6 Reasons companies should gamify their corporate training
When was the last time you had fun learning something on the job?
If you’re like most people, you may not remember the last time an onboarding or continuing education process was actually fun. When most employees talk about the upsides of an onboarding or learning process at work, they likely refer to things like it being over with quickly.
While it may not seem like we need to make things like onboarding or ongoing training particularly fun for employees, there are serious benefits to making the process enjoyable. Those benefits include everything from better information retention (which means you don’t have to re-train employees on key concepts) to higher employee retention (through better engagement on the job).
One of the best ways to make employee training more fun and effective is through gamification.
What is Gamification?
Gamification has gotten a lot of press in the last few years, but what is it exactly and what purpose does it serve?
Put simply, gamification is the process of adding game-like elements to non-game settings. For example, Duolingo is a language learning app, not a traditional game. But they use things like a points system, levels, virtual currency, leagues, and a leaderboard to gamify their learning environment.
Gamification has a lot of benefits, including increased engagement, better information retention, motivational elements, and instant feedback for users. Gamifying your corporate training process can bring all of those benefits and more to your organization.
Increases Employee Engagement
Let’s face it: most employee training isn’t exactly exciting. Your employees likely grit their teeth and bear it because they know it’s necessary for the job, but they’re rarely enthusiastic about it.
Gamification changes that. By gamifying your training process, your employees will be more engaged in learning. They’ll be less likely to view training as a chore and be more likely to view it as something to look forward to.
Gamification engages employees on an emotional level that isn’t often accomplished by just watching training videos or reading handbooks. You can further enhance that emotional connection by tailoring gamification to each employee. Instead of just rewarding people who are top performers, you can recognize every employee’s accomplishments through points systems and rewards.
Engagement in training also increases overall engagement with the organization. And engaged employees are less likely to leave a company. Engaged employees are 87% less likely to leave. Considering the cost of replacing employees, better retention rates save an organization both time and money.
Better Information Retention
Studies have shown that gamified learning allows people to better retain the information they consume. This means your employees will remember their training long after they’ve completed it.
In one study, students who learned in gamified environments retained information 25% longer than those in more traditional studies and scored 23% higher when tested on the information. When social elements are also introduced, the results are even greater: 50% longer retention periods and 40% higher scores.
When employees remember what they’ve learned, it makes them more efficient at their jobs. They won’t waste time looking things up or trying to remember how to do various job functions. That makes your entire organization more efficient and increases productivity.
Makes Learning Fun
Employees enjoy gamified learning more than other forms of training — 95% of employees report enjoying gamification. Whether it’s employee onboarding or ongoing training, when employees enjoy learning, they’re more likely to stick with it.
This is particularly true when it comes to getting employees to consistently update their skills. When they’re having fun learning and enjoying the process, they’re more likely to stick to it and keep leveling up their skills and knowledge.
Encourages Teamwork
Gamified learning can encourage your employees to work together as a team more readily than other types of learning. When gamification features are made social and collaborative — rather than purely competitive — team members are incentivized to work together.
Take, for example, the skill graphs that Uxcel provides for Team accounts. While individual team members can see progress on their individual skill graphs, they’re also contributing to the skills of the overall team. Individual skill graphs can easily be overlaid on top of one another to see where the strengths lie as well as where there’s room for improvement. This fosters teamwork on design teams utilizing Uxcel’s learning functions.
Offers Instant Feedback
When employees undergo normal onboarding and training, there’s often little in the way of instant feedback on what they’ve learned. At most, they might take a quiz at the end of a training video, but in many cases, they only retain the information long enough to pass the quiz so they can move on.
Gamification features can offer instant feedback on how the employee is doing, how their skills are improving, and even long-term growth. This instant feedback encourages them to continue learning, which many other training modalities do not.
Improves Employee Retention
One of the biggest reasons employees leave a company within their first year after hire is due to inadequate onboarding. Organizations that have a strong onboarding program can increase employee retention by over 80%. And considering how expensive high employee turnover is (a bad hire can cost a company as much as their first year’s salary, if not more), that retention rate is vital to your company’s success.
When employees enjoy the onboarding process, are engaged in learning, and get instant feedback on how well they’re doing, it increases employee retention. It also saves the organization resources when employees don’t need to be re-trained on things they should have remembered from the onboarding process.
Since gamification increases information retention, re-training isn’t often needed. Employees enjoy learning, retain more information, and end up happier and better prepared on the job.
Implementing Gamification
There are ways to implement gamification in your corporate training through points, rewards, and competitive or cooperative elements. There are also companies that offer companies gamification platforms for both onboarding and ongoing training (including Uxcel).
While overhauling your training program can take time and resources, the benefits are clear. Higher employee engagement and satisfaction, better retention rates, and stronger teams all have a direct impact on your bottom line.
