5 Ways to Use Gamification for Employee Engagement

Employee engagement is a complex topic, but its importance cannot be underestimated. Engaged employees are enthusiastic about their work, motivated to contribute their best efforts, and more likely to stay at their jobs for longer periods of time. 

Employee engagement is not just a trend. Gallup estimates that disengaged employees cost $8.8 trillion to companies globally in lost productivity, 9% of global GDP. In turn, businesses with engaged employees are 21% more profitable and achieve as much as 59% less turnover. 

?Gamification is a new and rapidly growing approach to employee engagement that integrates game mechanisms into non-game contexts to enhance productivity and create a positive company culture. Here’s everything you need to know ↓

What Is Gamification? 

Gamification is a new technique that uses game elements like friendly competition, points, and rewards to enhance engagement. You may have encountered gamification in popular apps like Duolingo (for language learning) or Mint (for personal finances).

Companies are now beginning to realize that gamification can also be a powerful tool in the workplace. Employers can use game mechanics to motivate, recognize, and encourage employees in innovative ways and inspire them to achieve their full potential. 

How Does Gamification Increase Employee Motivation? 

Frontline workers spend the majority of their shifts performing repetitive tasks, which can get boring and demoralizing after a certain point. Gamifying everyday tasks makes them more fun and rewarding. In fact, 83% of workers report feeling more motivated after completing a training with gamification. 

Beyond productivity, gamification makes the workplace simply more fun, which improves the happiness levels of your employees. Happy employees are less likely to leave and more likely to contribute positively to the well-being of their team. Plus, research shows that happy employees are also 13% more productive.

To start introducing gamification to your workplace for better engagement and productivity, here are a few gamification examples for employee engagement and recognition.

5 Gamification Techniques to Boost Employee Engagement

1. Encourage Friendly Competition with a Leaderboard

A leaderboard is a platform where employees can see and compare their performance with the people around them. For example, think of the leaderboards on your favorite multiplayer video games.

For example, employees might be rewarded with points every time they complete a certain task. Then, they will move up and down the leaderboard depending on how many points they have earned relative to their coworkers.

Encouraging healthy competition takes advantage of the social aspect of work to engage employees. In fact, 67% of employees report that competition motivates them more than traditional recognition techniques, like performance reviews. 

2. Gamify Attendance

Many teams struggle with consistent attendance, especially with frontline employees. Keeping attendance numbers high increases productivity, encourages efficiency, and builds more cohesive teams. 

Employers can incorporate gamification elements like attendance challenges, where employees can earn points or badges for regular attendance.  When employees feel that their attendance is being recognized and rewarded, they’ll be more likely to prioritize it. 

Attendance points can also be tracked on a leaderboard, enhancing employee motivation through friendly competition. You can even include a social media element, such as badges that employees can share on their personal profiles. 

3. Improve Employee Retention 

Employee retention is an ongoing priority for frontline businesses. In the past month alone, 3.7 million people quit their jobs in the United States. High rates of turnover mean more time and resources spent on hiring and training new employees. That means less time spent on the work that matters. 

You can use gamification to encourage and reward employee retention. Create a progress bar for each employee that tracks their time at the company, with rewards for passing certain milestones. Transforming these often-overlooked achievements into concrete, visible measures can instill a sense of pride in your employees.

Digital badges and points systems can be highly effective motivators for workers. Depending on your team’s gamification strategy, you can also brainstorm creative prizes for employees who achieve a certain level—say, a year on the job. 

4. Make Learning Fun

Educational opportunities help employees develop their careers and unlock their full potential. A whopping 94% of employees say that they would stay at a company longer if it invested in their learning. Yet, learning initiatives can often feel discouraging or boring. 

Game-based learning makes it easy and fun to educate employees. Workers can be assigned points or badges once they complete a certain unit or module. You can even incorporate elements of play into the training itself. For example, you might create a simulated customer service scenario with realistic challenges and rewards for good performance.

5. Build Team Spirit

Strengthening team culture helps employees remember that, although friendly competition is fun, their primary goal is working for the good of the whole. And when teams work more smoothly together, they’re able to achieve more – and have fun while doing it. 

Employers can use gamification to build comradery among teams. Teams can compete in weekly productivity or attendance challenges, where the team with the most points at the end of the week wins.

Games that aren’t directly related to workplace tasks can also promote a stronger team culture. Interactive challenges like trust exercises or trivia nights create a fun, collaborative atmosphere that encourages employees to work together. Workers can build relationships and strengthen their sense of unity. 

Think of rewards for team challenges that benefit everyone, like a team-wide breakfast buffet or movie night. Teams that can communicate well and celebrate their accomplishments together, will also collaborate better together on the floor. 

Secchi: Frictionless Employee Relationship Management Solution for Better Gamification and Engagement

Implementing gamification into your frontline workplace is much easier with the right software. Secchi is a leading platform designed specifically for frontline teams with robust gamification capabilities to recognize, motivate, and train employees. 
Request a demo to learn how Secchi can help you motivate employees and increase productivity.