Gamification: The Cheat Code for Engagement?
The past four years saw an explosion in popularity for gamification. A quick search on Google Trends shows a significant uptrend that is forecast to continue its upward trajectory for the foreseeable future. Top firms are utilizing gamification, the use of game playing, thinking and mechanics to engage users and assess capabilities, to improve business results.
Prithvi Shergill for Wired explains, “Gamification offers new ways to align candidate behavior with organizational goals. So, instead of telling an employee that he “meets expectations,” it is better to say that he did not clear the second level of the game. Instead of creating performance ratings, HR representatives can create transparent leaderboards with badges attached to each level, so that an employee knows how he or she is doing in his business unit, region, country or globally.”
So who is using gamification? You are. Gamification can be as simple as a finding a way to motivate users to participate. Fast Company recently interviewed venture capitalist firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Partner Bing Gordon and asked him if LinkedIn is a game. Gordon replied, “LinkedIn uses that completion bar for filling out your profiles as an automator and it works. Of course you want to fill out something--and what do I get for it? LinkedIn doesn't give you scoring system, but if you pay premium you get access to more data so other people can score you.” Shergill breaks it down further, “Many companies have evolved from initially using these platforms as branding vehicles to leveraging them across the entire HR value chain — attracting, engaging, onboarding, training and retaining prospective candidates. Identifying and targeting talent pools differentiates the organizations that win from the ones that do not. Companies are starting to realize that HR practices based on the “one size fits all” principle prevent the business from improving quality of hire, institutionalize a culture, enhance employee productivity and eventually, grow customer satisfaction.” Agreeing with this perspective Aberdeen in a 2013 survey found that firms using gamification were able to improve engagement by 48% and saw a decrease in turnover.
So how can you leverage gamification for your organization? Start by joining HCI April 15, 2014 at 1pm ET for the webcast Attract, Assess, and Engage Talent with Gamification. I/O Psychologist and Assistant Professor at Old Dominion University Richard Landers PhD explores how gamification can be used for HR and talent acquisition.
How is your firm using gamification? Share your experience with us on Twitter using the hashtags #HCIblogs and #gamification.