All Work and No Play: The Gamification of Work

All Work and No Play?

16 Gamification: Myth Busting

GAMIFICATION AT WORK

Many companies use gamification for gamebased learning and training. However, the applicability of gamification extends beyond just training, and includes the entire lifespan of the employee’s work journey.

PG. 24

20 The Octalysis Framework

26 Is gamification right for your engagement strategy?

28 About the Authors

The human brain is wired for play, in fact, one of the ways in which we learn best is through play and games. Throughout history, human beings have used games to improve our skills, to learn, to change our behaviors, and even to hone our instincts. All of us have benefited from play in one way or another without a tangible benefit. From playing dress up, to singing nursery rhymes, to playground games, playing cards, and from ancient games like Mahjong and Chess.

Play is not meant to arrive at some extrinsic benefit - the essence of play is the quality of experience it gives; not necessarily what benefit comes from it.

Play is free, play is real-life but also distinct from it, play supports order, and finally play is devoid of material interest.

- Johan Huizinga, Homo Ludens.

Can gamification really help organizations improve employee engagement, performance, help attract and retain much needed talent?

Play is intrinsic to every human being; we are wired for play. As we have evolved, as today’s problems have evolved, so have the games we play to learn the lessons we need to thrive in today’s world.

To that end, can games in a business and work context help us improve? We think that they can but first, let’s look at the need for engagement.

Engagement, Loyalty, and Contentment

Belonging

Work Relationships

Working Conditions

Retirement

Healthcare and Benefits

Paid Vacation and Sick Leave

Living Wage

THE NEED FOR ENGAGEMENT

There are many good reasons to heighten a company’s engagement level with employees. First, ensuring the foundational needs of employees are met as described in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Employees must have their basic needs before moving up the pyramid to more complex human needs such as belonging, engagement, loyalty, and contentment.

WHAT DO EMPLOYERS GET IN RETURN?

Employers get to fill vacant positions, attract, and retain talent. They get to mitigate the hard cost of attrition and reduce the risks associated with high turnover which negatively impacts operations, quality, service, and experience, and safety. Organizations with high levels of engagement typically perform better in all aspects of their business from the top line of revenue to the bottom line of profit.

The competition for service workers is fierce, as having good reliable staff is often the key to opening the doors and staying in business. Yet despite the challenges to retain talent in this market, this working population continues to be underpaid, under trained, receive very basic levels of benefits, and retirement (if at all). Additionally, there is a general lack of attention around attracting AND retaining this important workforce.

Without these foundational building blocks, any efforts to drive engagement will prove futile in the long-term.

EMPLOYEE TURNOVER IS AN ISSUE...

60% 33% 33% 17%

Approximately 60-70% of all turnover is voluntary (ADP Research Institute).

33% of surveyed employees quit their job within the first 90 days of employment. Of the 33% who left their jobs within the first 90 days, nearly half stated that they quit because the position didn’t align with the expectations built during the interviewing phase (2018 U.S. Study).

There are many metrics on the expense of turnover but one of the most conservative estimates is that it costs 33% of the employee’s annual salary to replace, retrain, and on board replacement employees (Society of Human Resources Management (SHRM).

According to the Society of Human Resources Management (SHRM), turnover can cost the equivalent of 33% of an annual wage therefore, it can be a big drag on your profitability.

So, let’s explore some of the ways in which we can engage with our employees, and specifically refer to how gamification may be a tool that you can consider, not only to heighten levels of engagement, but to achieve your business goals in a fun and rewarding way.

SO, WHAT IS GAMIFICATION?

Gamification is both the art and science of using game elements in non-game contexts. Gamification helps to motivate and engage users with products, digital platforms and learning contexts. It is an art because gamification requires a psychological understanding of what makes people tick. However, it is also science as it requires a strategic and scientific process of design and testing for it to work.

However, to create a true gamification experience, it’s important to evaluate the extrinsic and intrinsic needs for each employee throughout their entire journey from job application to a long-term employee. This means that the game elements that are used need to be specific to the company context and the employees that work there.

Gamification can also be used to motivate employees, assist in training, and in team and culture building. The application of gamification at work is most commonly seen in game-based learning. However, gamification can be applied to all areas of work. For gamification to work effectively it must first be aligned with 1.) Your business goals and 2.) Your work culture.

BUSINESS GOALS

As each business is unique, gamification must be aligned with the direction of growth for that specific business. In other words, gamification follows a business’s North Star metric. If this is to attract and retain the best talent, the gamification elements used must be focused on the main business goal. For example, the game elements used for a business whose North Star metric is to create a collaborative community culture would be very different to those of a business whose focus is purely a financial one.

