We have long had league tables, personal bests and whiteboards showing deals and activity made visible in the office and products like Saber, Silverline and Cube19 serve us well in this area.
However we now have Gen Y'ers in the workforce and new Rec Cons expect more and will react better to new ways of the above. These Gen Y'ers are digital natives and have been brought up online. They are been accustomed to cutting edge technology & innovation at home, and expect the same quality of technology in the workplace. They have been playing video games on consoles, mobile, socially, and more—since childhood, and have thus been immersed in the language and metaphors of gaming their entire lives.
So in an effort to engage and motivate Gen Y, what are the characteristics of games that
deserve a place to help you hit target?
They are looking for the following:-
- Real time feedback - don't wait a week to review their activity!
- Transparency - make it really easy to get you stats and find out where they rank in the company
- Competition - to create competition in a scalable, automated way that can be used to drive results
- Collect Badges - to have something that shows they have achieved - monthly awards on the desk are good
Gamification is the application of these characteristics from games into things like Sales Work! in order to engage and motivate it takes all of the concepts illustrated above, and integrates them into being a successful recruitment consultant!
Managers need to look at activities and processes and redesign the way that employees experience the work.
To be absolutely clear, it is not about turning work into a game where compliance checks don’t turn into Angry Birds and business development calls don't turn FIFA 2013. It’s about framing work in the language and metaphors of gaming, with the goal of engaging and motivating your Gen Y sales teams and will it will be effective for all demographics
Good luck and the Technology that does this will be a Killer App.