3 Business Examples Of Deep Gamification In The Workplace

Here are 3 urgent examples to show upper management that team games get teams motivated to work harder and more frequently, and are not just for catchy terms like “team-building” or “team spirit”

By Lex Tan

When introducing gamification to corporate environments, whether its to a Small Medium Enterprise (SME) or a Multinational Corporation (MNC), there’s always a scramble for solid examples to help overcome skepticism. Here are three concrete examples with hard-hitting facts that will help you shoot down common objections from skeptical colleagues or management.

After all, if you can’t use effective Return On Investment (ROI) stories from companies who invested in gamification and made work enjoyable, what ammunition can you use?

Google - Gamified Travel Policy

Google, the tech behemoth itself, utilizes gamification in its pioneer’s stance towards their open booking approach. This travel policy offers travelers the chance to budget for their itineraries, arrange travel and, if they come in under budget, reserve the difference for future trips.

This appeals to Gamification Guru Yu Kai Chou’s core drives of Ownership and Accomplishment, where these travelers feel like they know better than anyone else how to get the “best deal” for their travel. They are also rewarded indirectly, as they can spend the credit they save on better travel options, like a nicer hotel or a business class flight.

Google has even consolidated its program globally through Carlson Wagonlit Travel and maintains preferred supplier perks and upgrades that employees can bid on with those surplus credits.

Mike Tangney, the global travel manager responsible for this innovative new policy shares, "One guy staying at Mountain View [Google's global headquarters in California], where the hotel cost on average is $200 a night, was spending $6 a night," he said. "I called him to ask what he was doing. He said, 'I love camping, so I'm staying in a campsite in the summer and earning $100 a night in credits so that maybe I can stay in the Four Seasons in the winter.' "

Clearly, this system has been an effective way to run their travel bookings, while teaching employees how to  'Spend when you can, save when you need to.'

Bridgewater Funds - Employee Baseball Cards

During his 2017 TED Talk in April, Ray Dalio, the founder of Bridgewater Funds, the world’s largest hedge fund, talked about what he fondly termed Employee “Baseball cards”. The author of “Principles”, that champions “radical truth” and “radical transparency.” demoed an iPad app called “Dots Collector”, which allowed them to rate each other across over 100 attributes on a 1-10 scale.

The instant feedback that employees get of their everyday performance creates an intrinsic drive to constantly improve, even while they’re executing a presentation, chairing a discussion, or participating in work processes.

Their “cards” also help lend their opinions weight, so when it came to voting on decisions in real time, they were able to move execution along faster by going with a majority vote - though not just based on how many hands were in the air, but whose hands they were. This gamified system allowed for the company to realistically implement an “idea meritocracy”.

Leading Financial Institute - APEX Sales Training Simulation

After running multiple sessions of Think Codex’s off-the-shelf sales acceleration training across 40 branches and 300 employees, our clients internal evaluation system reported a 266% increase in monthly branch revenue after only two months.

Based on Think Codex’s simulation evaluation results, most employees attributed it to higher interest and engagement during the simulation, as well as having “real” examples to anchor their understanding to.

After 3 months, monthly branch revenue reportedly crossed the 300% mark, to the delight of our clients, as well as our designers who redoubled their efforts to improve our simulations.

APEX was built around a concept similar to what is found in Malcolm Gladwell’s book “Outliers”, that to be a master at anything, you would need to put in 10,000 hours of deliberate practice. So we’ve designed an accelerated simulation that allows participants to practice selling a product utilizing Features, Advantages and Benefits (FABs) & Unique Selling Propositions (USPs). Not to mention pitting their upselling skills against some of their biggest competitors and potential buyers - their own colleagues.

To get more information on gamification or our solutions, please contact us so that we can reach out and have a talk with you!