There are several stages to the employee lifecycle, many just think of ‘onboard’ and ‘start working’ but there are more, each with their own unique aspects that affect the employee experience, these include attract, recruit, onboard, retain, skill-up, motivate, promote, assess, right through to exit.
Gamification has the potential to enhance these key stages in the lifecycle and can often make a difference in the following ways:
Attract
Building a compelling employee experience starts well before your employee walks through the door.
In today’s world, people are can be exposed to your brand and organisation on a regular basis, from social media to advertising and PR. What they gain from this process will then shape their opinion on whether your company is an attractive place to work at or not.
Creative plays on employer branding have been around in the gamification world for some time – it might be a video on the careers page or a quiz to find out which role is best to apply for.
Recruit and assess
The recruitment and assessment process are two more areas where gamification can enhance the experience.
Our opinions on an organisation can be swayed significantly, depending on how we are treated in the recruitment process. A great interview experience incorporating feedback and fun assessments, together with good insights can have a positive impact on the candidate’s impression of the organisation.
The opposite holds true too; a company asking you to fill out hours of dull online tests will probably cause many to drop out of the selection process.
Gamification can be applied in assessment centre days for monitoring how candidates function within a wider team, right through to inbox exercises to gauge how well they cope with prioritisation and workload.
Onboarding
Once the new employee has joined, there is always a process to follow in setting the new employee up for success within the company by meeting the right teams, receiving the right training and inductions.
Companies have the chance to be innovative in the way they use gamification to onboard new employees. For example, to encourage employees to learn new information about a company or process, games such as treasure hunts or quests work a treat in helping new recruits think differently about the company and have fun in the process.
Productivity and performance
In order to increase productivity and performance, employees are best served with instant feedback. Digital gamified solutions tend to make an appearance in this particular space.
Some might include elements that have the aim of improving employee wellbeing or the encouragement of achieving personal objectives. In our experience, a fun wellbeing campaign can also positively impact the bottom line, team spirit and productivity.
Job mastery
The elusive trio of job mastery, job enrichment and job rotation are derived from job design theories from Hersey and Blanchard, which can impact the levels of motivation individuals experience in their job.
By designing and tweaking a role as a person evolves in skills and experience levels, it is likely to result in new levels of enthusiasm for the job itself.
In some organisations, promotion is an option, in others due to their flat structure, elements of job design may be more appropriate. In any case, gamification can help to create a ‘level up’ experience by enhancing knowledge and increasing motivation in a particular area.
Exit strategies
For employees moving on, having the right exit strategy is important. It allows for companies to take on feedback into the organisation, as well as the ability to build community among the alumni network.
This could be carried out in the form of an online quiz or questionnaire or even follow-up strategies to ‘keep in touch’ once the employee has departed.
This method will help to maintain good brand ambassadors which might in turn help to win new customers as well as new employees with appropriate skills.
Are you ready to introduce gamification into your company?
If you would like to gamify any of the processes as mentioned above, or if there is an area that you think might benefit from gamification but aren’t yet sure how, get in touch.
