Using Gamification Elements to Create More Engaging Employee Training

While I rarely venture into corporate training content, I found this piece interesting and believe that some of these tips and ideas can also be applied in more traditional education settings. – KW

Gamification is the process of using game mechanics and game design elements in non-video game environments. The general purpose of gamification in training is to better engage employees and create an experience that is more interesting to them.

Gamification can be really addictive, and this is why video games are so popular. The same concept is used in companies and schools as well, to engage employees and students and improve results. One area in which gamification is on the rise is employee training. Following are various tips and tools that can help to gamify training and learning experiences.

Add Avatars to Your LMS

If your LMS currently has basic login features, you should think about adding avatars. The point of gamification is to engage employees. Avatars enable them to personalize their profiles and adjust them the way they think they should look.Avatars can help make employees feel like they are entering a unique world where they have different characteristics. Along with this, think about including a team log for people currently using employee training software.

This will help establish a cooperative team mentality and help them perform better in their training activities. You can also create a separate feed for HR employees where they can share news and notifications with each other.

Establish Competitiveness Among Learners

Just because your employees aren’t competing against each other doesn’t mean that you can’t boost their competitiveness towards improving learning results. Establish easy ways to help them compare their progress with other learners.

To further enhance their competitiveness, consider having learners post their achievements on social media. Or you can simply give out badges based on their achievements.

An even more useful idea is to create a progress bar within your training course. Let everyone have their own bar and make it public. This is how everyone will see how others are doing. They'll want to match and surpass their achievements.

Add Rewards That are Connected to the Real World

Every time your learners have mastered a particular piece of content, or a whole course, you need to acknowledge their performance. At the same time, you want them to be able to transfer the knowledge they’ve acquired to their real jobs.

One of the ways you can do both of these things at once is by adding relatable and tangible rewards. For example, you can use your employee training software to create a course where participants need to sell services or products through which they earn points.

At the same time, these points can represent equal value commissions that the participants get whenever they make sales. Even though you won’t give them the commission during training, this will help employees realize that this digital training method can directly help them earn money in the real world.

Add Gamification That is Familiar to Everyone

Several of today's generations grew up playing games, and a lot of them continue to play even when they become older. Of course, some people haven’t played games as much, but they still know the essentials and how to play them.

This means that creating training courses that adopt elements similar to video games appeals to groups of people. Simply put, these people feel comfortable when you introduce gamification to your online training software. Having said that, you need to establish their gaming knowledge and add elements that they find familiar.

This is how you make sure nobody gets overwhelmed by your courses: create levels. Create them so that they are related to each other and help learners get valuable knowledge to progress to the next level.

Establish Roles (Specialize)

There are a lot of games where players take different roles they like. People love choosing their own roles and finding their place, and this gamification element can also help you expand your training. There will be employees who are merely confirming the knowledge they already have and expanding on it.

Likewise, there might be others who surprise you and even themselves. They can learn something new quickly or figure out they have a knack for something. No matter what the case is, you can recognize employees who are good in a specific area.

From there, you can create more specialized courses using your online training software, where these people will get into a role they like and are good at.

Add Gamification Elements to Your Existing Content

Don’t start by trying to build a whole new gamified course from scratch. This is a category of its own, and it requires a lot of time to learn how to do it properly. Instead, start by adding gamification elements in your online training software courses.

But the question is, where can you insert them? Look for those areas where you would like employees to change their behavior and work on coming up with solutions. After you find them, look for appropriate gamification elements that can improve these areas.

Wrap Up

Traditional training courses can make employees feel like they are wasting their time. The concept of gamification will not only make it easier to get employees interested and make their training more fun, but it will also help them retain the new knowledge they acquired.

Regardless of the kind of employee training you plan on starting, gamification can help you get better results. Bear in mind that convincing employees to commit to their training can be difficult. What’s excellent about gamification is that it makes the whole thing seem like a game and not an additional work-related activity.