How Play at Work Makes Work.. Work

It’s a touchy subject: does promoting “play” (or gamification) at work actually make your employees more engaged? It’s a topic that I’ve broached with many senior leaders with varying and valid concerns, mainly:

1. Gamification can’t truly drive productivity because it is too much of a distraction.
2. Doesn’t it foster competition rather than drive community and collaboration?
3. Current internal portal structure doesn’t support or enable gamification technologies.
4. Correlation between gamification and business performance is unclear.

Target Work Activities to Reward Desired Behavior

Sure.. it’s playing at work… kind of. It’s basically a way of using symbols (badges, titles, ranks, levels, etc.) to signify status in a community, among colleagues and peers. But when implemented judiciously, gamification can also be used to encourage certain cultural and performance behaviors. More aptly, it’s a great way to foster connectedness, encourage collaboration and to recognize achievement among employees.

On its face the case for gamification, which is defined here as adding game-like activities to improve non-game contexts, is a strong one and easy to state. Namely, if properly situated in business processes, the incorporation of game features in work activities can reward desired behavior, create more intensively participative processes, track group progress, establish feedback loops that reinforce and accelerate sought after business outcomes, and more. (Enterprise gamification: Will it drive better business performance?, ZDNet).

How TemboSocial Makes Play Work

TemboSocial takes a similar approach towards enterprise gamification, taking elements from gaming and integrating them into your business to encourage a desired behavior, such as productivity or retention.  According to TemboSocial, this year gamification will have 20% of Global 2000 organizations playing, and by 2014 this number is expected to rise to 70%.

TemboSocial’s research continuously shows that even though the best way to motivate employees is to recognize their achievements, gamification remains an underutilized tool. Successful computer games align personal passion and commitment to task completion. Well-designed games recognize progress, encouraging players to continue to engage and be inspired to meet the next challenge. This is key for the enterprise.

We love this new infographic created by TemboSocial. Advance through each level to learn more about their approach towards enterprise gamification.

About TemboSocial
TemboSocial enables the social enterprise for some of the world’s most progressive organizations.  Leading companies turn to TemboSocial’s hosted suite of tools to foster engagement with customers and employees. Download their whitepaper on gamification.

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