By Peter Rowley
Have you ever considered how Gamification can up your game from a business and HR perspective?
As I was cycling to and from work over the last couple of days I had good reason to think more about Gamification. Recently, I set myself the target of increasing my cycling days and lessen my reliance on rail or car. What had ignited that change in behaviour in me? One of the main reasons was changing from one cycling app to another. I had just signed up for the Strava cycling and running app. Central to the apps functionality is their strong gamification and social capability, ie. The ability to follow, engage socially and measure oneself against peers across a number of dimensions.
Very quickly, it became evident to me how powerful (and somewhat addictive) the gamification and social dimensions were compared to my previous cycling app. For me, the result was an almost doubling or tripling of my cycling days, primarily due to the fact that I could gamify and drive myself to achieve better results each day. I also happened to have a similar experience recently with a language learning App, called DuoLingo, which also uses Gamification and social engagement to drive user engagement, allowing users to share their progress with friends and others from all over the world, who are on a similar mission.
At this point you might very reasonably ask what is the link between Gamification and the business or the HCM world? Gamification is a powerful tool which is increasingly being used in downloadable apps, to drive better engagement and experience for the user and in many cases rewarding them with small tokens, etc. According to Wikipedia, Gamification is defined as “the use of game thinking and game mechanics in non-game contexts to engage users in solving problems and increase users' self contributions”. Some of the most successful examples of Gamification include everyday apps such as:
Foursquare – who were amongst the fore-runners in gamification and who specialise in granting incentives to people to visit and check-in to various spots and tick off the completion of tasks, etc;
Starbucks - who reward people who try out multiple stores – using Foursquare and its check-in gamification;
Nike – whose gamification dimension is clearly all about achieving and surpassing fitness type goals and objectives;
Quest to Learn - which aims to make learning more fun through gamification;
Mindbloom - for tracking your mood and mental health;
One of the apps which I found most intriguing is ChoreWars, which provide an app which is specifically aimed at changing behaviour with regard to those chores we all hate doing at home.......putting bins out, hoovering, dishwashing. By providing a Gamification framework ChoreWars aim to get those unwanted chores done, whilst making the doers feel better about themselves. I like the sound of that!
Are there lessons to be learned on Gamification for the business and HCM world? Absolutely! Deloitte, in one of its future focused research reports listed Gamification amongst its Top 10 Technology Trends for 2012. Deloitte held the view that “Serious gaming simulations and gaming mechanics such as leader-boards, achievements, and skill-based learning are becoming embedded in day-to-day business processes, driving adoption, performance, and engagement.” Gamification is here to stay with us in the business world and will continue to grow exponentially.
In my personal view, HCM is probably the single-most business function (outside of marketing) which is best positioned to leverage Gamification as a tool. Let's just scratch the surface and look at some of the possibilities, both business and personal? They may include:
The healthiest team – based on pedometer challenges or other fitness measures. Wellness gamification is a growth area for companies as they seek to drive down healthcare insurance costs;
The team with the highest level of compliance on annualised goal setting;
Team or individual progress versus cascaded corporate business goals or learning goals;
Speediest or most cost-effective team on a specific business process;
Gamification of sourcing and referral programmes through leader-boards on talent acquisition – one of the most obvious avenues;
Absence management – gamification of best results by individual or team
Maddest costumes or acts at the office parties – The sky is the limit.
Essential to managing business gamification is having HCM applications which have the ability to bring together the raw ingredients of social, gamification and user experience. Our latest release of Oracle HCM Cloud has all of these, in the form of a robust gamification platform for business which can be applied at any level, be it organisational, location, team or individual level. Gamification is then combined with our great social capability to maximise user fun, engagement and collaboration. See the screen shot of some simple examples of internal corporate gamification.
Ultimately, one of the biggest business benefits is enabling the business to achieve its goals but with an awful lot more fun in the process. Another, is driving user adoption in you HCM applications, allowing you as HR practitioners to focus on the real game at hand.
Peter Rowley is a passionate advocate of how HR Technology can utterly transform HR and ultimately your business, through simplifying and automating your complex HR processes. Before joining Oracle in the world of HCM Solution Consulting, Peter worked as a HR professional with Blue-chip global companies, in sectors such as Medical Devices, Professional Services and Investment Management. He worked as a HR practitioner at Managerial and Head of Function levels in both generalist and specialist roles, such as HR Manager and Head of Reward and HRIS. Peter, who is based in Ireland, is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development (FCIPD), a member of ACCA and holds a Masters in Human Resource Management from University of Limerick in Ireland.