How Gamification Can Transform eLearning for Your Staff

The rapid rise of gamification in eLearning has gotten a lot of attention lately and for pretty good reasons. Described stiffly as “the use of game design elements in non-game contexts,” studies have shown that gamification of content and learning material increases cognitive, motivational, and behavioral learning outcomes. Period. Full stop. And why wouldn’t you want your learning outcomes to improve?

Business leaders take note. It’s not all “fun and games.” By using gamification concepts to learn employees in the said study met their goal 25% more often, increased their clientele  (in sales) by 16%, and increased additional business opportunities by 22%. So what is it about “gaming” any way that facilitates learning so effectively?

Millennials Lead the Charge

As millennials begin to dominate the working-age population here in the United States (75% of the global workforce is expected to be made up of millennials by the end of this year [2025]), employee gamification is only going to become more significant. For business leaders, the question of securing, training, and then retaining this generation’s talent pool becomes a real concern.

One way to do this is to address the needs of this cohort directly. For too long now, one-way training options in many workplaces has grown stuffy and ineffective. Learning becomes a slog. And with inadequate training and antiquated learning methodologies in place, your employees will no doubt feel that their needs in your workplace aren’t being enhanced or even addressed. In this digital age, where things move quickly through our brains and attention span is difficult to come by, a traditional approach of communicating information from teacher to student is close to becoming irrelevant.

It comes as no surprise to hear that millennials are the first generation to be raised on computers and video games. Given that, it makes sense to take advantage of that facility and familiarity by introducing workplace concepts to them through a more technologically-based, gamified delivery. A recent study posited that applying this approach to learning boosted engagement by over 50%. This kind of meet-them-where-they-are uptake lays the foundation for a system that’s designed to appeal to your next generation of tech-fluent leaders.

What Does Gamification Look Like?

Gamification in training and e-learning overlays the tactics of digital and physical gaming on a learning or training curriculum. This type of approach does not necessarily focus on team-play or even competition. Rather it motivates employees to simply “win” at whatever they’re doing, and then move ahead. It recognizes performance more directly, in the way of scores and rewards, and thus gives employees the opportunity to feel like they’ve accomplished something and, like all “wins,” motivates employees to continue winning—that is, adopting new skills, while at the same time attaining the learning objectives you’ve laid out for them. Gamification is also more casual than customary training and removes some of the stress that comes hand-in-hand with conventional learning.

Studies have shown that gamification triggers the release of dopamine, which enhances participants with a feeling of pleasure and further motivation. Forward-thinking eLearning and Training departments can utilize the gamification concept to improve employee facility with things like roles/responsibilities, policies and procedures, sticky company concepts, and even brand guidelines. Gamification of these training concepts can turn the routine of daily work into something much less tedious and way more productive.

Generally speaking, a game involves three elements: a defined goal, a set of rules, and a way to earn points. eLearning developers and trainers can insert rewards such as recognition and prizes can provide learners with immediate feedback, and also encourage engagement and teamwork among staff.

• Competition/Scorekeeping: Having a scorecard or a scoreboard, or some type of leaderboard, ala sporting events, not only enables everyone to monitor progress and successes but brings the office together for a common purpose.
• Challenges: A challenge is something you might try office-wide. Essentially, it would require participants to accomplish or complete something challenging, but would not have any negative impact if they failed to do so. Challenges can be gamified or practical, meaning it would be a contest in which anybody can participate to solve a problem, innovate a process, or streamline a bottleneck, for example.
• Encouragement/Camaraderie: So much of gamification is based on social interaction. Games provide your office with a common mission, something to share, whether that means convening at the leaderboard to discuss scores, putting heads together in order to brainstorm, or celebrating someone’s unique achievement.
• Storytelling: Twenty or so years ago, storytelling was all the rage in the corporate marketplace. By now, the concept is old hat, but still effective; the brain absorbs information via stories more efficiently than it does facts. Storytelling delivers new information much more immersively than a list of bullet points. Gamification can take advantage of that by including storytelling elements, like character, setting, plot, and conflict. Try creating a narrative that includes your people as characters in a plot that involves tackling an office challenge.

Elements of Gamification

There are many ways to incorporate gamification into eLearning concepts. Quick thinking trainers and leaders can turn virtually any training component into a game. Here are a few ways to Here’s a quick jumpstart guide:

1. Leaderboards: Keep it amicable. But you’ll likely find that a little competition can get your employees going and incentivize them to show up. Of course, this is most effective on the Type A/Sales side, but it can be used outside of that as well, for example, in social media posts.
2. Recognition: HR departments everywhere are finding that types of recognition are a super-easy way to create a better, dare I say, more celebratory atmosphere at work. Issuing unexpected rewards is a great way to tell people that their efforts are recognized even when they didn’t feel that way.
3. Game-Based Job Training/Role Playing: This one will take a little more effort in design, but try gamifying employee training and role-playing as well as other learning concepts. Employ trivia or a points system to help trainees familiarize themselves with their responsibilities, their business or their department, then gauge their progress so you can identify areas of improvement.

The Game Is On!

At the end of the day, all of this gamification stuff makes really good sense. Everyone loves a game; the dopamine of competition and joining in together to accomplish a shared goal is real. Like so many of us who woke up on a school day just looking forward to going to recess, this approach to L&D motivates people to show up every day and take a different view of their jobs. Maybe it incentivizes them to learn and grow, as career-minded individuals, of course, but also as people. They realize that with a little effort, these types of approaches to learning can help them become their best selves.

So, if you feel morale is lagging and your ordinary learning concepts are failing to gain traction, introduce gamification to provide your people with an emotional boost. The aim is to permanently impact behaviors and attitudes relevant to achievement, and change the way your staff views training and instructional content in general. A little effort goes a long way.

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