Editor’s Note
Dr. Debaprasad Chattopadhyay teaches Human Resources at Globsyn Business School – one of the top MBA colleges in Kolkata. Dr. Chattopadhyay has over 48 years of academic and corporate experience with very successful stints in reputed national and international organizations. In addition to being an academician, Dr. Chattopadhyay is a life member of the National HRD Network and ISTD and a member of ISABS, NIPM, BMA, and CMA. He is a life member of his alma mater, Don Bosco School Park Circus Alumni Association. Dr. Chattopadhyay completed a program on Strategic Human Resource Leadership from the National HRD Network and has also attended the Human Laboratory Process Course from the Indian Society of Applied Behavioral Sciences. Dr. Chattopadhyay has conducted Management Development Programs and Consultancy Assignments across organizations and has to his credit several publications in various journals and presented technical papers at different national and international conferences. Recently, he has received the Udai Pareek Memorial Distinguished AHRD Alumni Award for the year 2022, bestowed on him by his alma mater Academy of Human Resource Development (AHRD), Ahmedabad.
Just like any other organizational department, HR has been profoundly affected by technological changes and digital transformation. This has allowed HRs to introduce innovative techniques to improve their goals and results.
One such innovative technique is the gamification of human resources. Gamification is omnipresent in consumer industries and apps that we all use on a daily basis. In HR, gamification is a powerful way to engage and motivate employees.
What Is Gamification and How Is It Used in HR?
Gamification refers to applying motivating techniques usually found in games to non- game situations. In HR, it’s how online games are used to engage employees in different activities throughout the employee journey.
Since Millennials and Gen Z make up the majority of the workforce, successful companies tend to adopt HR gamification mechanisms to engage them as early as possible.
Gamification is revolutionizing the way HR concepts are taught in academic settings, making learning more engaging, interactive, and impactful. By incorporating game elements such as points, leaderboards, challenges, and rewards into HR education, institutions can enhance student participation, knowledge retention, and application of theoretical concepts to real-world scenarios.
What Are Examples of Gamification in HR?
Some of HR processes and tasks that employees must do can be tedious. To make those tasks fun and achieve higher employee engagement, many HR tech providers offer gamification features.
Here are some examples of gamification in HR.
Gamification during Recruitment
Probably the greatest example of gamification in recruiting is Google’s famous billboard math puzzle. The result was leading to another mysterious puzzle and eventually to Google’s job ad. Other examples of gamification in recruiting include coding tests or using a service such as HR avatar that asks candidates questions.
Gamification in HR during the Onboarding Process
The vision of gamification during onboarding describes groups of new employees paired with new hires in teams that work together to answer questions on compliance, procedures, and company ethics. Additionally, they are provided with virtual office tours for newcomers who can access it like a video game. This approach in onboarding can also be helpful for employees who will be working remotely.
Easier Training and Development using Gamification
Gamification can be applied to many areas of HR tasks, but it is especially impactful in training and employee development. An example comes from AstraZeneca, where they use a gamified employee training system called Go-to-Jupiter to teach sales staff about the most important products. With leaderboards, levels, and rewards included, 95% of employees complete every training module. Plus, it is a great team-building activity since employees are split into groups.
Improving Policy Compliance
An example shows how employees completed a cyber-security awareness training by engaging in an escape room game. They had to solve challenges in a limited amount of time to complete the game, and they learned lessons on secure device handling, data sharing, passwords, and more. This helped employees to stay compliant with Deloitte’s data security policy.
Increasing Engagement and Productivity in Everyday Work-Life
Organizations that want to increase their employees’ productivity can use ‘Todoist’, an app that rewards you for completing tasks on time by allocating points.
Why Is It Beneficial to Use Gamification in HR Activities?
The corporate training platform Talent LMS researched the effects of various recruitment gamification techniques in HR. This 2019 study delivered some interesting results:
- Gamification during recruiting makes an organization a more attractive employer, according to 78% of respondents.
- Gamification positively impacts employee happiness and productivity, according to 88% of workers.
- 83% of employees who finish training with gamification elements feel motivated compared to 61% of workers who find their non-gamified training experience boring.
Let us specify the key benefits of gamification in HR.
Supports Employee Growth
As mentioned before, gamification is mostly used in LMS systems and training modules to drive participants’ engagement, teamwork, and course completion. Employees’ development and growth are essential to companies that want to stay competitive in the market. By introducing gamification elements to employee experience, employees complete their training more easily and encourage employees are inclined to partake in similar activities in the future. It is only logical: making the learning process more fun will make students want to learn more!
Gamification Engages Employees
Together with turnover, increased employee engagement is the #1 thing on every HR’s mind. Since research shows that disengaged employees cause more than $500 billion in annual losses to US companies, it’s important to apply any technique available to alleviate this costly issue.
Gamification helps employers to raise their employees’ engagement by making tedious tasks fun. It may not seem as much, but improving employee engagement is all about creating healthy everyday habits.
