Odd word, cool concept: Gamification for businesses
- Details
- Published: Monday, 16 December 2019 15:47
- Written by Phillip Strickler, CPA.CITP
“Gamification.” It’s perhaps an odd word, but it’s a cool concept that’s become popular among many types of businesses. In its most general sense, the term refers to integrating characteristics of game-playing into business-related tasks to excite and engage the people involved.
Might it have a place in your company?
Internal focus
Sometimes gamification refers to customer interactions. For example, a retailer might award customers points for purchases that they can collect and use toward discounts. Or a company might offer product-related games or contests on its website to generate traffic and visitor engagement.
But, these days, many businesses are also using gamification internally. That is, they’re using it to:
- Engage employees in training processes,
- Promote friendly competition and camaraderie among employees, and
- Ease the recognition and measurement of progress toward shared goals.
It’s not hard to see how creating positive experiences in these areas might improve the morale and productivity of any workplace. As a training tool, games can help employees learn more quickly and easily. Moreover, with the rise of social media, many workers are comfortable sharing with others in a competitive setting. And, from the employer’s perspective, gamification opens all kinds of data-gathering possibilities to track training initiatives and measure employee performance.
