Top 4 Practical Applications of Gamification in Corporate Training

What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear gamification? No, it’s clearly not about how everything in life is a game and how we live in a simulation, that’s a typical Reddit discussion at 2 AM. Gamification is a creative approach where specific game mechanics such as points, leaderboards, levels, badges, rewards upon task completion, etc. are added into non-gaming environments such as an online course or a training program. Gamification helps these programs to increase engagement and makes learning a fun activity.

Gamification can have a lot of applications in this digital age. Apart from that, almost everyone has played games in their childhood, and it is sort of proven that games attract your interest due to their engaging and competitive nature. So, when you gamify eLearning for corporate training, the engagement of employees is improvised. Some widely adapted applications of gamification are marketing campaigns, health programs like fitness apps that track your daily activities, employee training programs, and many more. Here, I will discuss 4 noteworthy practical applications of gamification in modern corporate training campaigns.

Top 4 Practical Applications of Gamification

Employees were often exposed to traditional training methods earlier that are not relevant now. The world has changed, and thus, the ways to learn and understand have changed as well. When it comes to training your employees, you can apply the concept of gamification to make them learn things faster and more efficiently. Gamification can be applied in various areas such as:

Employee Onboarding

When you are going for new hires, their onboarding process can be merged with gamified concepts to provide a better experience. Employees can be assigned some tasks before their first day at the job and be rewarded for the same. They can be asked to personalize their personal company profile by choosing an avatar and a bio. When the employee is hired, they start at a beginner level in the organization, as they keep working toward their monthly goal, reward points for each of their successful work and those points would collectively help to increase their level progression and eventually level up. This helps the employee to keep a track of their development and analyze for themselves what they lack and where they excel.

Sales Training

Through gamification, sales representatives can be trained in a more efficient and creative way. They can be incentivized with rewards for each sale they make or each milestone they achieve. Creating a healthy sense of competition among the trainees in their sales training will push them further to make more sales. Assume a new batch of sales trainees is supposed to make 10 sales of a product or service in a month. The features of that product can be explained through a gamified presentation as well. Exceeding the number of target sales will reward them with incentives for each extra sale they make. If they fail to achieve the minimum goal, they are asked to compensate with next month’s sales, which helps them to accept their failure yet achieve another goal to make up for the loss.

Software Training

Every organization uses a bunch of tools and software to facilitate their work. Now to train employees to effectively use those tools, a gamification approach can be preferred. An interactive ‘How-to’ course can be designed where trainees can learn how to use those tools from basic to intermediate to expert level as per their requirements. When they start the course, it starts at 0%, every task requires the trainee to practically attempt the task instead of just reading the course text. After every successful task completion, the trainees would learn a specific feature of that software and how to practically perform that task. Ex- Freecodecamp provides eLearning courses about coding languages and tools where the learner codes in a real-time interactive environment and is notified instantly whether the code is right or not.

Safety Training

Consider a fire department or an IT security department, gamification can be the most prominent way to train their employees. An engaging course where each of their action has a subsequent reaction and what decision they take at each and every point would frame their direction of progression. Continuous feedback on whether their action was correct or wrong will make the employees learn from their mistakes. For example, if a batch of employees needs to be trained on how to handle the company’s private IT devices and accounts, a gamified walkthrough course can be designed with a certificate of completion to confirm the employee is aware of what is right and what is wrong and ensures the success of safety training program.

Wrapping It Up!

Gamification techniques can do wonders for both your employees and your company if they are implemented correctly with a proper strategy. Choosing the relevant tools and the right strategy can set up the path for a highly effective gamification training approach. Learners can achieve long-term efficiency once they are trained properly, and gamification assists their training through multiple engaging aspects. Attracting an employee’s interest and awarding them for their success enhances training ROI for any company.

Gamification can be combined really well with scenario-based learning to create highly interactive and practical training courses for employees. Scenario-based training is another impactful training technique that has peaked recently among corporates due to the immensely productive results it has managed to provide. Access this free webinar recording to develop a better understanding of what scenario-based eLearning means.