WORK CULTURE

As part of the gamification process, you also have to understand employee’s personality types as well as the company culture – the integration on both aspects is critical for a good gamification design. For example, finance organizations, and employees in the investment sector might be motivated by competitive game elements, while those organizations in the not-for-profit sector might be more motivated by collaborative game elements.

Knowing who we are motivating and why, are important factors in designing a gamification experience that engages and motivates employees.

- Barbara Boden, 4xi Consulting

EXPERT VIEW

Tony Johnson is Chief Experience Officer at global consulting firm, 4xi.

Gamification is a fantastic arrow in the quiver of a robust employee engagement plan, but much like the hierarchy of needs discussed here, there are foundational elements at play that must be achieved before you can find results with this potentially impactful strategy.

Employee Experience (EX) must be a goal, not a means to an end. Certainly, a parallel goal is great customer satisfaction and improved growth and profitability. But people need to matter to your business and your team’s quality of work, needs, and friction points must be a part of the organizational calculus. Treating people well and giving them chances to grow and thrive is a core principle that will serve you well.

You must have developed a community where communication is clear and open. Simply adding another tool or piece of tech isn’t the total solution but must be something that actively enables organization priorities.

Recognition and appreciation need to be a part of your daily strategies. If leaders don’t fundamentally embrace the need for appreciation in the workplace, then they won’t adopt the idea of gamification of those same principles.

Organizations must understand what matters most and where effort drives maximum results. The idea of gamification, at its core, allows for keen focus on priorities that drive desired results. Without an understanding of where to focus, there is a risk of wasted effort and lackluster results.

Finally, the process must overall be inclusive. And by that, I mean it has to be easily accessible and user friendly for everyone.

All of this must be a part of long-term strategy. So often new programs find themselves a “flavor of the month” and they fall off the talking points for the executive teams. Any initiative that doesn’t get adequate airtime, and isn’t a part of performance planning, bonuses, and increases, won’t last very long.

EXPERT VIEW

Joel Onyshuk, founder of Huddle Tech, Unisyn

Regardless of what sort of gamification you employ to engage, motivate, and focus your employees, several underlying needs exist to be addressed.

The employees must be able to know, in real-time (or at least daily), if they are winning or losing against their critical objectives and/or KPIs. Whether you are winning or losing changes the way you behave. You must have developed a community where communication is clear and open. Simply adding another tool or piece of tech isn’t the total solution but must be something that actively enables organization priorities.

As a result, there needs to be absolute clarity surrounding what those objectives and/or KPIs are, why they are important, how they benefit the company, and what’s in it for the employees (i.e., motivation) if they succeed. Organizations must understand what matters most and where effort drives maximum results. The idea of gamification, at its core, allows for keen focus on priorities that drive desired results. Without an understanding of where to focus, there is a risk of wasted effort and lackluster results.

Defining a corporate “obsession”, a major, time-constrained, and impactful goal, and then repackaging it in such a way that it motivates and engages the frontline teams is essential, and yet this critical step is missed by most organizations.

A football team losing 24-7 at halftime would not continue to play the exact same way in the second half. They would adjust their behavior based on the score and the needs of the moment.

While gamifying work can improve company culture and results, it is ultimately unsustainable if there are not mechanisms in place to “operationalize” the deployment and daily review and recognition of the gamification and its positive outcomes.

Companies merely “throwing technology at a problem” will not see sustained results. Rather, companies must change the way they ultimately operate to 1) make the gamification part of the DNA of the company, 2) review actual performance, and regularly, 3) unlock collaboration between employees on solving problems that stand in the way of winning, and 4) celebrate, recognize, and reward great performances weekly (if not daily).

The most common daily opportunity that service industry companies may leverage to consistently “operationalize” these behaviors is during their daily team huddles or pre-service meetings. With the team gathered, reviewing their “match day” performance, gathering ideas for improvement, and celebrating prior performances can be rapidly delivered in just five to ten minutes, leaving ample time to review whatever other critical data must be shared with the group during that time.

GAMIFICATION: MYTH BUSTING

Perhaps you are considering the pros and cons of gamification and if its right for your business, here are some of the myths of gamification:

MYTH #1: Gamification can replace real world changes in company culture.

MYTH #2:

Gamification can only enhance what is already there, if what is offered to workers does not meet their basic needs, gamification will only go so far, it can entertain for a while, but it won’t create long term employee value.

Gamification is not a one stop solution; it requires understanding the business and its strategic goals as well as understanding employees needs to design an experience that will motivate and engage them. In other words, it is unique to the business, to the culture and to the people for that particular company and/or department.

Once a gamification experience is designed it is a one stop solution for all.

MYTH #3:

As long as you have badges, points, and leaderboards, then you’ve got a good, gamified experience.

