The Use of Gamification in Corporate Training
- jllatham5
- May 20, 2023
- 5 min read
Updated: May 22, 2023
Introduction
There are many definitions of what gamification is. In short gamification is taking something that is not a game, like corporate training, and adding game design and mechanics in the hopes of increasing engagement. This means that gamification takes aspects from both the mechanical and physiological parts of game-design and applies them to non-game things. It should be noted however, that this is not creating a game with the goal of training, that is called a serious game and is not the same as gamification. Gamification is taking training and adding game-like elements to it in hopes to make it more fun, while a serious game is an actual video game design with the intention of training and learning. The goal of gamification in training is to engage with learners to inspire, motivate and encourage them to interact with the provided training. There are many parts of game design that you can add into your trainings to make them more engaging; quizzes, points, levels, leaderboards, and badges to name a few. One of the key pieces to make gamified training successful in a corporate setting is leadership involvement and enthusiasm. Having leaders that are visibly engaging with the training will help boost employee participations and lessen the feeling of being judged by others or fear of being reprimanded by mangers. ("Does Gamified Training Get Results?", 2023).
Banishing Boredom
As a trainer I have seen firsthand the struggle to get buy-in from employees to not only take but actively participate in required training. Many employees see the majority of corporate training to be dull, boring and time that they could be spending on other work activities. Employing gamification techniques can go a long way to reframing peoples’ thoughts of training just something boring to get though. In order to ignite curiosity instruction designers and trainers need to understand that “Boredom is not necessarily the opposite of curiosity; boredom results from being in an environment that is filled with uniform, unchanging stimuli…” (Keller & Deimann, 2018, p.80). I have personally been training a class and witnessed the shift in training engagement once the group’s eyes start glazing over. Without a pretty big shift in tactic, it is hard to get people to reengage. Employing gamification aspics into training can help keep people engaged for longer and help to break up what can turn into a little monotony in long training sessions. Learners are more willing to complete repetitive tasks, as well as experience failure and still make additional repeated attempts in gamified environments (Larson,2022). One aspect of gamification that can be added to both e-learning and instructor led courses to break up the training and help keep off boredom is quizzes or polls. A question about something that was previously taught can help gage where people are, ensure they are grasping the information and allow them to shift focus momentarily to reengage them. Using non-training related polls may also be a great way to liven up training and encourage people to participate, doing a poll of people’s favorite ice cream flavor for example.
Belief in Mastering the Task
“A central concept related to building confidence in mastering learning tasks is that of control.” (Keller & Deimann, 2018, p.81), learners are more likely to be motivated when they feel like the outcomes or success, they are achieving is due to their skill level and not just luck. Having a marathon quiz in training to try to assess knowledge will leave learners hoping they can guess as many correct questions as they need to pass in order to get back to work. As instructional designers we need to find other ways to provide a sense of control to the learner of what they are learning or how quickly they are progressing. You can incorporate progress bars and levels into training to allow learners to know how far they have come and how much more has to be done. Showing how far they have progressed through the training is a great way to boost confidence and motivation to keep going. Adding levels with added difficulty can also help bolster the belief that they can master the task by starting off easier and gradually building upon knowledge they already know; you have to crawl before you can walk. Levels would also allow users at different knowledge levels to start where they are comfortable or challenge themselves by trying a higher level. Simulations are also a great way to encourage this self-belief. Allowing learners to step though what they are learning themselves instead of answering endless questions combines real life experiences with the knowledge they are learning.
Anticipate & Experience Satisfying Outcomes
The anticipation and experience of satisfying outcomes is a large part of the success of games in general. It keeps the person coming back for more even if things might be a little hard. If the reward is good enough someone will try over and over to defeat the final boss or complete a difficult quest. This same anticipation and experience of satisfaction can be incorporated into corporate training to make something people are enthusiastic about completing. When trying to implement these satisfying outcomes into a training it is important to keep in mind that extrinsic rewards may actually cause a decrease in motivation, so it is important to choose implementation methods that provide feedback when a person is successful to help combat that. Two of the elements of gamification that you can incorporate into training are badges and leaderboards. Badges can elicit the feeling of recognition of skill or knowledge and if made shareable or posted by the company, they can inform others of the level of expertise. (Larson,2019) Leaderboards allow a group as a whole see where they stack up against the rest and allows them to better see that they may need to be more active to increase their score. You may also consider how frequently you reset the leaderboard to give employees that were not able to be as active in training during a set time frame the ability to still advance on the leaderboard. Badges and leaderboards can also provide “…feedback that reinforces a student for successfully completing an optimally challenging task…”(Keller & Deimann, 2018, p.81).
References
Ketkin, I. (2022, June 28). How to gamify your training. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haei30lDwHw&ab_channel=TheL%26DAcademy
Larson, K. (2019). Serious games and gamification in the Corporate Training Environment: A Literature Review. TechTrends, 64(2), 319–328. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-019-00446-7
Does Gamified Training Get Results? (2023, March/April). Harvard Business Review.
Koumparaki, E. (2023, February 23). Gamification in corporate training: 5 examples to get you inspired. TalentLMS Blog. https://www.talentlms.com/blog/how-use-gamification-training/
Pandey, A. (2021, May 12). 5 killer gamification examples to enhance the impact of your corporate training (updated in 2020). eLearning Industry. https://elearningindustry.com/gamification-in-the-workplace-reshaping-corporate-training-5-killer-examples
Keller, J. M. & Deimann, M. (2018). Motivation, volition, and performance. In R. A. Reiser,& J. V. Dempsey (EDS), Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology. (4th ed., pp.78–86). Person Education Inc.
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