Gamification System to Motivate Human Resources

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1		Carlos Filipe Portela	--	2712	2024-01-13 15:49:21	\|
2	update references and layout	Rita Xu	-8 word(s)	2704	2024-01-15 03:39:08	\|

This entry is adapted from the peer-reviewed paper 10.3390/info15010026

In the age of Industry 4.0, competition between companies is becoming increasingly intense, and companies are turning to trends that aim to improve overall performance. Accordingly, the company ITEK decided to create a global gamification mechanism focused on motivating employees and encouraging them to perform their tasks in order to obtain incentives.

gamification cloud computing human resources

1. Introduction

In the age of Industry 4.0, competition between companies is becoming increasingly intense, and companies are turning to trends that aim to improve overall performance. Gamification can thus contribute to improving employee engagement by helping technological companies improve knowledge creation and business orientation ^[1]. As Deterding et al. propose, the definition of “gamification” is the use of game design elements in non-game contexts ^[2].

With this in mind, a global gamification approach was created and tested in a technological company that shall serve as an example for an extension of companies that possess the same needs—therefore defining it as a global model capable of motivating human resources to achieve established goals with views to receiving incentives.

Along these lines, with the above-mentioned theme in mind, the associated objectives focus on a main objective: the definition of a gamification mechanism in the context of technology companies. To achieve this objective, a survey of the existing solutions in the areas of gamification was carried out, comprising a survey of all the platforms and APIs used by the company ITEK (alias name) and a study of interoperability with the platforms selected and previously identified in the company. ITEK is a research and development company working in the areas of digital transition and data science with fewer than 20 employees.

2. Gamification

Gamification is described as an emerging technological, social, cultural, or economic phenomenon ^[3] that enhances the involvement of employees, improves relationships between them, and challenges them to achieve goals. It is used as an experimental learning technique, and beyond that, it is used to encourage engagement with a product, a service, or a brand ^[4]. Gamification is considered an umbrella term for the use of video-game elements in non-gaming systems to improve user experience and user engagement ^[5]. The concept results basically from the inclusion of game components in applications/businesses, thus allowing employees to challenge themselves by gathering points, comparing leaderboards against other employees and their overall leaderboard position, and collecting badges, allowing them to set new goals for themselves based on game-based performance. Therefore, gamification is a combination of quantification, rewards, autonomy, and challenge, which makes it ideal for the workplace, as it attempts to harness the motivational power of games in order to promote participation, persistence, and achievements ^[6]. Moreover, gamification offers opportunities through motivation and rewards for staff to follow their own performance. In order to have contented employees, there is a need to ensure that the employees love the work environment and the job they do, giving room to improve themselves and support this with success ^[7]. If used effectively, it certainly boosts collaboration and feedback within the organization ^[8]. This information technology, whether the same applications or technological tools provided by organizations to their employees, uses gamification as a motivational factor for the use of these same tools, which in turn allows the attraction and retention of users, increases the return on investment, and improves the quality of data, ultimately increasing learning and sustainability. Gamification then has great potential in operation and decision support as it works as an additional layer in relation to tasks and activities with support from information systems ^[9]. It also has the power to enhance the user experience by immersing individuals in a gamified system that both engages and stimulates them ^[4]. This means that gamification can be used as a tool to enhance motivation and performance at work, meaning that gamification has the power to transform the workplace like a classroom ^[10]. However, for each benefit, there are concerns about creating standardized and global models in this area ^[11].

3. Gamification Design

Gamification design, on the other hand, is a different kind of experience. The concept of gamification started to gain widespread interest and a more research-oriented following in mid-2010 when companies began using gamification to describe their behavior platforms ^[4]. But for gamification design to work, it must include game design within itself, not just game components. Games are not a replacement for thoughtful experience and interaction design, they are just an alternate lens for framing that process ^[12]. According to Högskolan and Skövde ^[13], to make a successful game, the design needs to assess and include different variants, such as self-representations, three-dimensional environments, narratives, feedback, reputation ranks and levels, marketplaces and economies, competition under rules, teams, communication, and, finally, time pressure.

4. Organizational Gamification

Another subject important to mention is organizational gamification, specifically in intra-organizational settings, as it can lead to better satisfaction, motivation, enjoyment flow, and knowledge-sharing behavior ^[14]. The degree of employee engagement and its impact on productivity has become a crucial factor for the survival and sustenance of any organization operating in the ever-changing business arena. With this, it becomes clear that gamification can be used as a powerful strategic tool in enhancing business results for organizations, provided it is applied with thought and integrated into the overall business process of the organization ^[8]. Therefore, organizational gamification is summarized by figuring out what lures and engages the user and providing appropriate feedback in between, thus increasing the level of engagement and paving the way to achieve success in the organization ^[15].

