According to a study from Microsoft in 2015, the average attention span has decreased to 8.25 seconds. In a world with constant multi-stimuli, how do we keep our employees at maximum productivity without having them burn out? We decided to stop treating work as work and turned it into a game.
Points have been assigned to various aspects of life in our office that not only promote productivity, but also positive company culture.
- 100% Attendance for one quarter – 75 points
- Recognize a colleague on this closed FB group of our organization – 15 points (for each recognition)
- Do a free trial and win a client – 75 points
- Productivity (90% & above) – 50 points
- Quality (95% & above) – 50 points
The top 6 point scorers across the company get rewarded. Gamifying the workplace is not a new concept, but can make all tasks of the day more exciting and engaging. It’s not about making all aspects of work into a game – it is about motivating workers and using that to achieve business goals.
Introducing a game into the workplace will not only make your employees more productive, it will also positively influence their work ethic. The mechanics of these games are designed to make your employees have a sense of mastery as they progress with the company. They will also be able to see direct feedback on how they are performing compared to the rest of the team based on goals set by management. Most importantly, your employees will be able to receive recognition right through the game. Recent research by Harvard Business School, rewards increase productivity, decrease turnover, and show greater returns on investment.
While creating friendly competition can be a good thing, introducing the wrong game into your business can do more harm than good. There are many gamification applications that are able to integrate directly with your current software, but the application may not be the best fit for what your business goals are. Gamifying work is not the answer to when staff are unengaged and are checked out of the job itself. There can be other underlying factors when it comes to individual employees like poor management, negative company culture or a wrong fit for the job.
Those outliers should not steer you away from implementing the proper game for your business. Highly motivated employees who have a competitive drive will reap the most benefits. If properly designed and tailored to your needs, your business should see a boost while making work more fun for your employees.
Learn more about how 4D Global can help your business improve productivity.