Is gamification in the workplace the key to boosting employee engagement? If an organization’s employee engagement levels are falling, gamification stands out as an easy and fun way to motivate workers. Although it can be effective, there are some important caveats.
Employee Motivation Has Fallen
You have probably heard of the “quiet quitting” trend. This is when workers don’t quit their jobs but simply do the bare minimum to remain employed. The fact that this has become a trend may indicate that employee motivation has fallen.
According to Gallup, only 33 percent of employees were engaged in 2023, and unengaged or actively disengaged employees resulted in productivity losses of about $1.9 trillion.
What is gamification?
Gamification refers to applying game elements to things other than games. These elements may include the following:
- Employees receive and accumulate points for various activities or achievements. This could include using levels to track each person’s progress and a leaderboard to see who has the most points.
- Employees may earn rewards for certain achievements or for earning a particular number of points. The rewards may be something as simple as digital badges, or they could be actual prizes.
- Employees may be grouped into teams with fun names that they select.
Does gamification work?
Gamification is often effective at motivating people. One reason for this is simply that games are fun. Therefore, turning an activity into a game makes it more enjoyable.
In addition, playing games causes the release of dopamine, which, as Cleveland Clinic explains, is a neurotransmitter that acts on the body’s reward center. When you earn a badge or increase a level, you receive a dopamine hit, which feels good and makes you want to continue earning points and progressing.
Some games also leverage a social element. Individuals might compete against each other or form teams to compete against other teams. Either way, this social element can be both motivating and good for morale.
Many people engage in gamification without even thinking about it. For example, parents often use gamification to motivate their children, such as when a mother challenges her children to see who can clean up the fastest.
Gamification is a big business. Take the success of the language learning app Duolingo, which uses gamification to motivate users to complete additional language lessons. The app’s elements include badges, levels, leaderboards and leagues. According to BBC, these elements have helped the app gain a loyal user base of 34 million.
Given the effectiveness of gamification, it’s no wonder that many employers want to use it in the work environment to help encourage employees to achieve more.
How Gamification in the Workplace May Go Wrong
Although gamification may be an effective way to boost employee engagement when you use it correctly, there’s also the potential for it to backfire, particularly if it’s used as a replacement for (rather than a supplement to) existing recognition programs and compensation models.
According to the Harvard Business Review, United Airlines introduced gamification in its workplace in 2018 by replacing the small quarterly bonus that all employees received with larger prizes for a limited number of employees, chosen by entering employees who had perfect quarterly attendance into a lottery. However, employees did not like this new incentive and protested, leading United Airlines to abandon its lottery program.
This does not mean that a gamification program cannot succeed at increasing employee engagement, but it does show that employers need to proceed with caution. Some ways employee gamification may go wrong include:
- The competition becomes toxic. Some gamification strategies pit employees against each other. This may be fun, but if the competition is too fierce, it could become toxic. Alternative strategies could reward workers for obtaining higher scores or levels without requiring competition among workers.
- The system is unfair. An employee who works hard to achieve the most will likely expect to win whatever rewards are available. If the rewards go to someone else, they may feel that the system is unfair. This problem could arise if the company gives awards randomly or bases them on subjective criteria. Problems may also arise if the company bases rewards on measures that are outside employees’ control, such as perfect attendance.
- The rewards are dishonest. If you offer a prize or reward, you need to follow through. In an infamous case, a manager at a Hooters restaurant said that the employee who sold the most beer during a set period would have the chance to win a Toyota. According to the William S. Boyd School of Law, the manager later said he didn’t know if it would be a Toyota car, truck or van, and that the winner would need to pay the registration fees. When he later announced that one waitress had won, he presented her with a toy Yoda figurine as her prize and laughed that it had all been a joke. The waitress sued for breach of contract, and the case was settled in her favor.
- The rewards replace existing benefits. Employees are generally resistant to losing benefits that they already receive. If you get rid of benefits that all workers receive, such as a yearly bonus, and start requiring employees to compete for these benefits, they might be unhappy with the change – even if the new benefits are bigger.
- The system is exclusionary. It’s important to ensure that gamification systems don’t unintentionally disadvantage certain employee groups, such as part-time, remote or night-shift workers. To be effective, gamification strategies should offer fair and equal opportunities for all employees to participate and succeed.
- You ignore other issues. Gamification may be able to boost employee morale and engagement, but it’s not a magical cure-all for everything that’s wrong at a company. For example, if employees don’t understand their jobs or what you expect of them, engagement could still suffer.
How to Incorporate Gamification in Employee Training
Employee training is crucial. If workers do not fully understand the information provided to them, they may not know company policies, safety procedures and other critical knowledge.
Gamification can be a simple way to engage workers while also testing them. Instead of simply providing a handbook or showing a video, employers can create interactive modules. At the end of each section, employees may need to answer questions to earn points and pass the level, like in a video game.
You could use this tactic for:
- New employee orientation
- Company cyber security training
- Employee benefits enrollment
- Additional employee training
How to Leverage Gamification to Boost Engagement
Outside of employee training, gamification techniques have many possible applications to boost employee engagement and make mundane tasks more fun.
- Sales competitions. This is a common way to motivate workers who are responsible for making sales, whether they’re selling goods and services to other businesses or working in a restaurant or retail store. Create a leaderboard to show how employees are doing and encourage friendly competition. You could also award prizes, such as a bonus for the top salesperson or a prize for everyone if total sales reach a certain level.
- Customer service badges. For customer-facing employees, gamify customer service by providing badges to workers who earn high-scoring customer feedback on surveys. You may also like to honor the employee with the highest rating as the employee of the month.
- Safety badges. Gamify safety by providing levels, badges and recognition to employees for completing tasks and following safety standards. This may be an effective way to foster a safety-first workplace culture.
While gamification has the potential to boost motivation and morale, managing HR is more than just fun and games. Higginbotham’s HR Services is here to help you implement smart, compliant and people-first strategies that support your team and your bottom line. Connect with one of our HR consultants to explore how we can help.