HR Gamification Reduces Absenteeism
Absenteeism is another costly element that employers have to deal with. Absenteeism refers to a frequent lack of work attendance. It is caused by employee burnout, low engagement, poor employee health, and other factors.
Gamification in various HR processes activates employees and changes their perception of work. It provides a break from their usual work activities and rigid structure so that the tasks themselves do not contribute to burnout. Once employees are rested, they can resume their usual duties. Also, gamification elements can create health-themed challenges and educate employees on how to take care of themselves more easily.
Enhances Productivity with Game Design Elements
The example of the Todoist app that allocates points for every task that employees resolve is a great example of how gamification positively affects employee performance and productivity. The logic behind it is simple: gamification allows employees to get instant “rewards” for their actions, like points. This releases dopamine, the feel-good hormone, which makes employees want to get more of it; therefore, they are productive, earn more points, and do not give up.
Improves Employee Wellness in a Fun Way
The combination of a sedentary lifestyle and rising healthcare costs is a nightmare for organizations. Luckily, employee wellbeing became an important topic during the pandemic, and many employers realized they needed to address it.
Some examples of Gamification to improve employees’ wellness include collecting points or badges, individually or as a team, for being physically active. For example, employees can connect their smartwatches to tracking software and compete to see who walks more. They can solve quizzes, participate in company challenges and finish games that contribute to a healthy workplace culture. This motivates employees to move more, which can help them preserve their mental and physical health.
Decreasing Turnover
Employee turnover is probably the most important metric in HR. Optimizing employee retention is often one of the main HR KPIs. Statistically, one of the main reasons why employees quit is a lack of recognition for their work and accomplishments.
That is why organizations want to drive a culture of appreciation in their rows. For that, they usually use employee recognition platforms that utilize gamification game elements and design elements made for high user adoption. Read more about such solutions in our next chapter.
Why Gamification in HR Academic Delivery?
Enhanced Engagement: Traditional lectures can sometimes fail to capture attention. Gamification keeps students motivated by creating a fun and immersive learning environment.
Better Knowledge Retention: Game-based activities encourage active learning, which is proven to improve information retention.
Application-Oriented Learning: Simulations and role-playing games mimic HR scenarios, enabling students to practice decision-making in a controlled environment.
Immediate Feedback: Gamified platforms provide instant feedback on performance, helping students identify and address gaps in understanding.
Collaboration and Competition: Gamification fosters teamwork through collaborative challenges while encouraging healthy competition via leaderboards.
Challenges and Considerations
Gamification, the integration of game elements into learning, is increasingly used to enhance student engagement and motivation. However, the effectiveness of gamification depends on its alignment with learning objectives. Superficial use of game elements, such as irrelevant badges, can hinder meaningful learning outcomes. Moreover, over-reliance on extrinsic rewards can lead to short-term motivation but may compromise deep learning. Additionally, a competitive culture fostered by gamification might hinder collaboration and stress individual achievement. To harness gamification’s benefits, educators must carefully design game mechanics to promote collaboration, select suitable activities, and consider diverse learning styles. This review underscores the need for thoughtful integration of gamification and the importance of evaluating its impact on pedagogical goals in higher education.
Gamification identifies the modern trends and techniques of gamification in HRM and the functions in which it is being gestated and operated to accomplish organizational effectiveness by enhancing employee engagement. The approach of gamification adopts the human behavior of involving in gaming activities and articulates it with their work with the intent to improve employee engagement. Human behavior is impacted by the game mechanics and dynamics since games are devised to stimulate the players beyond the activation threshold.
Bonuses, incentives, accomplishments, appointments, levels, points are few of the game mechanics which are applied for prompting human behavior. Gamification is the mechanism of taking something that already exists and incorporating game components into it to motivate assistance, engagement, and commitment. It will be advantageous in hiring and retaining future employees. Once the older employees leave the company there will be requirement of young employees. Gamification frameworks are desirable for the enterprises as an integral part of their strategic plan over the next decade.
Gamification is very successful in engaging people and motivating them to modify behaviors, foster skills, or deal with problems. The pertinence of Gamification is beneficial in the internal operational HR Functions of recruitment, induction, employee performance, training and development programs, enhancing employee satisfaction and engagement. This research paper exemplifies to scrutinize this emerging concept, extensive literature along with the applications of gamification by the organizations and their role in enhancing engagement.
Globsyn Business School and Gamification
At Globsyn Business School, Gamification has been effectively used to the advantage of all concerns. A Faculty Member in HR evaluates the impact of training through the use of Smily Charts wherein photographs of Trainees taken during various periods of the day through disguised video cameras depict the satisfaction level of participants from their facial expression. Use of crossword puzzles on time management by the HR Department on time management increases efficiency and effectiveness of employees in managing time at work. These are just a few examples. On the whole Gamification enhances the job satisfaction of employees, makes work more meaningful and maximizes wellness and work life integration. Also, in the process, Gamification used by HR has reduced attrition and has made learning serious fun and the organization a better place to work in.
Dr. Debaprasad Chattopadhyay
Faculty – HR
Globsyn Business School