I believe that gamification is very useful for increasing employee engagement, developing leadership skills, and encouraging cultural changes.
I look at gamification as the application of gaming mechanics to non-gaming environments. For example, gaming elements, such as points, badges, achievements, competition, etc., can be easily transferred to real life. Think of credit cards: the more you shop, the more points you get. Then, these points can be redeemed for cash, gift cards, etc. You are much more likely to use the same credit card if you receive points that add up to rewards.
ELearning gamification should resemble real-life situations and experiences. It should be fun and engaging. The luxury hotel chain Marriott offers a gaming application called “My Marriot Hotel” to recruit employees. As part of the game, individuals can create their own hotel restaurant, purchase supplies for the kitchen, manage orders from the chefs, and even hire staff. Players are motivated by a point system—players gain points if the customers are satisfied, and lose them if they provide poor service. The goal is to help people acquire new knowledge and skills and apply that newly acquired knowledge to the real hotel to fill one of the many job openings available across the globe. The “My Marriot Hotel” game contains the essential elements of gamification, including goal-setting, an instant feedback system, interactive competition, virtual rewards, and “leveling” up within a program or application.
When instructional designers create games, they should try to extract the motivational techniques from these games and use them for life-applicable learning. Gamification works much better than traditional training methods because people typically enjoy actively engaging and competing with others. Games provide safe environments for practice, while teaching essential knowledge and skills.