Gamification for HR

Source: http://artofservice.com.au

How Instituting Gamification processes can boost efficiency and increase employee 

satisfaction in the process.

Anyone who says they don’t like games, or prefers sticking to highly structured unrewarding tasks in lieu of them, is probably playing mind games with you.    An overwhelming majority of people would much rather engage in something fun and rewarding, and would likely take preventative measures to avoid overly boring or complex tasks.  This kind of thinking often extends into many individuals career fields as well.  The field of HR (human resources) is certainly no exception here; HR is mostly confined to an office and requires a certain level of productivity and devotion from its workers.  Too often in an office environment (where tedious and repetitive work is being performed), individuals may become complacent and slip in their duties.  This is to be expected however, as human beings often require stimulation, gratification and/or exploration to keep them interested in something for an extended period of time.  It’s mostly due to the way our brains process information (in an abstract manner) and our desire to ‘problem-solve’ or achieve. This of course brings us to gamification, and how it might be able to energize employee morale and foster an atmosphere of progress.

Gamification is simply put, another way for employers (in this case, HR) to create incentive without devoting too much time, money or energy to the cause.  At its core, it’s really about giving employees an even greater level of creative freedom in exchange for their loyalty and steadfastness.  Obviously, an employer cannot simply eliminate all rules, schedules, timetables, deadlines, codes of conduct and short/long term goals.  However, they can create things like bonuses for certain achievements, awards for diligence or various other incentives.  This is what gamification seeks to achieve in HR; to give employees a reason to feel good about their job and offer them a potential for future growth and expansion in their duties and position.

One of the age old quandaries in business management is how to keep things running smoothly at a brisk pace while at the same time, maintaining employee contentedness.  It is in the business manager’s best interest to keep his/her employee’s satiated for a number of reasons;

1. Satisfied employees are easier to manage, more dependable and of course, more consistent in their output (which is normally much higher than that of a dissatisfied employee).
2. As employee approval increases so does the capability for increasing levels of both production (output) and efficiency (constancy).
3. Contented employees are often prone to implement creative problem solving or devise inventive solutions, which in turn, produces / saves profits.

So, the idea is to institute certain incentive programs (via gamification elements) in order to strike a balance between productivity and freedom.  In doing so, an employer can expect nothing ore than loyalty and renewed fervor from employees in their duties.   This is especially important in HR, where employees in that department are expected to help others resolve their workplace difficulties.

With gamification it is also extremely easy to generate competition within the workplace.  One needs to be mindful of the ethical implications associated with competition and gamification however, pitting employees against one another for the company’s benefit (or your own) is disgraceful and counterintuitive to any businesses true goals.  However, tapping into the competitive aspect of any professional environment is a sure-fire way to generate interesting activity (with gamification).  Competition isn’t all bad though, it often attracts the most determined and resourceful individuals and prods them toward even greater accomplishments which in turn, benefit the entire organization.  A more competitive atmosphere might also increase the numbers of individuals that are actively participating in certain projects or tasks.  Gamification is especially useful in this regard.   For example, the easiest way to get that “difficult and/or tedious” project completed done (which might have been lying there dormant for weeks/months) is to begin offering comparable incentives to those employees that are able to complete it.

In many ways, Gamification represents a microcosm of the way larger economic elements function and interact with one another.  Sure, some incentives or awards might not be that outstanding, but compare them with endlessly performing the same type of tasks day in, day out with absolutely no acknowledgment.  In fact, most people go out of their way to avoid dealing with management, because seeing them usually means something went wrong, or some disciplinary measure must be taken.  Gamification essentially reverses this stigma (associated with all forms or levels of business management).  With gamification in place, the next visit from your boss might be to offer you a promotion instead of the opposite.