other are built from individuals across many silos,” said Kapp. “I’ve
seen companies put someone from accounting in with HR, in with
marketing in with somebody from operations and they’ll all work
together and collaborate together.”
Kapp points to a growing interest in collaborative board games
where teams have to work together to achieve their goal. “The first
round of gamification was competition; sales people loved it. Then
we got into badges and so on,” said Kapp. “I now see a slow evolution
of a number of gamified platforms providing collaborative
experiences for the individuals, so they have to work together to
achieve a goal.”
A GOLD MINE OF INFORMATION
Gamification produces data that HR can potentially use, too. For
example, such information as what types of voluntary training an
employee has engaged in or how effectively they’ve collaborated
over the course of the year can be part of the overall package that
informs training recommendations, performance reviews and
so on.
HR can also tap into top performers’ data to help set the bar for
others in the organization. “It’s no secret that peer mentorship is
a powerful motivator that drives employees to want to succeed,”
said Priyanka Singh, senior HR talent development/HR analytics
at Global FIS.
She notes that when peers see their colleagues earning praise
and climbing the ladder, they want to know how they can achieve
the same results. If, for example, a top member of the sales team
takes new training courses regularly, keeps a log of new leads and
always follows up on them and routinely hands in expense reports
quickly – all of which has been recorded transparently through
gamification – HR can take that data and use it as the basis for
a ‘mission.’ “HR can create transparent, mission-based career
paths that show the steps employees have taken to ‘level up’ in the
organization,” said Singh.
“By showcasing this behaviour in a gamified platform, other
employees can see what it takes to become the top salesperson,”
said Singh. “It’s a breadcrumb path to the top.”
A WORD OF CAUTION
Gamification isn’t foolproof, however. Like anything, it can go
wrong if it’s not implemented with care.
That was the case a few years ago with U.S. pharmaceutical
company Omnicare. The company was attempting to address its
long helpdesk wait times. To improve employee performance, the
company added a leaderboard with the offer of cash incentives for
workers who showed the most efficiency.
The gamification, however, resulted in longer wait times and a
spike in turnover. Employees felt watched by ‘Big Brother’ rather
than motivated by the public gaming statistics. The company then
tweaked the system to focus rewards on achievement rather than
simply on the speed of the calls, with a much better outcome.
This kind of misfire isn’t isolated. A 2012 report by Gartner
predicted 80 per cent of gamified enterprise applications would
fail to meet their business objectives.
“I think this happens when organizations don’t do enough due
diligence to understand specifically what their target audience
cover feature
GAMIFICATION:
BY THE NUMBERS
• According to a survey by gamification provider
Badgeville, gamification improves the work experience
of 91 per cent of employees
• Of Forbes Global 2000 companies, 70 per cent are
already using gamification – or have plans to – for
building engagement, retention and revenue
• A survey by online learning provider Digital Talk
found 80 per cent of learners say they would be more
productive if their work was more game-like
• A report by P&S Market Research predicts the
worldwide gamification market will increase from $242
million in 2012 to $22.9 billion by 2022
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HRPROFESSIONALNOW.CA ❚ JULY 2018 ❚ 17
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