Throughout history, a recurring phenomenon is the lack of motivation, engagement, or enjoyment seen in employees working at mundane, 9-5 jobs at companies and businesses. And reasons vary depending on circumstances such as personal and professional. Many employees would feel a sense of detachment to company goals and values. And in order to combat this lack of motivation and engagement of its employees, many businesses have adopted various techniques in its day to day operations, one of which is gamification.
The concept of gamification refers to applying elements of games (board, video, etc) on to mundane concepts such as education, business, or even lifestyles to boosts user engagement and motivation. For example, a video game would consist of elements such as rewards for achievement. This is also known as a point system. With a reward system the user will feel a sense of accomplishment when successfully completing a set task within the game as well as strive to earn more as higher points would be awarded progression. And by applying these game mechanics and elements to the workplace would defiantly result in a more successful outcome.
Gamification was not introduced or recognized until the early 2000s. It then took another 10 years for it to become a concept worth implementing.
Although it may seem like an ideal to immediately incorporate gamification within a business it does come with its own set of challenges that obstruct a successful adoption of gamification. One major hindrance is the cultural gap and demographic. With the ever-changing world, businesses tend to evolve its operations and formats, however given the varying differences between companies, specifically its cultures, the successfully adopting gamification mechanics to a business depends. Essentially certain businesses with a long history might retain old traditions, and/or its cultural importance for its image’s sake or relation with its customers. Therefore, implementing a new concept of gamification might be considered unnecessary to its already functional way of operations. This to another major obstruction and that’s demographic, or the broad existence. What this means is that when gamified ways of learning or operations are introduced to the workplace, the younger or progressive demographic would find it a lot easier to adapt, whilst an older or less progressive group might find the concept strange, difficult or even unmotivating.
Figure 1. Melbourne City (Business capital of Victoria)
So how does a business implement gamification into its operations to better its employee performance and motivation?
References :
Maan, J., 2013. Social Business Transformation Through Gamification. [online] Arxiv.org. Available at: <https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1309/1309.7063.pdf> [Accessed 28 April 2020].
Kumar, J. and HERGER, M., 2013. GAMIFICATION AT WORK. [online] www.researchgate.net/. Available at: <https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Janaki_Kumar2/publication/262312974_Gamification_at_Work_Designing_Engaging_Business_Software/links/587e4adb08aed3826af45cac/Gamification-at-Work-Designing-Engaging-Business-Software.pdf?source=post_page—————————> [Accessed 27 April 2020].
Kappen, D. and Nacke, L., 2013. The Kaleidoscope Of Effective Gamification. [online] Dl.acm.org. Available at: <https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/2583008.2583029> [Accessed 27 April 2020].