How Can Gamification Enhance the Corporate Training Experience?

by Marie Martin Search Engine Optimization

Gamification is one of the biggest trends in eLearning today, making the entire learning process much more engaging and effective. In fact, the value of the worldwide gamification market stood at $6.8 billion in 2018. What’s even more impressive is that the market is expected to grow to $40 billion by 2024!

OK, so games make learning fun and that’s great for school, but how does that help your L&D department, you ask?

With organizations all across the world employing millennials and Gen Z, it is time to relook at your corporate training program. Is it relevant for the changing needs and learning preferences of your current and future employees?

Why Gamify Corporate Training?

Here are some of the reasons why organizations should look for easy integration of gamification in the learning experience platform they choose.

Improved Engagement

High engagement is vital not just for employee learning and development, but for talent retention. In this brave new world of smartphones and multi-tasking, keeping the millennial and Gen Z workforce engaged might seem like a difficult task. That is where gamification excels, grabbing attention of the learner and making corporate training enjoyable and enriching. A study published by ResearchGate in April 2019 revealed that the emotional, behavioral and cognitive engagement of learners improved with the help of gamification.

Instant Feedback

For improving continuously, efficient feedback is important. In fact, today’s young workforce is known to seek immediate feedback. With gamification, feedback not only becomes efficient, it becomes instantaneous as well. Learners can find out about their strengths and areas that need improvement. Also, getting better becomes much more fun when games are involved. There can be leaderboards to check where one is, compared to their peers, creating a sense of competition.

Micro-Learning

With gamification, information can be delivered in the form of small, easily digestible nuggets. This improves the speed of learning as well as the retention rate. Again, microlearning is the format of choice for millennials and Gen Zers, who like to get quick access to relevant information through snackable videos, infographics and more.

Gamification Techniques

There are a number of gamification techniques that lead to better engagement, retention and motivation to complete the training. However, the three most popular and effective techniques are:

Points

These are the simplest rewards that a learner can earn as they progress along a training module. Once a learner earns a specific number of points, they can usually unlock a new level or get a reward.

Badges

Badges generally represent a new milestone, achievement or completion of an objective. They are a great tool for acknowledging the learning of a new skill or tracking progress. On the basis of the layout of badges, they can also be used to break down objectives into smaller and more easily accomplished tasks. This makes the entire training program seem easier, keeping the learner engaged till the very end.

Leaderboards

Leaderboards tell the learners how well they are doing compared to rest of their colleagues. This leads to healthy office competition and employees often push themselves to achieve more. It is a fun way of getting more out of everyone.

How to Take Training to the Next Level with Gamification

With the help of these techniques, you can take your corporate training initiatives, to the next level. However, make sure you choose a robust online learning platform, like Kea, that allows the easy integration of interactive and gaming elements. Here’s a look at how such a platform can enhance corporate training:

Create Clear Learning Pathways

It is easy to lose sight of goals and progress. But with the help of a gamified course, you can arrange the content in a structure with separate levels. Learners complete each module to level up, moving towards content that is more challenging with every step.

Keep Learners Coming Back for More

Learners often lose interest in training. But with gamification, they gain a sense of achievement that keeps them going. They are encouraged and rewarded for interacting with the system. There can be rewards for consecutive log ins or for mastering a short segment. With such recognition, employees will feel more compelled to access the training program.

Take Advantage of the Competitive Spirit

With the help of leaderboards, companies can make the most the competitive spirit of today’s employees. This leads to learners spending a little extra time on training themselves and getting ahead of their colleagues. There can even be timed quizzes that pit different employees against each other.

Simulate Real-Life Scenarios

With the help of games, real life scenarios can be recreated. This is especially useful in sales training. Games can help in recreating a target-driven, fast-paced day on the sales floor. Audio can be added to increase realism.

Gamification via Learning Experience Platforms

The use of gaming elements in training becomes easy with the help of a robust online learning platform. Such platforms allow the use of gaming elements, interactive content, audio and video in learning. Also, they allow for personalized learning and assessments. They also have powerful analytics to track and monitor the learning progress and content consumption pattern of each employee.

Here’s a look at some scenarios where gamification can enhance the corporate training experience.

1. Employee Onboarding

Training can be provided in the form of a mission game, where each new hire needs to complete certain tasks to clear each level. Tasks can also be made timebound, meaning that each level needs to be cleared within a specified timeframe. Adding a leaderboard to this can help the trainee see how they are doing in comparison to others, which could be motivating.

2. Sales Enablement

Gamification can bring in an element of competition, which spurs the sales team to perform better. They are already used to such a scenario in real life, where their performance on the sales floor is target-driven and fast-paced. Creating a story out of real-life situation, such that the sales team can apply their knowledge in simulated circumstances can be very useful to learning. This is because such simulations can be easily transferred to their everyday work life.

3. Compliance Training

Interactive and engaging, a simulation-based game can even make compliance training more enjoyable, while leading to better retention of the latest regulatory framework. The game can provide risk scenarios for the trainees to overcome, with bonus points as reward for success. On the other hand, failure to apply the right regulations or rules could lead to a bomb exploding or a similar surprise.

Other ways in which gamification can be incorporated in online learning is through quizzes that earn the best performers badges or immersive story-telling, where the trainee is one of the characters in the story and determines how the story pans out. All these gamification elements are easy to integrate into training with a robust learning experience platform.

Are you ready to take your organization to the future of employee onboarding and training? Contact us today to learn how to do so.

Source: https://www.askkea.com/blog/how-gamification-workplace-enhance-corporate-training-experience/