How To Use Gamification To Train And Motivate Employees – Tech Tip for April 28, 2020
We are wrapping up our theme on user education this week with a final Tech Tip that explores how you can motivate employees to use data and analytics in their day to day workflows. When it comes to new trends and technology (like utilizing AI or business analytics), it can be hard to get employees onboard. But by using what’s known as ‘gamification’ in your training and user education, you can better incentivize employees to complete certain tasks or perform actions that ultimately drive business results. Let’s take a look at how this works.
What is gamification?
The key word here is game. The goal of gamification is to personally motivate employees, create healthy competition, and change behavior. And this is accomplished by giving users various scenarios or challenges and rewarding them once a goal or task is met.
Make user training more effective with gamification
Gamification helps your organization create a more engaging learning experience, challenging employees with real-life situations in a controlled training environment. You may use the following key elements to craft a gamification strategy:
- Scores or Points (to give employees a sense of accomplishment and gratification)
- Levels (to guide employees along a learning path)
- Challenges (mapping to learning objectives)
- Instant feedback (to aid progress)
- Badges (for significant achievements)
- Competition (across teams to motivate employees)
- Collaboration (across teams to enhance learning)
The entire process of gamification essentially includes game-like aspects such as play, fun, and challenge that works to increase engagement and boost knowledge retention. It’s a great way to shape employee behavior through a sense of achievement and advancement. And it incentivizes employees to continue down a learning path. For more insights, read Harvard Business Review’s article on how Gamification Can Help People Actually Use Analytics Tools.