specially chosen for a quest and are contributing to something bigger than yourself. It is often communicated through stories.
2. Progress
   This is the indication that you are overcoming obstacles and getting closer to your goal. It often takes the form of points, levels, and progress bars.
3. Busy
   There is an urgency to take action, the fear of losing or the feeling that you can’t go back now. Countdown timers, streaks, and scarce collectibles are all examples of pressure in action.
4. Position
   This is a way to show off your achievements and make comparisons with your peers/other players, for example through the use of badges and leaderboards.
5. Play
   This is the fun element! Fun is instilled through things like customization and exploration.

Gamification is linked to goals, status, community, education and rewards and is effectively used in many areas such as learning. A good example of this is Duolingo. This app uses the power of gamification to teach languages ​​by providing stripes for completing daily lessons and encouragement when needed. Streaks are represented by a flame icon, and if the user fails to meet their engagement goal for the day, their flame will be extinguished and their streak will be eliminated. Many leaders at Duolingo have credited the widespread success of the app to the inclusion and execution of their gamification features.

Possible pitfalls

The biggest failure when introducing gamification to an organization is poor planning. It is estimated that 80% of gamification attempts fail an organization’s goals because of:

• Bad planning
• Lack of design
• Lack of creativity
• Learning is not aligned with meaning/purpose

Learning-as-a-service solutions can be designed with all this in mind, leveraging gamification and its benefits, while also providing the extra support often needed in a business context. They can be designed to promote personal and professional development through eLearning, using animations, quizzes, journal entries and links to videos and articles to ensure the platform is engaging and learning is maintained. Tailored services that are fun and informative encourage learning.

Users benefit from real-life scenario examples relevant to their course. For example, if a user takes a leadership course, they can get scenarios with examples of excellent and bad leadership. Prior to implementation, an L&D specialist can conduct a discovery day within your organization, analyzing current capabilities and strategic objectives. This information can be used to architecturally design learning glide paths for any individual, department or branch, as needed. In addition, there could be an option to have an implementation success manager oversee the rollout of the eLearning platform. All of this helps reduce the poor planning and design-related issues that typically act as roadblocks.

Conclusion

It is clear that gamification is no longer just a valuable addition to organizational learning and development, but a business necessity. It has been proven to increase engagement, improve productivity and, as a result, increase profits.