How to Use Gamification for Employee Engagement: 7 Tips

You might have heard the buzz about gamification in the last few years. In a nutshell, gamification is the use of techniques found in gaming (such as milestones and rewards) to encourage engagement in non-game contexts.

You’ve probably wondered if there is an application for gamification in the workplace. The short answer is yes – you can use gamification to increase employee engagement. But there’s a right way and a wrong way to go about it, as you’ll learn very soon.

In this article, we’ll help you use gamification the right way. Let’s discover how it can lead to enhanced employee engagement and explore seven powerful strategies for using gamification in a work environment.

What is employee gamification? 

Employee gamification is the practice of applying game-like elements and mechanics to workplace activities and processes to increase engagement, motivation, and productivity. This typically involves implementing point systems, badges, leaderboards, challenges, rewards, and competitive or collaborative elements into regular work tasks. 

For example, with employee gamification, your sales teams might earn points according to their cold calls completed or meetings booked, which helps incentivize hard work. Or, you could implement an employee recognition initiative where customer service representatives receive badges for positive customer feedback.  

Overall, the goal of employee gamification is to tap into the natural human drives for achievement, competition, and recognition while making routine work tasks more engaging and measurable, though it's important to implement such systems thoughtfully to avoid creating undue stress or an unhealthy competitive environment. 

Harnessing gaming’s enjoyable qualities for good 

Like many strategies that aim to get more out of your workforce, gamification techniques sometimes get a bad rap.

Back in 2018, United Airlines' gamification program backfired when employees rebelled, so the company had to pull the strategy. Now, there were a few things United did that we wouldn’t recommend – like tying rewards to perfect attendance (people inevitably get sick, guys). But we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention that gamification has its downsides.

First, gaming is addictive. Of all the people who use slot machines (one of the most heavily gamified industries in the world), over 50% have some form of gambling problem. We’re not trying to get people addicted to work. Rather, we want to motivate employees and keep them engaged with their work during the hours they’re in the office or online. 

Moreover, some strategies that work well in gaming don’t necessarily cross over into the workplace. For example, game producers regularly build difficulty algorithms to regulate how difficult it is to pass certain milestones. Obviously, a game should become more difficult over time as the player’s skill set improves, but difficulty modulation surpasses this simple linear progression.

Game designers intentionally make it difficult (or perhaps even impossible) to pass certain milestones the first time around, but they gradually reduce the task’s difficulty using an algorithm that monitors and adjusts the game based on player interaction.

Think about it. If you easily beat a game each time you play, how engaging and rewarding will that be? 

Now, consider the feeling of accomplishment you experience when you’ve battled a task several times over and have finally won. Game developers specifically design games to elicit these emotions. But we don’t want to do that in the workplace – we’re not trying to make work harder for employees.

All of this is to say that we should be careful not to import potentially damaging or unhealthy aspects of gamification into employee engagement strategies. 

If you’re going to use gamification, you should have a clear purpose in place for any gamification efforts and ensure that any tactics you employ align with that vision and promote healthy workplace behaviors.

How does gamification promote employee engagement? 

Let’s take a step back and look at the facets of successful gamification strategies:

• Clear goals and objectives
• Rewards and incentives
• Progression systems
• Feedback loops and reinforcement
• Social interaction and competition

How do these components foster greater employee engagement? Consider Daniel Pink’s three elements of motivation: autonomy, mastery, and purpose.

Workplace gamification improves autonomy by setting clear goals and objectives while providing freedom for employees to pursue those goals how they see fit (within reason). Feedback loops help employees understand whether or not they’re on the right track and are complying with internal policies so they can self-correct.

Mastery is a feeling of competence that comes from learned experience. As we achieve tasks, reach milestones, and receive relevant and timely feedback (especially in connection with a reward), we develop mastery. Gamification’s detailed progression systems, incentives, and rewards provide this in abundance.

Finally, there is the element of purpose, or the sense that what we are doing is in the service of something larger than ourselves. This can come from the company mission if it aligns with an employee’s personal goals, but employees may also derive this from the kinship and camaraderie that arise by engaging with fellow team members. 

By encouraging social interaction through team-based exercises and friendly competition, workplace gamification can also contribute to a sense of purpose.

7 gamification strategies to boost employee engagement 

So, you’re interested in exploring workplace gamification as a way to boost employee engagement, but aren’t sure exactly where to start. 

There are many different ways to approach gamification – let’s take a closer look at seven of the top gamification strategies to consider. 

