This sheer sense of timelessness associated with games has stroked the curiosity of several scholars and resulted in multiple studies about game design & its elements. These studies have shown the effect of games on human psychology and also its general application in non-game contexts, which has come to be known as Gamification popularly. Since the turn of the last decade, the application of gamification concepts in improving workplaces and businesses has been a topic of interest for many CEOs and business leaders, sparking a lot of investment in the area. As the president of a student-run organization and leading many volunteers, the introduction of Gamification to make work more fun happened intuitively and helped with team management and improved productivity.

From my leadership stint, I learned that employees find it very easy to perform tasks for which they are intrinsically motivated. On the other hand, they find it difficult to efficiently complete tasks that lack clarity regarding where the impact is directed. This is where the opportunity to include gamification elements like visualization of statistics in the form of leaderboards, rewards, recognition, and many more can promote healthy competition and make the experience of performing even mundane tasks more fun and engaging.

From my personal experiences and observations, I’ve prepared a list of 3 places where basic Gamification can help with your work:

How To Train Your Employee (or Dragon)

‍Going through employee manuals and endless literature before starting a new job can be consuming. Gamification provides an opportunity to make something as dull as that more engaging and exciting.  Something as simple as allowing a new trainee to collect points for answering quizzes after viewing a document and keeping track of their peers’ progress can increase their willingness to learn and enrich the entire experience.

Those Godforsaken Cold Calls

‍Nothing can be more de-energizing than the thought of having to pick up the phone to make 100 cold calls only to be rejected as many times. What if you organized a contest between all your employees and rewarded the first person for getting through their list? Even a lifeless task can be filled with energy and uplift the entire workplace.

Catching Your Customer’s Attention

‍Coming up with effective marketing campaigns to engage customers has made many marketing teams toil. What is turning out to be the most effective means to achieve the same are gamified campaigns. Here, a customer can immerse themselves as characters in a storyline, exploring different product offerings and collecting points on the way. Not only are such campaigns highly engaging, but they also result in higher customer loyalty.

The list of applications of Gamification in the workplace is not exhaustive and is subject to continuous research. What can be said without a shadow of a doubt is that sufficient evidence proves we can use the concepts of games to create more productive, efficient, and collaborative workplaces.