Gamification in Learning and Development

Generally, induction training programs or employee training programs use a knowledge packed and information overload for the new recruits and the existing employees of the organization. However, Gamification approach has brought about a paradigm shift in the techniques and methodologies applied for conducting training programs in organizations.

Adopted from ‘Game Theory’ technique, it is an approach which is used to not only train but evolve solutions based approach to solving operational problems, goal setting for organizational effectiveness. For example, in case of induction training programs the new recruits are given various systems to select from, they start playing a game where they are taken on a tour and are provided with the information about the organization that they have joined. The next level asks them to select the correct choice from the multiple choice questions related to the information already provided to them and which they are asked to select. The name of the highest scorers is displayed on ‘leaderboard’ the next day or the employee with highest score is given a badge.

However, in this case the leaderboards are distinct from the traditional leaderboards where only the top scorers are displayed on the board. Here names of the people who are almost on par level with each other with respect to scoring are placed on the leaderboard to encourage them to score higher than each other and badges are given to people who choose similar ‘Information Tour’ as regards the organization.

This exercise motivates the new recruits to perform better and thereby also know about the organization and its various operations.This technique is also used to draw solutions from the employees thereby focusing on employee engagement in resolving organizational issues. 

Deloitte Leadership Academy (DLA) is an online program for training its own employees as well as its clients. DLA found that by embedding missions, badges, and leaderboards into a user-friendly platform alongside video lectures, in-depth courses, tests and quizzes, users have become engaged and more likely to complete the online training programs. It has seen an increase by 37%, in the number of participants to its training programs owing to integration of ‘Gamification’ principles in the training programs. 

Executives willing to adopt this technique as a tool for learning and development should ask the following questions before adopting it:

• What are the business goals? (business problem/s that the executives wish to address by applying this technique)  
• Who is your audience? (this will be directed to internal employees or external stakeholders)
• How will you track success? (satisfaction rates among users and relationship between engagement and achievement levels).

Hence ‘Gamification’ is proven to boost retention and drive engagement among employees.