Getting Played: Gamification in the Workplace
These days, gamification is so ingrained in everything around us that we barely even notice when we take part in it. Just today you might have kept an eye on the rings of your Apple Watch that count your steps; maybe you logged into Duolingo to brush up on the Italian you’re trying to master, all while gaining points and ticking off achievements; or perhaps you were reminded to meet your daily water intake by the app that lets you fill up the little glasses of water on the screen every time you hydrate.
Gamification is defined as “the process of adding games or game-like elements to something (such as a task) so as to encourage participation,” and it is really more psychology than it is technology. By turning regular, mundane tasks into games, we are triggering positive emotions that are linked to positive user experiences.
Since the term was first coined in 2002, gamification has been popping up just about everywhere, the workplace being no exception. But does this melding of work and play help or hinder employees in the workplace?
There’s no real mystery behind the recent influx in gamification in our everyday lives — companies have seen that it works. We humans love to set goals and compete with both ourselves and each other, and that is what gamification has set its sights on. By being able to reinforce “good” behaviour and instil users with a sense of achievement through points, goals and rewards, gamification exploits the “gamer” in the “gamer generation” that has slowly been entering the workforce.
Recent research suggests that gamification will be widespread in the workplace by 2020, with experts in both technology and psychology agreeing that the future of a gamified workplace is almost inevitable. But is this a good thing? At the moment, the future workplace “looks to be a world where ‘playing at work’ is not an oxymoron — or a demerit at performance review time,” so it certainly doesn’t sound like a bad thing. The main draw of this to employers, of course, is the opportunity to keep employees content and engaged in a time where we’re constantly surrounded by a million other things fighting for our attention.
Although this struggle to keep employees engaged and committed is not a new one, it is becoming a more and more important one. Keeping the spirit of play, fun and creativity alive in the workplace, as well as keeping employee morale high by ensuring employees feel valued and appreciated, are all key elements of an innovative and successful workplace, yet they are “getting lost in the high tech, high pressure, highly reactive world.”
So on that very basic front, sure: using gamification to keep people engaged at work will probably help, at least a little. Research supports that fact: gamification in the workplace generally results in happier employees.
However, rather quickly, this starts to feel a bit like a bad episode of Black Mirror. When slapped on like a Band-Aid to silence dissatisfied employees, gamification becomes a way to address the symptoms of a broken system, without really doing anything to fix it.
Where disengagement is the consequence of a poorly managed workplace, or perhaps a role in which the employee cannot see their purpose, the real problems are a lot more difficult to fix than simply turning some tasks into a game.
The concept, particularly when applied within the workplace, can also come across as rather condescending to employees. In a similar method that parents use to trick their children into doing chores or eating their vegetables, employers are essentially trying to trick grown adults into doing their jobs, but in a *fun* way. Instead of respecting and empowering employees to fulfil their roles, companies would be turning potential collaborators into zombified game-players.
Although playing at work sounds like a good thing, careful consideration and cautious implementation would be required in moving towards a future of gamified workplaces. Where disengagement has become an increasing problem, companies should be addressing why, before trying to fix it through gamification. Where gamification is used only to enhance the productivity and morale of happy workers, it can be an excellent asset. But we should all be wary of getting played as gamification makes its way into the workplace, as we risk becoming zombies chasing that next reward, rather than the competent collaborators we were hired to be.
