Gamifying employee training has been shown to boost employee productivity. Gamifying training increases participation rates and outcomes in ways that traditional training strategies do not. If your company wants to get the most out of its employee training sessions they should start applying slots lv gaming designs and concepts to the training sessions. The more entertaining and engaging these sessions become, the more the participants get out of them.
Why Gamification
Your purposes in gamifying your training sessions is to make mandatory tasks more enjoyable, engage employees and motivate participants as they move into non-game activities. Not only can you guide your employees to be more in tune with potential problems but you can prevent potential disasters.
One example of the risks of lack of employee compliance with company policy involves cybersecurity dangers. Companies are investing millions of dollars every year in an attempt to teach employees basic threat perception and response protocols. Yet many employees are either unmotivated to put forth the effort to institute such protocols or haven’t internalized practices.
By adopting a gamification strategy for employee training, both managers and employees benefit. Company productivity increases as company goals and duties are paired with awards and recognition. Gamification isn’t meant to turn work into a game but rather to blend game mechanics with work-related tasks. By making the job more exciting, productivity increases.
When you gamify employee training you:
- Increase productivity and engagement.
- Increase teamwork and social interaction.
- Develop a corporate image.
- Foster creativity and innovation among employees.
Getting Started
To gamify learning sessions you should encourage participants to:
- be self-directed
- work as teams
- take risks
- focus on a playful approach
- be persistent
Some important strategies for gamifying employee training include:
1. Positive reinforcement – positive reinforcement is important to everyone, regardless of age, position or social standing. For students, however, positive reinforcement is mandatory for the student to progress. Make sure that you reward training participants for each step forward so that you build up their confidence as they move ahead. You can easily use simple rewards such as a points system but the idea is to mark progress.
2. Progress levels – just like in video games where there are gauges to mark progress, your training sessions should also have a gauge for participants’ progress. At every stage, once the reward is delivered the participant “levels up” making him/her ready to keep moving forward. The more students are able to track their progress in the learning journey, the more empowered they will feel and the more they will be prepared to engage with the material. As you design these progress levels, begin with the most straightforward material and increase the difficulty incrementally. If a participant isn’t successful at first s/he may lose interest but if they experience success at the beginning they will be more motivated to see the process through.
3. Feedback – instant or almost instant feedback is a core necessity in any type of education. In gaming, players learn very quickly when they’ve made a mistake. That’s also true in gamified training where instant feedback should be a core principle. By stopping someone in their tracks when they make a mistake they’ll be able to quickly figure out how to improve. If, however, they aren’t getting any feedback, they’ll develop faulty knowledge or keep making the same mistakes over and over.
Examples
You can gamify just about any type of employee training but gamified training has been shown to be most effective in the following areas:
New Hires
When bringing new employees into the workplace, you can motivate the new hires with engagement and encouragement through gamification. Onboard the new employees through games and other interactive activities and then reward those participants with points and other real-world incentives.
You’ll be giving the new employees the message, right from the beginning, that your company is a welcoming place to work and that you value your employees.
Engagement
Everyone wants to think that they’re part of something bigger than themselves. That their efforts contribute to something meaningful. Use games and other fun activities to build relationships and connect your teams. This has never been more true than today when so much of the work force is working remotely. Create an atmosphere of teamwork through games and fun.
Sales
The old methods of sales training are boring, uninspiring and just don’t work anymore. If you want to get the most out of your sales force, try using gamification by rewarding sales people with points or create contests that have the salespeople competing against one another. These methods encourage sales teams to improve their skills and generate more profits which promotes more business.
Compliance
Training employees for compliance is tedious for the employees and for the trainers. How do you train people on guidelines, laws, regulations and other compliance issues in a way that ensures that they’ll remember and comply?
There are actually many different types of games and competitions that promote a thorough knowledge of these issues among your staff. Try them and see how much more easily you’ll achieve your goals.
Leadership
To develop leaders in your organization you want to show how to teach by example. Improve future leaders’ skills and abilities through engaging activities and they’ll lead in the same way.
Gamifying training allows people to “level up” in a way that speaks to the employees of tomorrow.