1. Leverage probabilistic rewards 

Probabilistic rewards, the bedrock of gamification, rely on chance. Because of this, they do a better job of increasing engagement than their non-probabilistic counterparts.

Rather than guarantee a particular reward for a specific action, you can include some probability concerning what the reward is and when employees will earn it. That’s not to say that the reward is entirely random, however, you still need to reinforce the right behavior.

To do this, you could provide a reward for a specific action 60% of the time. Another option is to use five reward types of different values and modulate the reward size with an element of chance.

2. Create measurable statistics for progress 

Make it easier for employees to translate their daily efforts into progress markers by creating and displaying easily trackable metrics.

Say you’re a content marketing specialist who is responsible for publishing 20 new pieces of content every month. Since that’s one piece each working day, you may feel like you’re spinning your wheels, doing the same thing day in and day out.

A simple progress tracker that displays how close you are to your goal (such as one that reads, “You’ve published 7 out of 20 pieces of content”) is a simple motivational tool that can help you see how your daily work relates to the high-level goal.

It would be even better to couple that monthly target tracker with a yearly total to prevent feeling like you’re starting from scratch at the beginning of each month.

Related: How to Integrate Gamification into Your LMS Platform

3. Tie rewards to competence signals 

Good reward systems reinforce positive behaviors, such as when employees integrate newly learned information or skills into their day-to-day work. To aid in this effort, consider gamifying employee onboarding processes by setting up competence-based reward systems.

For example, you could provide an employee with a progress bar to track their advancement as they move through a series of training videos. You could also provide them with probabilistic rewards (like company swag) when they apply what they’ve learned or demonstrate competence in a particular area.

4. Integrate positive social elements 

Competition can be a powerful motivator, but it’s also a fantastic way to drive employee engagement by reinforcing social bonds.

The sales leaderboard is a quintessential example of this. A leaderboard is where all reps can see in real time how many deals other reps have closed and how far behind the leader of the pack they are.

You can also create a bit of healthy competition between teams by standardizing progress metrics. For example, an inter-team leaderboard might simply show “progress against monthly goal” as a percentage without detailing what that monthly goal is since it differs across teams. This method not only increases motivation but also encourages teamwork within departments.

Additionally, consider setting up specific tasks that employees can only complete by collaborating with others, just as certain tasks in a video game are only possible in multiplayer mode. 

This could be as easy as using interactive videos to create a “pop quiz” with questions that require information from team members in other departments, which encourages inter-department collaboration.

5. Ensure that rewards relate to individual motivators 

Rewards are one of the most common tools for gamification, but they are most effective when they directly match individual employee motivation drivers. 

While one employee might respond well to financial rewards, another might be more interested in additional professional development opportunities, and still others may more strongly desire public praise.

The point here is that you can most effectively drive employee performance when you understand and apply the rewards that best motivate each individual.

6. Make use of recognition and other social rewards 

Public recognition can be a powerful motivator and may increase feelings of prestige and value within one’s team.

Here are a few ways you can integrate public praise as a reward system:

• Create a dedicated “exceptional work” Slack channel and call out great work as you see it.
• Use AI video to create short presentations where you shout out each week’s top performers.
• Automate an email to send once per week with an update on the team leaderboard.

7. Bring ongoing education into the mix 

For many organizations, development starts and stops with new employee training programs.

While these are great opportunities for introducing gamification initiatives, you shouldn’t limit them to new hires during the employee onboarding process. Instead, try setting up a system where employees can earn points by completing various tasks related to their specific roles. You could then offer extra points to employees who take the time to engage with HR video content or other workplace training and development assets.

All in all, employee gamification can have many benefits on the effectiveness of eLearning content, so it’s also an avenue you’ll want to explore for your skill development initiatives as well. 

Gamifying workplace learning content for greater employee engagement 

Implementing gamification into your workplace learning is a powerful way to drive employee productivity and retention while fostering a healthy company culture that focuses on ongoing development. When it comes to improving engagement with onboarding and training videos, gamified video content is a must.

Colossyan Creator, our enterprise-grade AI video generation tool, can help you gamify the learning experience with powerful interactivity features, such as knowledge checks at the end of each module.

Our branching feature is another great way to help personalize gamified content according to audience decision making and skill levels. 

The best part? It’s completely free to try out Colossyan – you don’t even need to enter a credit card. Try it for free today or book a demo with one of our experts to learn more.