Using Gaming to Boost Employee Productivity At Work
Sounds counterproductive, right? How can they get my work done if they are busy playing games?
Well Google is one of the most productive places I know of, yet they have several games areas. There are three ways you can gamify your office.
Game Rewards As An Incentive
This is probably the most obvious. Your employees love to get into a good game of Halo or World of Warcraft or…whatever, I don’t know this stuff. They sure know that they can’t play it while at work but what if you were helping them in their quest for success after work.
Get involved with a tournament they are already involved in or start a new in-office tournament. Pay for special gear, powers or weapons during the game if your employee meets a certain goal or quota. In the beginning, it may sound pretty lame when employees don’t fully buy in. But give a couple spins and watch them come around. It’s human nature. Just listen to real estate mogul, Barbara Corcoran, talk about how she used a rewards programme to boost performance in her empire.
Games At Work to Boost Employee Morale & Communication
According to a recent survey by WorldWinner, a subsidiary of FUN Technologies Inc., more than 80 percent of online gamers who play on and off throughout the workday said they are able to better focus on work after playing. A reported 72 percent actually rely on game breaks to help them deal with job-related stress. It only makes sense. When your brain takes a break and gets to do something fun for a while, you come back refreshed and energized.
Understandably, some employees don’t want to encourage this kind of activity because they believe it will make employees play games all day and not work. This is where recruitment is very important. Employees who are self-motivated, goal-oriented and truly passionate about their work and the organization will want to get back to work. It’s that simple. Entrepreneur Magazine has covered several businesses that use this technique.
In order to foster a truly dynamic corporate culture where employees look forward to coming to work, have great relationships with their coworkers and are enthused about sticking around after the 5 o clock bell, gaming at work is a great step forward.
Gamification of Work
Rather than have games as a separate activity, turn work into one big game. If you have several members of a team, have them compete to see who can get it done fastest (and the best). Sending your employees on errands or need them to come to a meeting on time – have them check into their locations on Foursquare. Or run a mayor competition for telecommuting employees that visit the office the most (if you want them visiting the office). Have them tweet up a storm about your latest product or service while testing it out themselves and offer incentives to the person who gets the most shares, likes or retweets. Or any number of productivity apps like Do.com or Basecamp (both foster collaboration) to hammer out the details of a game and execute it. With today’s technology, employees from all over the globe can participate, encouraging even further camaraderie.
So what are you waiting on? Let me help you move that X-Box into the break room…
Submit a Comment