The burning concerns of employee retention and turnover have reached a boiling point: The latest research shows that total annual employee turnover in the U.S. is likely to increase nearly 20 percent from the yearly pre-pandemic average!
While employees leave jobs for higher pay, promotions, or professional development, a new set of employee expectations and working conditions has emerged due to the Covid-19 crisis, fueling the rise in attrition:
- Forty-six percent of employees today say they feel less connected to their company
- Forty-two percent say their company culture has diminished over the last three years
- Just 21 percent of employees report feeling very engaged in their work
Gamification at Work
With today’s low morale, culture, and connectivity, there couldn’t be a more critical juncture to consider a new set of activities in a modern employee engagement strategy. It’s where gamification comes in.
Gamification in the workplace has risen significantly over the last year, given that employees (or our general human nature) crave interaction and instant gratification. In fact, when asked, 90 percent of employees say gamification makes them more productive at work.
Gamification benefits employers as well. Companies using gamification in their workplace are seven times more profitable than companies that don’t. It also improves business operations and puts your initiatives and values into action.
Some famous examples of how to gamify work include:
- Awarding high score holders on monthly assessments with a company-branded backpack, vest, polo shirt, etc.
- Creating a mini-course on workplace safety with quizzes, games, characters, and a scoring system.
- Using riddles during the interview process (Google)
- Re-engaging sales reps in role-playing activities and giving out badges based on their progress (SAP)
How do you unlock the benefits of gamification in your workplace? Here are a few tips to get started and ensure your efforts are successful and have long-standing value.
Align activities with your company initiatives and values
There are endless holidays, celebrations, and moments where you can bring employees together. Sometimes it can feel overwhelming or you’re left trying to do too much. A key point is to pick and choose themes, holidays or celebrations that resonate with your company culture.
Let’s say you, for example, want to unite your employees around National Women’s Health Day with a two-week challenge focused on physical and mental positivity. The challenge includes books to read, Ted Talks to watch, and shared experiences.
While it’s an important day nationally, say the theme aligns with your culture and values around creating healthy workplaces for your employees. By selecting something that your organization believes in, your employees will feel a natural connection to the activity and want to participate.
Make sure activities are inclusive, interactive, and fun.
When using gamification to improve participation in team events, training, or onboarding, consider all the different ways employees can score points to accommodate all employees’ needs. If you want to run a points-based yoga challenge, think about adding alternate activities (meditation, reading, volunteering, etc.) that don’t require physical fitness to earn points. Incorporating photo uploads, trivia, and video responses are also creative and fun ways to participate, encouraging faster team bonding and connection.
Turn to curated content and group experiences.
When creating your own library of online courses on various topics, offer rewards to motivate employees who want to build their skill sets. At Intuition, we have a robust video library available to our clients and their employees, and it’s effortless to put together company or team-wide group watch experiences.
Offer desirable rewards and lots of employee recognition.
The rewards for achievement needs to be relevant and desirable to your employees, so it’s critical to understand what gets them excited (we have more on that here.) Not everyone is after the same thing: A department store gift card might appeal to one employee, whereas another employee sees more value in a meal kit subscription service.
Why Gamification With Intuition
At Intuition, we help companies gamify employee engagement through simple goals and motivation with our custom Challenges program. It’s easy to run inclusive, timely and successful team-building activities using our service.
The benefits for employers include:
- Optimizes time management and drives business impact
- Improves business operations
- Does the ideation and planning for you
- Puts your initiatives and values into action
The benefits for employees include:
- Elevates employee learning and culture
- Delivers a powerful mix of skills development and camaraderie
- Boosts employee participation and attention
- Increases happiness, improved engagement, and productivity
