Perhaps the concept of gamification, also known as gamification, is not strange to you. This may be because gamification has gone from a futuristic idea to current reality in many companies.
What is gamification, and how can you use it to benefit your SME?
Gamification is a process that consists of introducing mechanics traditionally associated with games in non-playful contexts, intending to motivate participation, increasing commitment and loyalty. This technique can be applied to practically all sectors, from education to marketing, through human resources or product design.
Gamification introduces playful dynamics elements in contexts not associated with the game, making them more fun and attractive. The tools used are similar to those of a game: points, challenges, victories, achievements, rewards, etc.
Can an SME resort to gamification?
Of course! Even though most of the companies that implement gamification strategies are large companies, the truth is that this technique can be just as beneficial for SMEs and even startups.
But what is the ultimate goal of gamification? Make work a game? Nothing of that! The objective of introducing gamification in a company is to guide the behaviour of the participants towards the achievement of a goal, thus promoting motivation within the business sphere or increasing user participation and loyalty.
In which sectors is gamification applied?
The answer is quite broad because gamification has many applications. These are some of the most common:
- Employee training and development programs
- Questionnaires for employees and consumers
- Customer loyalty programs
- Market studies
- Customer experience
- Online shopping and post-purchase monitoring
- Marketing digital
- Project and team management
Of course, outside of the business context, gamification is already used in various areas, such as in educational games (for children and adults) or in applications to encourage physical exercise or healthy eating.
What techniques are used to implement gamification?
As we have already mentioned, gamification is not about designing a game. And instead, it is about applying the game’s mechanics to business solutions. Following this model, several elements cannot be missing:
- Definition of objectives
- Competition with other users
- Collaboration with other users
- Medals or badges and achievements
- Feedback to support and encourage the user
- Levels, rankings and points
And the impact on productivity?
One of the points where gamification has the most significant impact is employee engagement and motivation, which translates into greater productivity.
Imagine that your team works on different projects, and every day there are goals to achieve in each of those projects. An excellent way to implement gamification, and therefore to increase engagement and cooperation among employees, could be creating an app that everyone could install on their pc or smartphone and access each time they complete a task.
There are many possibilities to make the “game” more fun and motivating, such as creating attractive rewards. For example, every time an employee submits a project or completes a task within the deadline, they earn points and rank alongside other co-workers. In the end, the accumulated points could be exchanged, and the highest-ranked player would be entitled to a bonus.
The most important thing is to understand what resources your company has and how you can apply them in a gamification strategy. You will see how quickly you will obtain benefits!