5. Motivational Information Systems

Motivational information systems are also a relevant theme to be explored considering the theme, the subjects mentioned above, and the area of information systems included. What makes motivational information systems, such as gamification, interesting is the fact that the systems at their core motivate and support the user toward a given activity or behavior, and the acceptance of this is mainly driven by usefulness in utilitarian systems, where usefulness is determined by the enjoyment of the use ^[16].

6. Resources on Gamification

Nowadays it is important to take into account the challenges that exist in organizations, which are often related to the efficient use of resources and quick decision-making, allowing for the introduction of a need for technology that can transform traditional processes with technological advances. These technological advances then allow organizations to implement gamification on their platforms, thereby opening up the use of this tool in various sectors.

According to Wanick V and Bui H ^[17], the purposes of gamification application in management mainly involve community building, brand loyalty, engagement, education, motivation, monitoring, persuasion, and productivity.

In marketing, gamification also has a very close relationship to loyalty programs, even though the application of gamification as a strategy allows marketers to obtain a history of product usage with monitoring tools and analytics, usually related to behavior regulation ^[17].

In human resource management, the motivational technique involves gamification as a tool to enhance motivation and incentives at work. As mentioned before, gamification transforms the workplace ^[17], infusing a feeling of ownership of performance and results. Having trackers to monitor the gamified process will help to audit the scope and evaluate the success of gamification, as the real-time data available in the tracker will enhance the return on investment of the gamified process ^[18]. Gamification can also be applied to reduce the educational gap at work and increase engagement with corporate responsibility actions promoted by a company, thus driving positive behavior ^[17].

In logistics and supply chain management, a challenge remains in teaching and training. Therefore, the strategy used in these areas focuses on the combination of simulations and role-play applications, merging real-world activities with academic activities. This merge includes elements like quick feedback, leaderboards, and individuality that can lead to enhanced learning and engagement in general ^[17].

In finance, the challenge that leads this sector to the implementation of gamification is the need to measure every aspect based on the return on investment and have justification for future work and design. With this in mind, gamification in finance can be analyzed in two ways: its application inside banks and companies, integrating the whole process of business, and the gamification of personal banking, from the perspective of the individual ^[17].

According to Simpson and Jenkins ^[18], the application of gamification in a company’s human resources is intended for business—guiding activities as a means to achieve personal goals and objectives, along with those of the company itself. Gamification is thus considered to play an important role in encouraging employees in order to attract, induce, train, engage, and retain them. It can therefore be assumed that, with the understanding of the benefits of gamification, HR professionals may be able to create their own gamification strategies involving others ^[19]. It is also important to mention, according to Nenadić and Agušaj ^[20], that the adoption of gamified practices in HRs, as well as in other areas, guarantees a competitive advantage in recruiting and attracting talent and may even make these practices or gamification elements a cornerstone for recruitment strategies in the near future.

7. Cloud Gamification

Cloud gamification, as the name implies, is the introduction of gamification and its gaming component into cloud services. This can be used to exploit all the potential configurable resources, using these resources to design and develop games for the appropriate and efficient use of gamification in an organization, thus enabling the removal of limitations and barriers in areas such as access at any time and place via mobile devices ^[19].

8. Gamification Design Patterns for User Engagement

A pattern is a combination of a problem and a corresponding solution that is described in a systematic and generic way so that it can be used over and over again in different situations ^[20].

According to Direkova, the author of the patterns that were followed for the mechanism created, design patterns that create game-like user engagement follow three aspects of user engagement. These three aspects are “Come and try the new gamified product or service”, “Bring friends to try the new gamified product or service”, and “Come back to retry the new gamified product or service (as frequent customers)” ^[21].

The first aspect identifies five different types of patterns: 1. prize and awards, which focus on attracting users interest; 2. visual storytelling, which focus more on visual features and not too much on text instructions; 3. visual cues, which emphasize the visual elements of a software application; 4. tutorials and coaching, where scenarios are designed to help users use gamified environments and understand how they operate; and 5. reward schedules, which focus on not giving too many rewards in the beginning, having levels of difficulty, and only unlocking badges based on the experience of the user in question ^[21].

