Winning at work Viewpoint careers advice blog

Winning at work Gamification is becoming increasingly common as a training tool, but its possibilities for HR are much wider. Increasing numbers of organisations are using interactive digital games to manage talent, assess performance and motivate staff, and as HR departments become more comfortable with grown-up tools to learn through play, we can expect games to be applied in ever more creative ways. Why game? Gamification involves using games to represent or recreate serious concepts, most often as a training tool or application designed to encourage certain behaviours, or as a way to gather data about behaviour or performance. Pollsters KRC Research say 70 per cent of major employers now use some form of interactive games for training, and this figure is only likely to grow as HR departments experiment further. In a workplace, adding a game element to a task or process forces employees to step out of their normal unconscious behaviour and challenges their strategic thinking and leadership skills. Even apparently simple learning and development games can yield rich results. As players learning improves, their self esteem and morale will get a boost  As players learning improves, their self esteem and morale will get a boost, while how they play can reveal data about how well they prioritise tasks, respond to information and how conscientious they are. The possibilities are endless. The success of workplace games lies in a clever combination of behavioural psychology and sophisticated technology, which encourages players to invest their time and energy while the game fulfils a specific function when they do so, whether that’s as a training tool, a performance-enhancer, to drive engagement, or simply assisting with the onboarding process. Target and McDonalds play the game US retailer Target rates cashiers on how quickly they get people through the tills, for example, while MetroPCS, the US mobile device store, uses games to train sales reps on how to sell phones before they interact with actual customers. Royal Dutch Shell even called upon developer Knack for a game to assess how effective its selection methods were for its in-house innovation incubator. Restaurant chain McDonald’s is a big supporter of gamification and uses it to communicate and train its digitally-savvy staff, of which 75 per cent are aged between 16 and 25.Senior Vice President and Chief People Officer Jez Langhorn says gamification helps McDonald’s to reach thousands of employees instantly, and the business supports a range of games hosted on an internal website called Ourlounge, including ones optimised for mobile devices. Gamification works particularly well with new product launches and promotions  â€œWe can introduce new promotions via a medium employees understand and like, and they have fun and learn at the same time,” says Langhorn. “Gamification works particularly well with new product launches, promotions and the introduction of new kitchen equipment,” he continues, “and it has driven behavioural change around a recent internal customer service programme. It all leads to good-natured competition at restaurant level and has a positive impact on our business.” McDonald’s measures the dwell time, page views and the number of restaurants using its games. It also uses ‘single sign-on’ technology, where users log on once and the company can track the level of participation and compare the reach of the game to subsequent changes in LD metrics, to assess its effectiveness. It’s easy to assume that the younger generation would benefit most from game-based assessment or training, but either way, it is important that any game avoids distracting staff, disengaging individuals or encouraging and rewarding unwanted behaviours. Gaming helps drive behaviour Zoe Spicer, who teaches on the Ashridge HR Strategic Management programme, was HRD for Europe and the Middle East at software company Adobe until she became an independent HR consultant at the beginning of 2015. She says the use of gamification in HR has introduced businesses to the idea of a social interface with shared employee goals, rather than unwanted individual and competitive score-setting. Today, she is working with clients to increase their use of gamification. “Over, time you drive behaviour through the use of easy and fun two-minute, game-led tasks that are not as intensive as training sessions,” she says. “Most people are too busy and under too much pressure to be active learners, so gamification can be the perfect mobile answer to reminding employees and leaders of company goals, best practice and good habits.” Rewards and risk Even the best game is no guaranteed predictor of real-world performance Whilst there is an opportunity to align mandatory training and development goals to performance in games, it pays to remember that even the best game is no guaranteed predictor of real-world performance.  Similarly, whilst healthy competition is to be encouraged, a gamification strategy must be based on achievable and sustainable rewards, and certainly cant replace traditional recognition. Such concerns are probably a way off. However, with the realisation of the huge potential of HR-focused games, perhaps we should take play a little more seriously. Join the discussion and network with other HR professionals in our HR Insights with Hays group. Join the conversation View the  Hays Journal online, via the Hays Journal iPad app or request a printed copy from  haysjournal@hays.com