For a lot of companies investing in training employees, gamification has become a high priority feature in recent times. The reason behind this is the thrill of gaming concepts to make learning more entertaining for the employees.
The implementation of gamified learning in the workplace allows employees to compete amongst themselves in order to earn rewards based on their performance. This process of applying game-like elements and designs to training scenarios has proven to be more productive than any other learning style.
Having said that, is gamification worth the hype? And is it even effective for employee engagement? Let’s have a look at the pros and cons of gamified learning in the workplace:
Pros Of Gamified Learning In The Workplace
- Makes learning fun:
It’s no secret that employees often perceive training as a boring exercise. The gaming elements that are applied in the L&D courses are meant to incentivize employees to participate in activities that would normally come across as mundane. This gets them excited to engage with the training content in order to gain rewards, making the entire process fun and entertaining.
- Increases engagement:
The biggest advantage of using gamification features is that it increases employee engagement. A disengaged employee is a liability to any organization and motivating such an employee is possible by adding fun game elements to their learning material. Since it encourages employees to compete for earning rewards, it leaves them with a sense of pride when they accomplish gamified tasks.
- Helps in building connections:
Competitive games push employees to learn more skills and perform better than other employees in the quizzes to get to the top of the leaderboard. This sense of competition facilitates healthy social interaction amongst employees. When employees participate in group competitions to win a challenge, it helps in building connections that are beneficial for workplace collaboration.
- Saves time:
A lot of organizations have noticed that adding game elements to a L&D course reduced training time significantly. This happens because employees feel encouraged to engage with the content and learn in order to earn badges and rewards and to be higher on the leaderboard rankings. This saves a lot of time as employees proactively engage in learning without having to be pushed by their employers.
Cons Of Gamified Learning In The Workplace
- Gamification is often ungracefully used
For a lot of companies, implementation of gamification is just masquerading boring tests as quizzes to incorporate game mechanics. Simply assuming that leaderboards, point systems, quizzes and badges will push employees to learn does not actually ensure that they are learning.
This is why it is important to make use of an LMS that balances competition and learning. You can compare LMS features to understand how powerful they are in enhancing the learning experience. For instance when you compare Docebo LMS with Thinkific, you will notice that the latter has relatively very few of the features that are necessary to build a skillful and masterly learning experience.
- Gamification reduces attention span:
From a design point of view, gaming mechanics should be utilized to enforce the learning objectives, not drive employees to just somehow finish the course. When the intent is to just force them to complete the course, it reduces their attention span as they just concentrate on their fast pace of learning.
To tackle this, quizzes should be built to test employee learning thoroughly. This will encourage them to pay attention to learning before jumping on to the games. Also, employers must reward high performance and not speedy completion of courses.
Conclusion:
With the above mentioned list of pros and cons, it is easy to determine that gamification has to be implemented wisely to be beneficial for a company. If used properly, gamification is a huge motivator for employees and produces improved course assessment results. It also ensures employees stay productive, which drives better business results.