Many marketing and business specialists might assume that adding badges, points and leaderboard game elements creates a gamification experience. A quick google search on gamification at work will show that all the proposed solutions include 1) badges, points, and leaderboards (sometimes progress bars) and 2) some sort of digital game training program. However, to create a true gamification experience, it’s important to evaluate the extrinsic and intrinsic needs for each employee throughout their entire journey from job application to a long-term employee. This means that the game elements that are used need to be specific to the company context and the employees that work there.

MYTHS

MYTH #4:

Gamification is about just putting something quickly together and seeing if it sticks.

Gamification is thoughtful, artful, scientific, and strategic, it requires understanding many pieces (business, users, and game design) to create an experience that will engage employees. It requires testing, trial, and error to come up with a design that employees love. While there is art and inspiration, a design requires thoughtful research, strategy, and psychological understanding of people’s needs.

THE OCTALYSIS FRAMEWORK: HOW CAN GAMIFICATION INCREASE ENGAGEMENT IN FRONTLINE WORKERS?

Although there are many gamification frameworks, one very good methodology for gamifying an experience is the Octalysis framework by our mentor gamification guru, Yukai Chou.

Chou breaks down the customer journey into four phases (Discovery, Onboarding, Scaffolding, and Endgame). By using this framework to look at the employee journey in these four phases, it is easier to come up with solutions.

Firstly, it is important to evaluate when an employee “drops off” in each of these phases and why. Second, we need to define the different types of employees (say those who are competitive vs. those who are searching for meaning at work). Third, in each phase we must design and brainstorm elements that will keep an employee motivated and engaged by designing game elements in each of the 8 sides of the Octalysis: Empowerment, Epic Meaning, Accomplishment, Ownership, Social influence, Scarcity, Unpredictability and Avoidance.

The discovery phase, an employee learns about the company and the potential job, applies for the job and interviews for the position.

In the onboarding phase, an employee is trained and begins to learn about the company, the culture, and its employees.

During scaffolding, the employee already knows the job well and is well acquainted with the company, during this stage the employee needs to stay motivated as the newness of the experience (starting a new job) will have diminished.

In the endgame the employee has the potential to become an ambassador for the company.

EMPOWERMENT OF CREATIVITY AND FEEDBACK: In this core drive, employees are part of a creative process where they must problem solve and find different solutions for various moving parts. In addition, they must also be able to receive feedback for their creativity and problem solving.

EPIC MEANING & CALLING:

This core drive is about helping an employee know that they are chosen for something special, that they were chosen or that they are part of doing something greater than themselves.

DEVELOPMENT & ACCOMPLISHMENT:

In this core drive employees are motivated by progress, through skill development and challenges. For a culture that thrives on challenges, badges would not have much meaning.

OWNERSHIP & POSSESSION:

In this core drive employees are motivated because they own something. When employees have ownership, they want to contribute what they own and improve it. Owning virtual goods, currencies or having the ability to own collectibles are game elements used in this core drive.

SOCIAL INFLUENCE:

This drive includes social motivators like mentorship, companionship, acceptance, and social capital. Friending, group quests and brag buttons are all game elements used in this core drive.

SCARCITY:

This drive motivates employees to want something because they can’t have it. It is one of three black hat strategies used in gamification. It’s about waiting periods, like signing up for a waitlist for a new product.

UNPREDICTABILITY & CURIOSITY:

This drive is about getting employees curious about what could happen next. Random or sudden rewards for a job well done fall under this core drive.

AVOIDANCE:

This core drive is about avoiding something negative from happening. Such as losing the opportunity to act, otherwise if will be gone forever.

Gamification can add a lot to company culture.

It has to be fun and not administrative; the outcome of gamification has visible results. The connection of doing it with purpose and impact, the changing things and improving things has value to not only the organization but the employee too - purpose and the ability of people to make an impact and have a bit of fun along the way.

GAMIFICATION AT WORK

The gamification at work (2019) survey by TalentLMS reports the following key findings:

33% 78% 83% 89% 89%

of employees would like more game experiences in their training

describe that having gamification in the recruitment process would make the company more desirable

of employees feel more motivated after receiving a gamified training

of employees report that they would feel more motivated if their work was gamified

Many companies use gamification for game-based learning and training. However, the applicability of gamification extends beyond just training, and includes the entire lifespan of the employee’s work journey.

There are many well-known gamification examples in the workplace, while many have yet to be applied to the service industry, these clearly show a trend towards employee retention and engagement through gamification.

French Postal Service: Jeu w Academy

The postal service was losing about 25% of its new hires. They launched their academy which gave potential workers a chance to experience the life of a postal carrier during a one-week training. The experience included real life events such as waking up early and negotiating day to day challenges. As a result, their turnover decreased to 8%.

