Software Games for Employees

The chain dining industry may have just figured out a new way to combat one of its most costly concerns: a high staff turnover rate. According to RMH Franchise, the world’s second-largest Applebee’s franchise company, some Applebee’s employees were encouraged to play games in order to stay engaged at work and to help the franchise dramatically lower their turnover rate.

The result was fruitful, with the company reducing their turnover rate by 20 percent and engaging the majority of their workers, nearly three-quarters of whom are millennials, at work. The initial studies showed that the gamification software also helped to boost the average amount a customer spent at an RMH restaurant.

“We had three factors that really played into this. The restaurant industry has crazy-high turnover. At RMH, we actually have a 125 percent turnover. Next would be the engagement crisis that everyone in the nation is facing. And then the age of hourly workers is perfect for gamification,” said Robin Jenkins, the regional marketing manager for RMH Franchise, adding that a recent Gallup poll showed that 70 percent of employees are unengaged in the workplace.

According to Jenkins, the company teamed up with a software company to create a custom gamification software, which is accessible from an employee’s computer or mobile device. This, Jenkins said, helped Applebee’s employees bridge the gap between their work life and their home life and gave the company the tools it needed to better connect with their hourly employees across the country.

The app works by presenting employee missions to complete short-term and long-term goals and challenges — such as selling a certain featured food item or clocking it at work on time — to earn points and feedback. In addition, each restaurant installed a TV-based app to show employees real-time company sales data during their shift.

Jenkins said that if the company could just reduce their turnover rate by 10 percent, it would save over $1 million per year and would be on track to seriously boost sales by encouraging employees to sell add-ons such as drinks or appetizers. You can watch RMH’s complete gamification software presentation from the G Summit in San Francisco on YouTube.