Gamification employs the use of game mechanics to non-gaming context and makes business strategies interesting, fun, interactive and highly attractive. It can be applied to a varied number of business strategies, particularly in areas of sales, marketing, customer relationship, employee engagement, recruitment and evening learning. And because its adoption is trending globally, it’s no longer a secret that companies can hang on to. In fact, its wide use and adoption rate makes it the worst kept secret in the business world (and that’s great)! The business world today is using gamification as the ingredient that can help solve complex challenges, enhance productivity and help it implement multifaceted strategies. It’s also being used to power up talent in ways that could never be achieved in the past.

Why Gamification Really Works?

Traditionally, companies have spent enormous resources, time, funds and even mind-bending strategy meetings coming up with ways to engage, develop, attract and retain talent. It’s been relentless and often all that investment has fallen short of meeting the demands of the talent market. Why? Because there are several flaws in the traditional ideology, design and implementation of classic engagement strategies.

This is the gap that gamification has leaped into and helped revive the business world’s ambition to really engage talent. Some of these gaps are:

• Delayed feedback for the learner or performer.
• Lack of purpose-centered motivation techniques.
• Bias in screening process.
• Unclear goals and objectives.
• Miscommunication and unclear expectations.
• Mundane and boring learning and development methodologies.
• Flawed assessment techniques.

The list goes on, however, I’m sure you get the idea. What gamification does is that it applies motivational principles around the core ideology of purpose and engagement and then addresses the above, and other such challenges. Hence, it’s able to:

• Make goals transparent and easy to understand, hence, enhancing employee engagement and alignment.
• Provide real-time and accurate feedback to promote positive behavior.
• Incentivize progress and drive motivation from purpose.
• Break goals into smaller levels making them easier to achieve.
• Incrementally build confidence of its user from the progress they make.
• Assess users based on neuroscience and cognitive behavior, hence removing bias.
• Enhance retention of the knowledge gained.

And there’s more to it than this!

Gamification is particularly of interest to companies who’re looking to attract a young workforce, i.e. the millennials. 50% of your near future workforce will comprise of millennials. So, there’s hardly any excuse for you to avoid a solution that truly does speak to this generation of workers. Gamification, is precisely that. A solution that millennials understand, appreciate, are attracted to and which they prefer.

How You Can Power Up Talent

So I’ve got you curious about gamification and you’re probably wondering “is this the solution for my company?” Yes, it is, because your talent wants it. Why do they want it? Well, here are some elements of social behavior that millennials really enjoy. These elements can be found in various gamification platforms, like C-Factor.

1. Status

People love to boast about their achievements and pride off their success. Facebook made a killing by giving people a platform to talk about their achievements and accomplishments. People love to be recognized, praised and adored by their peers and social groups. With a gamified solution in your company, your employees will be able to flaunt their accomplishments, compete and demonstrate how awesome they are. It’s a brilliant way to engage your employees and encourage positive behavior.

2. Competition

A healthy, balanced competitive environment is perfect to push employees to their limits and exploit their full and true talent. You want to have the best talent in your company. And through gamification you’ll harvest a competitive environment where only the best stand out and remain standing. You’ll weed out mediocrity and cultivate a workplace of high performers and achievers.

3. Rewards

Badges and rewards are precisely the motivators that millennials love to stay on course and keep challenging themselves. It’s that simple pat on the back that’s needed by your employees. And the best part is that through gamification the feedback and reward is instantaneous. Hence, your workforce gets the encouragement and motivation promptly. Rewards are great to boost morale and confidence.

4. Team Building

While at first it may seem that gamification is tilted towards a narcissistic world, it’s really not. There are several ways to embed team building into the platform that fosters collective achievements. If building cohesiveness within your team is important to you then you can achieve just that by altering the game mechanics to encourage collaborations and teamwork. Levels can be designed in way that no one gets left behind and players must work together to ensure everyone clears that stage.

Gamification can truly power up talent in any industry and company. The question is, are you ready to really engage, develop and attract your talent? If so, then let the games begin!

Learn how you can take your leadership teams through a growth model which will help them mature on a personal and professional level by following me on LinkedIn and subscribing to the Keijzer Community.

Paul Keijzer is the CEO and Founder of Engage Consulting and the co-Founder of The Talent Games, which aims to transform HR by digitising talent processes and creating more engaging and productive workplaces through gamification and mobile technology. As a global HR and Leadership Management expert, Paul knows how to combine business insights with people insights to transform organisations and put them on the path to growth.