The second aspect identifies six different patterns: 1. gated trial—form a team to start, where the focus revolves around the importance of inviting users to work as a team; 2. design conversations, which focuses on designing conversations in order to receive feedback from users; 3. structured social feedback, which focuses on urging users to write comments and express their gamification preferences in order to give the sense of being integrated into the company; 4. reputation, which focuses on establishing how efficient players are by using a gamified software application; 5. sharing achievements, which focuses on sharing their digital achievements with other users; and 6. mischief, which focuses on embracing uncertain circumstances that any community faces ^[21].

The third aspect identifies three patterns: 1. create scores, which focus on keeping scores that can affect users’ behaviors in many ways; 2. throttle actions, which focus on designing gamified applications that incentivize users to interact with the whole gamified system; and 3. advanced user paths, which focus on having simple tasks that grow more challenging with time ^[21].

Bearing in mind that all these patterns contribute to the successful introduction of gamification into a company, when the idea for this gamification mechanism was first created, a number of patterns were established as the main focus. These patterns are, in the first aspect, “Prize and Awards”, which focuses on awarding prizes and medals to employees in order to motivate them to complete their work. In the second aspect, the “Gated Trial-Form a team to start” pattern was among those highlighted as important since one of the most important focuses is teamwork and the effectiveness of the work completed as a team. Finally, in the third aspect, all three standards were taken into account since they are all important focuses for the project. The “Create scores” pattern, which focuses on user scores, is the most important of these since the engine works with scores, leaderboards, and awards as the basis for gamification. The “Throttle actions” pattern is also important to focus on as it encourages users to use the whole system.

9. Similar Solutions

In order to finish this background, market research was carried out to find similar proposals to those intended with this article, and six projects were found:

Deloitte Leadership Academy (DLA): Deloitte Consulting created the Deloitte Leadership Academy (DLA) to provide its employees with training programs. DLA has gamified its training programs with game mechanics that include medals (earned when completing a special mission), points, and leaderboards. In addition, there is a team prize indicating that, if all members of a particular team successfully complete a specific mission within a limited time, they will all receive a special medal. As another game mechanic, micro leaderboards are also used, which show the top ten finishers in each group and are updated on a weekly basis. With gamification, DLA has implemented a system that provides immediate feedback on the learning progress and uses referrals to correct learning paths, as well as providing a means for motivation and engagement ^[22].
ThinkTopia: ThinkTopia engages at the individual, team, and organizational levels using a series of activities and rewards. These activities are based on business needs and strategic priorities (the institutional milieu), which cascade from the strategic level to the team and individual level to demonstrate how individual effort contributes directly to both the larger organizational goal and individual concerns. Although this is only a prototype, ThinkTopia has been used to provide incentives and rewards to employees for certain activities and has focused on incentivizing a set of behaviors that are beneficial to both the employer and employee ^[23].
SAP Community Network (SCN): Gamification has produced some valuable benefits in the SAP Community Network (SCN), where members can earn points and medals, advancing 13 levels by helping other users in need. Internally, SAP uses game elements in its community network to promote participation and collaboration and has also been trying to develop internal applications to encourage specific behaviors ^[24].
Virtuoso: GraviTalent created Virtuoso, which is a gamified recruitment application that assesses candidates on various behavioral traits. GraviTalent provides a data-driven assessment method using serious games that identify behavioral strengths to help companies hire the best-fit talent and build high-performing teams. This application identifies three different areas of the individual: cognitive style, which comprehends problem-solving, strategic thinking, and ingenuity; work attitude, which comprehends perseverance, resilience, and the ability to quickly turn demand into action; and work style, which comprehends speed at work, precision, and efficiency ^[25].
ConnectCubed: ConnectCubed is an application that can help organizations solve their human resource-related problems and uses gamification elements to access IQ and personality to identify whether an individual fits a job opening. This application is also able to identify problems in a working team or in the interaction among people while working. It uses a typical serious game where a candidate simply answers questions in the form of quizzes or plays logic games. Pressure is provided by the time factor, which requires scoring rapidly while the candidate is playing ^[25].
Ace Manager: Ace Manager was created by BNP Paribas, which offers people the opportunity to find out about the real economy, step into a banker’s shoes, and throw themselves into a business venture in order to find the best talents for an organization. This online game presents game mechanics and dynamics that turn the game into a competition with different levels, which results in players earning points and being ranked at the end of the competition phases ^[25].

Despite this, when analyzing the different examples presented, it can be seen that the gamification models used, although having different objectives, are similar overall. All of them present gamification in the same way, using it as a motivation and commitment factor for performing tasks, with the results being presented in classification tables and points/medals being awarded to the user in question.

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