5 Reasons To Add Gamification To Your Company's Training Today

Gamification In Training: Ignite Corporate Training
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Summary: Making learning fun through gamification is now used for serious outcomes: building a team environment, making employees more engaged, aiding retention, and increasing profits. In this article, I share 5 examples that outline how to create valuable learning experiences and a gamified company.

Ignite Your Corporate Training

The mobile and social age is seeing a rapid increase in the utilization of gaming strategies in eLearning. A growing body of research focuses on best practices for utilizing online and hybrid methods to help employees learn and grow. Gamification inspires teams to apply their learning in the workplace. Real-world scenarios challenge them in controlled environments. The software utilizes gaming designs and concepts in a variety of situations. This results in engaging, entertaining, and rewarding lessons. Storylines, badges, featured challenges, and analytics bolster a variety of fully customizable platforms. Thus, managers can easily recognize and reward trainees, enhance desired skills, and promote the type of competition that builds stronger teams.

Here is a breakdown of why gamification in training is the best choice for your company.

1. Popularity

Why are gaming techniques catching fire in the human resources world?  The rapid adoption of the smartphone, explosive growth of the mobile web, and increased use of social media are among them. Further, the spirit of competition is alive and well.  Games ignite the fun aspects of learning. Effective online learning is seamless and filled with universal themes. It is social. Simulations and immersion in virtual worlds grab attention and stimulate the imagination of those who play. Learners individually partake in an adventure that is interactive or compete directly against a colleague or group. Learning performance is regularly rewarded.

2. Easy Access And Fun

How do we know that employees reacted positively to a training? Some may ask why this extra work is necessary. Others may wonder what they are truly getting from the session. With gamification, employees are having fun while learning. This makes the learning environment more interactive and more rewarding. The higher level of engagement also increases the chances that participants will recall what they have learned on the job.

In this age of mobile connectivity and ubiquitous apps, gamification seamlessly speaks to the minds and needs of the millennial generation. This cluster of future business leaders and customers has literally grown up with computers in their hands. Game-like elements are as natural to their learning as pencils and paper were to the generations before. Emerging methods to add entertainment elements to educational activities are offered, so this also works for all ages. Games have become portable and pervasive in everyday activities.

3. Improved Productivity

According to The Startup, “Happy employees are more productive. Staff who enjoy their work perform better, work harder and stay with a company longer.” Competitive online games benefit both employer and employee. They positively impact business results. Games incentivize workers to grow, increase skillsets, and succeed. This promotes efficiency and effectiveness at all levels of the company. Gaming also improves motivation, brand recognition, and loyalty among customers, clients, affiliates and others with an investment in the firm. The disadvantages of sitting and watching a lesson or attending a lecture are gone. Instead, trainees engage in real-world scenarios and situations and are asked to respond. Such an approach results in deeper knowledge of the content.

4. Independence And Interdependence

The best games are designed with player experience as the highest priority. Trainers increase the role of employees in controlling their own trainings. Effective gamification is process-oriented and emphasizes results. While viewership is a key measurement often cited under more traditional models, engagement ranks as more important in gamification. Designers create puzzles, journeys, mazes, and battles so that the lessons are not only fun, but tasks and achievements are visibly connected. This creates the ability for managers to perform assessments with sample learners. They can make sure that the strategy meets business and training goals and objectives. Best of all, the games can be embedded within other training events.

5. Instant Feedback

In traditional settings, scores and advice are given when the session is completed. With the right strategies, employees receive feedback throughout the training. This is especially helpful because employees can make regular adjustments. Team members use this data and information to improve along the way. As with video games—they complete one section before advancing to the next— it is complete with badges, rewards, and other indicators. Build on the basics. Starting with retention of the game’s key themes, make the interactions meet carefully established learning objectives. Trainees learn more complex topics because it is assured that simpler concepts are learned first.

“Gamification isn’t all about badges and achievements," said Tyson Chaplin, chief learning officer at Tovuti. “It is a great way to incentivize and engage your learners in a way that promotes knowledge retention and platform adoption. And at the end of the day, that’s what serious training is all about, learning and enjoying doing it.”

Such a practice benefits your bottom line. Sometimes, companies get distracted from the main reason they exist, to be successful and profitable. By using gamification in training, employees remember and internalize greater amounts. They really enjoy the learning process. A ripple effect ensues. They utilize better skills on the job and make the company more robust and durable. The fun combines their success with the prosperity of your company. It makes employees more invested and eager to stay long term. Experts have concluded that gamification can easily be leveraged to meet your business objectives.