Marriott Hotel: My Marriott Hotel

My Marriott hotel is a game experience that is designed to introduce potential candidates to a career in the hospitality industry. Played via Facebook by potential candidates, players take on the role of kitchen managers where they must first design the kitchen with the right equipment, then staff the kitchen with the right workers, ensure all the food orders are fulfilled on time, and exchange workers for breaks, or ending shifts.

Microsoft Staffers: Language Localization

As a worldwide company, Microsoft must localize its various products. However, their goal was for their localization efforts to be managed by a single team. To address this, they created a language quality game that prompts employees to view screen orders and to check the translation accuracy. The game was so effective that 4,500 employees were able to review 500,000 documents.

Is gamification right for your engagement strategy?

To determine if gamification is the right engagement strategy for your business we recommend this simple checklist, if you can answer yes to all of these questions, gamification can help you with engagement.

Do you currently pay your service workers a living wage?

Do you offer health care benefits to your service workers?

Do you attempt to be fair with the number of work hours and the roles each service worker has to do?

These questions 1 to 3 are foundational, without these cornerstones in place no matter what you try and do in terms of engagement will only go so far. If you answer yes to all these questions, then you might be ready for gamification. Once these foundations are in place, then, what else are you looking to achieve?

Do you need a better and bigger pool of potential workers?

Do you want to have long term committed employees?

Do you struggle with retention?

Do you wish to optimize your onboarding process?

Do you want employees to become ambassadors or even evangelists of your brand?

If the answer is yes to any of these questions, then gamification might be right for your business. Contact us to discuss and explore the opportunities that exist for your business operations.

At the end of the day, it doesn’t have to be all about work and no play!

About the Authors:

Simon Elliot

Managing Partner & Co-Founder

Simon Elliot is Managing Partner and co-founder of boutique consulting and advisory firm, 4xi Global Consulting. He is the Chair of WORKTECH Academy for North America, a Fellow of the Institute of Directors (London) and considered a global thought leader in the future of work and how we’ll work tomorrow.

Now based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Simon has lived, worked, and traveled globally having visited 6 or the 7 continents and led business and projects in the UK, Northern Europe, Australasia, Asia, South, and North America.

Alyea Sandovar Director

Tint Hue

Alyea is a gamification and play consultant helping businesses increase conversions with employees and customers in the entire CX, EX journey from discovery to brand ambassadorship.

Alyea helps organizations build meaningful engagement through gamification consultation, gamification workshops, play testing & research. She is also the founder of the Playful Creative Summit and consults as the COO for Peekabond, an app for global families.

She is a global citizen, from Colombia, has lived in Paris, Buenos Aires, Houston, San Francisco, Indonesia, and Amsterdam. She currently spends her winters in Lisbon, Portugal. Alyea holds a M.A in Clinical Psychology, a M.A in Human Organizational Systems, and a Ph.D. in Game Production.

4xi Global Consulting & Solutions

4xi is a boutique advisory and consulting firm focused on the Human Experience (HX) in the Away from Home markets – people at work, in education, at rest, and at leisure. 4xi is a unique collective of senior industry leaders from both the client-side and operator-side of the business supporting Client Organizations, Service Providers, Innovators, and Accelerators transforming their experience offering and making a greater impact through a people-first approach to service and business.

PUBLISHER

Simon Elliot

EXECUTIVE TEAM

Simon Elliot

Managing Partner & Co-Founder

Barbara Boden

Managing Partner & Co-Founder

Tony Johnson

Leadership Advisory Council

Chief Experience Officer (CXO)

MARKETING

Dina O’Reilly Strategic Partnerships & Project Management Office

Hannah Spearman Graphic Design & Creative Services

This publication was published by 4xi Consulting. For more information about 4xi Consulting, please visit us at www.4xiconsulting.com, email us at hello@4xiconsulting.com.

All rights reserved 2023©

NO PART OF THIS PUBLICATION MAY BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT THE EXPRESS WRITTEN CONSENT OF THE PUBLISHER.

Evolving Experiences© is focused on transforming the Human Experience (HX), and business performance through Employee (EX) and Customer experience (CX).

EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE STRATEGY: Creating an EX strategy hand in hand with your business; imperative, sharing, learning, teaching, and tools.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE STRATEGY: Focus on your customers and their needs, and how do you drive optimum levels of experience, satisfaction and loyalty.

CULTURE CHANGE: Embracing a human experience, people-first approach requires engagement and winning hearts and minds.

TRAINING & PLAYBOOKS: Feet on the ground practical training and support for your team, and the materials that memorialize the strategy.

MEASUREMENTS OF SUCCESS: No program can be successful without the correct measurements and data that align with your imperatives.

Contact Us to learn more: hello@4xiconsulting.com