By Karen Hsu
A lack of engagement is a big problem in the modern workforce, and steps must be taken to identify and solve the problem. Gamification can help trainers and HR professionals find the data they need and increase engagement. Today, we present an article by Karen Hsu, vice president of marketing at Badgeville, on how gamification can make HR a more data-driven organization.
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There is an engagement crisis in the workplace, and it has profound implications for company performance and staff retention. A recent Mercer report revealed that about a third of surveyed workers consider their current position a job, not a career. More tellingly, about three-quarters of surveyed employees report that they would stay at their present company if their career path was more clearly defined.
HR teams are aware of the employee engagement gap and are seeking new strategies to close it. They understand that to improve employee performance and generate better results across the organization, they’ll have to increase engagement. As the Mercer study shows, engaged employees deliver a superior customer experience, which improves profitability and builds brand equity.
But, what is the best strategy to improve staff commitment? Increasingly, employers are turning to gamification to close the engagement gap. Gartner Research estimated that gamification will soon become the operational improvement strategy of choice for 40% of global 1000 companies. With the right gamification solution, HR teams can generate the data they need to measure progress, refine strategies, and drive improvements.
How HR Can Use Gamification Data to Optimize Engagement
With an advanced gamification solution, companies can improve productivity significantly by increasing collaboration. They can also experience major reductions in absenteeism. A peer-to-peer study that compared teams with a gamification engagement strategy to those that don’t use gamification found that gamified workplaces have a 24% higher attendance rate. Gamification also optimizes learning and development via digital motivation and incentives while measurably reducing attrition.
One of the key advantages of implementing a data-driven gamification solution is the availability of reports that gauge benchmark status and enable HR teams to track progress across all of these fronts.
The ideal solution would allow HR professionals to closely monitor adoption rates, engagement frequency, achievements, and time to completion for learning and development purposes. With this type of reporting, the HR team can accurately track not only IF people are engaging but also how long and when they are engaging.
In tomorrow’s Advisor, Hsu discusses more about using gamification as a data-driven solution to the engagement problem.