How Does Gamification In Training Help Your Employees?

How Does Gamification In Training Help Your Employees?
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Summary: Most relationships lose their spark after a while, and the relationship between your employees and training is no exception. If you need your employees to approach training with renewed enthusiasm, gamification might fit the bill.

How Can Gamification Help In Employee Training?

Do you notice looks of boredom when the topic of training comes up? Has training participation plummeted? Is there little to no improvement after a course? Then all the signs are there: your training strategy isn’t working. Something is missing.

If employees haven’t pointed out issues with the training content, maybe the problem is training itself. True, modern employees are advocates of lifelong learning. But this doesn’t mean they don’t grow weary of training occasionally or that everyone shares the same passion for learning to begin with. When learning motivation is scarce, you need to offer employees something more exciting than a certificate.

This is where gamification comes in. Much is discussed about how gamification at work increases employee motivation and even retention. In this post, you’ll discover that the benefits of gamification in training are just as impressive. Let’s look into 8 of those:

1. Rewards Increase Motivation

What’s more motivating than getting recognition and rewards for your accomplishments? With points and levels, employees are instantly rewarded for their achievements, such as completing a learning unit or participating in the course discussion. At the same time, they visualize their progress, which is all the more motivating.

They also get their share of recognition by showcasing their rewards on their profile and landing high on the leaderboard. And if you want to really intrigue employees, then give them a preview of the badges they can win along the course!

Competition is another significant ingredient in the motivation mix, and gamification undoubtedly inspires all kinds. During a gamified course, employees compete with themselves, their coworkers, or team up against different groups.

2. Dull Training Turns Into An Adventure

Gamification in eLearning can help make boring types of training bearable or—let’s show some good faith—even fun. Case in point, in a 2019 gamification survey, 30% of employees chose compliance as the type of training they’d like to gamify.

In a gamified course, employees have not only a certificate to earn but also badges and points. You know, the fun stuff! To tie it all together and add purpose, craft a compelling storyline. For example, create a rescue mission or challenge them to combat a threat. Every lesson employees complete is a quest accomplished, which brings them closer to their goal.

3. Employees Finish Their Training Faster

Gamification lures employees by connecting training with gaming when their motivation isn’t strong. Rewards motivate employees to come back regularly or continue training when they’re about to reach a new level or win a badge. As a result, they finish their training faster than they would normally have.

That said, gamification is a means to make learning more enjoyable. If you imply that you’re implementing it in hopes of speeding up training, then all the fun is gone. In any case, ensure your employees advance at a normal pace and are actually learning. To do so, use a gamification LMS that, besides rich gamification features, supports several types of assessments and offers in-depth reporting.

4. Gamification Facilitates Behavioral Change

Gamification in training serves as positive reinforcement. Rewarding positive behavior is very effective when training employees on compliance topics or soft skills.

These types of training don’t require employees to memorize information, but rather aim to inspire behavioral change. A training program that instantly rewards proper behavior is more effective in registering this behavior in the learner’s mind. Therefore, employees are more likely to repeat it in real life without having to think about it.

5. Employees Develop Team Spirit

Most L&D professionals apply gamification in corporate training in a way that sparks competition against one another or oneself. But the real fun begins when they find ways to combine competition and collaboration.

In more inspired gamification examples, employees work in teams and collectively win rewards. They have challenges like “which department will collect the most points by the end of the week.” Something that seemingly spikes competition (and is so simple to set up) can help your employees develop a stronger team spirit and improve their work relationships.

6. Gamification Brings To Light Specific Knowledge Gaps

You can’t advance in a game unless you have defeated the enemy or completed a challenge, right? In gamification training, the enemy is the knowledge gap. When learners are stuck at a level, it’s because they’re struggling with a specific knowledge gap. But, they can’t move on to the next level unless they fill it.

Gamification in business training helps you construct a learning path that unravels as each knowledge gap is filled. And why is this important? Knowledge gaps can impede the learner from understanding the content that follows, which might negatively impact how much they retain from the course altogether.

7. Better Knowledge Retention

One of the major challenges of corporate training is knowledge retention. Two factors that often stand in the way of learning are boredom and lack of motivation. By frequently rewarding employees along their learning journey, you refuel their motivation when it starts to run low.

Another way gamification enhances knowledge retention is through repetition. Structure your course so that employees can’t unlock the next level or win a badge if they don’t have enough points and have passed a small test. This way, they’ll have to go over the content until they’ve really understood it.

8. Employees Develop A New Mindset

A gamified course is a challenge, a continuous assessment from start to finish. Before employees get to the final challenge, they’ll be held back and defeated a number of times. But they’ll also receive recognition and rewards when they do well.

In short, gamification teaches employees to be more resilient and goal-oriented. They learn that failure and setbacks are only part of the game, not the end. And that if they stay focused on their goal and insist enough, they can move past the obstacles and be rewarded for that.

Conclusion

Gamification is not a magic potion that will get seriously demotivated employees clapping their hands in anticipation. Nor can it fix a training course that doesn’t resonate with employees or doesn’t have quality content. What gamification can do is improve what’s already there, but needs a boost. If your training is on the right path and your employees are up and ready, let the games begin!

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