When your workers are experiencing increased boredom at the office, their productivity is going to drop and the negativity will soon bleed into your profits. The knee jerk reaction for most employers would be to lay off some of their least productive workers in the hopes of motivating the rest of their workforce to perform better. What they did was take the easy way out instead of uprooting the problem.
You haven’t really taken care of all the boredom which will eventually grow into a bigger problem if not taken care of in its early stages. Businesses fail when workers no longer find the motivation to perform at their best. Studies have shown that employers who find ways to make the job more engaging soar in productivity which eventually results in higher profits.
By far one of the best means of increasing employee motivation is to increase transparency at the workplace. This can be done by gamifying the workplace. It is a well known fact that video games are able to keep a user engaged for prolonged periods of time. Many corporations have begun to adopt the same mechanics used in video games into the workplace to create a more fulfilling job experience.
The reason why gamification actually works
Growth:
Every time an employee completes a certain task or objective, the software rewards them with points which they can use to ‘level up’. The points can be used as performance parameters to compare and compete against their coworkers. If done right, this can create a healthy environment of competition between coworkers and increase productivity. Employees who want to climb up the leaderboard will push in extra effort without ever being told to.
Coworkers who want to climb up the ladder will want to learn the same skill set, the end result of which will actually benefit the organization in the long run.
Recognition:
The most important asset employers use to retain their key employees, is recognition for their work. Gamification provides them with this tool. Not being noticed for their achievement makes your top performers feel underappreciated and undervalued for their work and they will eventually feel demotivated.
Those who really are putting in the extra effort will see their positions reflect on the leaderboards. An incentive can them be provided to them to reach the top, perhaps by giving them an ‘employee of the month badge’.
Reward:
Completing certain tasks results in getting points. The points can be used to revise salaries to a higher grade, taking them out to dinner, dishing out bonuses or simply giving them a loud round of applause for their hard work.
Tapping into their psychology:
Video games have the ability to tap into neurotransmitters in the brain which are responsible for a person’s happiness, by releasing a surge of serotonin.
Every time an employee reaches a new milestone or accomplishment in their career, the neurotransmitters in their brains release ‘pleasure’ chemicals. If done right, employees might just end up getting addicted to their assignments.
Get in touch with experts at JS Benefits Group to help you design a well-established environment of gamification.
