Top 5 tips for effectively integrating Gamification in Human Resources

The use of gamification is becoming more and more prominent in the world of work and business, but do we really know what it means? Gamification is defined as the application of game playing mechanisms into non-game contexts to improve user engagement. In human relations (HR), gamification can be used to shorten the recruitment cycle, to make for more versatile and engaging onboarding, and for more efficient and effective training.

So, how do we go about implementing games and gamification into our HR practices?

In this article, we’ll run through our top 5 tips for gamifying your human resources policy

1) Bring gamification into the recruitment process

Different issues are often encountered during recruitment when taking a more traditional approach.

First of all, limited time can lead to making decisions based on the wrong criteria. The time constraints of interviews do not always allow for a true representation of a candidate. Also, there is a risk of bias within traditional methods which cannot guarantee true impartiality. For example, candidate A may be right for the job, but candidate B may be far better at selling themselves by being more personable.

Gamified content in the recruitment process offers numerous benefits to a business that can mitigate the aforementioned issues. Take for example, a customised Quiz. This can easily be shared either as a link as part of a job advert, or sent to potential hires who get through an initial sifting of applications, and used to pose job-specific scenarios, and ask them to select multiple choice, ordered, or open answers. This format can easily be customised to evaluate soft skills, industry specific knowledge, or even an applicant’s aptitude. This can not only help to take a smaller, more select group of candidates to the interview process, but can be taken as a hard measure against which to balance an applicant’s performance in an interview. This shortens the recruitment process, and helps recruiters hire the best candidates, faster.

2) Integrate new employees in a more productive way

After the recruitment process, another situation in which gamification functions well within HR is during the onboarding process for new employees. Often overlooked by businesses, inductions usually consist of lots of information about the company, their new position, and a brief tour of the offices and broader workplace. It can vary from too much information in too short a period of time, to not enough information to be of any real value.

Games, on the other hand, create the opportunity to really engage the candidate and involve them in a much more memorable way. Choosing to develop a gamified application or serious game can make the first stages of a new job much more enjoyable and pleasant.

Why not learn about the company through a virtual path full of customised Quizzes, broken up by informative videos and other media? This is far less labour intensive, and can tap into the natural desire to make progress of the new employee, as they’re given autonomy in their induction, and will be intrinsically motivated to make a good start to their new job anyway. A game taps into this, making the process more productive than being lectured to.

3) Put a new spin on in-house training

As well as making great tools for recruitment and onboarding, gamification as part of e-learning offers companies a highly effective vehicle for developing the skills of their employees. Business simulation games are now widely acknowledged and adopted as a fully-fledged educational tool, perfectly suited to experiential learning. Business games are mainly used to teach skills and concepts related to economics and realistic challenges players might encounter in specific industries. Usually, participants are presented with a very realistic business scenario, with an obvious problem or challenge to solve. Through the game, the participant is encouraged to carry out their own analysis, adopt a strategy, and in the process, increase their own job-specific knowledge through application and repeatability – because it’s a simulation, they can make a mistake, and play through the game again, ultimately improving their understanding.

Using e-learning for in-house training offers numerous advantages from a management perspective as it’s far less labour intensive, and can easily be updated, and the learners benefit from a more flexible training style. Effectively, the student has the power to decide when, where, and how they wish to learn. Since they choose the most suitable time for them, training via e-learning becomes more efficient than face-to-face training. Furthermore, face-to-face training is often very intense because there is a lot of information to absorb in a limited timeframe. E-learning allows students to break the sessions down in order to get the most out of it.

E-learning also presents the opportunity to offer a large range of different training modules. Modules can take the form of customised Quizzes, videos, audio files, mini games, and even practical tasks. This kind of training is very dynamic, and when it’s effectively designed, it can help make the employee feel energised and involved.

4) Management: strengthen teams by gamifying working time

Gamification can also make day-to-day life in your company more enjoyable. Gamify working time by designating times for “game breaks,” coming up with more enjoyable meeting systems by holding meetings in places other than dedicated meeting rooms, or even simply organising team-building days which aren’t made up of Powerpoint presentations. All of these things promote well-being at work, by breaking up the usual routine and bringing teams together.

5) Integrate gamification into your human resources with the right help

Gamification is a very effective tool for strengthening your approach to human resources, whether it’s used for recruitment, onboarding, training, or team building and energising your employees day-to-day.

You may now be wondering, how do I begin? This is where the Drimify games creation platform comes in.

In the early days of gamification, it was the reserve of big multinational companies with huge budgets that could afford to develop gamified content in-house, and experiment with their approach to various human resources practices, but today, gamification is a lot more accessible. The Drimify games creation platform allows you to easily create original business games to level up your HR processes by customising our catalogue of tried-and-tested game engines. It works in self-service mode, with various resources and case studies available on our website to help you get ideas, but you also have optional add-ons like assistance packs and agency services, to get as much or as little help as you need.

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