Gamification is the process of adding game-like elements to a training program. By incorporating elements of competition, feedback, and reward into training, gamification better engages and motivates learners.
When used in the context of corporate training, gamification helps organizations engage their employees, drive completion rates, and improve knowledge retention.
Check out 4 real-life examples of gamification being used in corporate training:
- Sally Beauty Supply Uses Gamification For Retail Sales Training
- AstraZeneca Gamifies New Medicine Rollout
- Deloitte Uses Gamification For Senior Leadership Development
- Cisco Gamifies Sales Associate Training
Did you know gamification increases employee engagement by 60%, leading to higher levels of employee confidence and productivity?
Gamification is by no means a new technique, as organizations have widely used rewards, leaderboards, badges, and more gamified elements for decades. While these traditional gamified elements boost employee engagement in learning, organizations across the globe are constantly adopting new gamified methods to engage their learners like never before.
At Roundtable Learning, we partner with organizations to deliver the best training solutions that engage their learners in innovative ways. We’ve seen firsthand how gamification positively impacts corporate training by exciting and engaging learners through interactive tasks.
This article will define gamification, explain how gamification is used for corporate training, and explore 4 real-life examples of gamification in corporate training.
How Is Gamification Used For Corporate Training?
Gamification is the process of adding game-like elements to a training program. By incorporating elements of competition, feedback, and reward into training, gamification better engages and motivates learners. The drive to include gamification across learning modalities stems from the idea that active, engaged learning promotes knowledge retention and sustains behavior change.
When used in the context of corporate training, gamification gives learners opportunities to have fun through any of the following methods:
- Reach daily goals or streaks
- Complete mini-games or quizzes
- Receive personalized rewards and badges at checkpoints or upon completion
- Follow a theme, story, or quest throughout training
- Track personal progress
- Compete with others on a dashboard
For example, let’s explore an instructor-led training (ILT) program.
Gamification can be easily integrated into this type of training to build classroom engagement or as a replacement for a criterion test. For example, instead of a standard multiple choice test, learners play a more engaging game like Twenty Questions or Jeopardy!. By integrating these games into training, learners have a more interactive experience that encourages socialization and active learning.
4 Real-Life Examples Of Gamification For Corporate Training
Sally Beauty Supply Uses Gamification For Retail Sales Training
With a need to boost their customer service care, confidence, and loyalty, Sally Beauty Supply implemented a highly gamified, custom eLearning program for their store associates. Throughout each module, store associates practice navigating real-life situations where customers inquire about hair color products.
This eLearning program incorporates:
- An interactive slider that indicates a learner’s comfortability with the hair care aisle
- An interactive dial to see different hair developers in action
- Drag and drop hair color types to the correct customer based on their inquiry
- Drag and drop products into customers’ carts based on their needs
These gamified elements give learners an opportunity to actively engage with a diverse representation of customers, make mistakes, and receive feedback. In doing so, learners are better prepared for assisting a variety of customer inquiries regarding hair color products in real life.
AstraZeneca Gamifies New Medicine Rollout
In 2015, AstraZeneca implemented a new training program called “Go To Jupiter” to train recently hired sales employees on new medical products. This training used multiple gamified elements to motivate learners, including:
- Mini-games
- Rewards for key achievements
- Leaderboards
- Team competitions
As a result, the learner completion rate increased to 95% and learner engagement rates were at 97%. In addition, the majority of learners completed the program outside of working hours, proving the program to be an effective tool that encouraged and motivated employees.
Deloitte Uses Gamification For Senior Leadership Development
With the use of its leadership academy, Deloitte employed gamification elements to their senior leader training to help learners develop their soft skills. Throughout training, learners establish their individual learning goals and explore various training topics. After each mission, learners receive badges to mark their achievements and can also check leaderboards that display a list of the top 10 users for different activities.
Since gamifying their leadership academy, Deloitte has seen a 47% increase in the number of users returning each week, as well as an increase in engagement levels as learners are excited to compete with their peers.
Read More: Soft Skills vs. Hard Skills: What’s The Difference And Why Do They Matter?
Cisco Gamifies Sales Associate Training
As part of their sales associate training program, learners at Cisco completed synchronous eLearning modules that taught them foundational knowledge and technical skills when handling customers.
This eLearning program incorporated gamification into employees’ learning journeys by sending them on a quest through Cisco’s Knowledge Guru game. Throughout their completion of the program, learners could repeat activities, learn from mistakes, and gain the technical knowledge needed to pass their certification exam.
As a result, learners rated the games’ effectiveness a 4.93/5 and successfully met learning objectives at an average rate of 87% per objective across users.
Are You Ready To Gamify Your Training?
This article has defined gamification and provided 4 real-life examples of gamification being used for corporate training. We hope these examples have provided insight into the power gamification has to boost employee engagement, motivation, and retention.
Wondering how gamification could transform your corporate training? Meet with one of our L&D experts today or check out some of our past work.
