Gamification stuff we love: Growth Engineering
Yesterday I attended the Gamifiers Meetup group hosted in the lovely IBM client centre. We learned from case studies from fellow industry experts, I saw an update on player types from Andrzej Marczweski, which made me look forward to his full workshop on the topic at the Gamification World Congress. The one presentation that fully stood for me today was by Juliette Denny the MD from Growth Engineering, so much so that we are looking into reselling their gamified learning management system (LMS) service to our clients current and future.
I had met Juliette at an gamification workshop by Gabe Zicherman last year and was already interested by what they were up to then, but today the case studies spoke for themselves. As both a learning consultant internally and externally I have often looked at learning management systems and e-learning content delivered in innovative ways. When possible I attend Learning Technologies to find out what is happening in the industry. Actually this year I got stopped by a number of exhibitors when they read my name badge with Gamification Nation on it. This morning was the first time I truly saw a gamified learning management system which also incorporates social learning and 70/20/10 learning (on the job/mentoring/ learning activities).
For each client case study given, the engagement numbers were impressive. According to the data measured from their system and portrayed on the company website gamification gets learners engaged, which means learners spend 50% more time on the learning management system and 86% more active.
One of the case studies is Spicers Academy – an office stationary retailer – they implemented the Growth Engineering LMS. 93% of it’s users gave the system a 5 star rating and when the LMS became gamified traffic to the Academy increased by 80%. On top of that they reported a 24.7% increase in sales knowledge among their sales staff.
What were the gamification elements used for Spicer’s Academy?
- Badges for completion of content
- Achievements for engaging with the Academy in other ways such as rating material, commenting, profile completion, etc.
- Levels based on a combination of badges earned and achievements obtained
- Leaderboards based on the elements before with the purpose of encouraging further engagement and achievement
- Dialogue stream to show earning of badges, achievements as well as knowledge and know how to encourage social learning
Now when you have worked or still work in a corporate environment you will know that return on investment is always questioned, especially when it comes from the learning and development team. The numbers quoted above are not just a once off experience, I have seen better retention and implementation in live events as well as from some of the programs I have worked on, but for users of the gamified LMS Growth Engineering showcased, these statistics are only a few clicks away. Management reporting made simple.
Before you jump in, you do need to consider your key business as well as learning objectives, your core players and your company culture, because embarking on a gamification project is effectively also a transformational change project. Typically an implementation of a gamified LMS will be a commitment of a number of years and a relevant investment. The returns as shown above at the same time may well be worth it. Gamification will definitely appeal to generation Y, who have grown up on with games as a regular part of their life. It will be refreshing to the existing employee base because of the novel way of learning.
What is your biggest challenge with learning take-up in your company? Have you used gamification yet?
If you want to implement an LMS with a difference as described above, by all means contact us and we will make sure you Growth Engineering will assist you in your corporate learning goals.
