There’s a reason why work is known as work. For the most part, it isn’t fun. Yet the new trend of gamification in the workplace stands to change that.
Gamification is the application of game mechanics and principles to a task with the intention of making it more engaging. These principles include: A points system, the ability to level up, competition or collaboration, fast feedback, clear goals, and finally rewards and achievements.
Today we see gamification across many industries and used for many different purposes. A company might create a rewards program for its customers that encourages them to spend more. A small business might implement a scoreboard for their top salespeople to compete. A business may use a level-system in online training to encourage users to advance through training courses.
Wherever gamification pops up, it’s sure to make a difference in the success of any program. Here’s how to apply gamification to keep your team engaged remotely:
Promote collaboration
Separated from their coworkers and working remotely, it’s easy for an employee to become demotivated To combat this, leverage the motivation of working with (and in competition with) others. Assign projects that require collaboration or competition for completion. Schedule small calls and chats frequently to make it easy for team members to collaborate.
Set clear goals and provide fast feedback
Just like completing a level of a videogame, people become more motivated when they feel they are close to reaching a certain goal. This requires you to set clear, attainable goals that are small enough that they can be reached each week. In addition, you should make it easy for employees to see how close they are to reaching their goal as a form of positive feedback. For example, if you’re working on launching a new marketing campaign, assign a percentage completion to each step, and update the team daily with the progress. In the recruiting world, you can do something similar by awarding badges or points for reviewing applications,
Set rewards and achievements
Though it likely isn’t realistic to give every employee monetary rewards, there are many free ways to reward and recognize employees that can go a long way. Set certain stretch goals, like making a certain number of sales like answering a tough client question and then award “badges” for achievement. These can be virtual nametags or Slack icons that employees can collect. Again, this works well in the recruiting world, too. Consider assigning points or badges for applying disposition statuses to applications, or for hiring new employees.
For more insights on gamification and how to use it to help your team succeed, check out this infographic by Turbo:
