Right off the bat, it is needless to say that 2020 has been a dramatic year that has forced us to revisit how we have been doing business so far; the landscape has changed completely. Internet-enabled technologies for communication and collaboration have existed since forever, but they have now become mainstream and prevalent like never before. Everybody is accustomed to Zoom calls, gupshup on Slack, and all electronic modes of collaboration. “Work from Anywhere” is becoming a norm now.
It does however pose a grave challenge. There was a certain vibe and sharing of energies in working together in an office, which can never be replaced by the isolation of working from home. The human connection is important. So, the most pertinent question now is: how do we engage our teams better, motivate and inspire them to continue doing their best work, and keep the team spirit and company culture alive during these Work From Anywhere days?
A company’s culture and team spirit is much more than a physical office space. It is a sum of its vision, purpose, processes and outlook. It sure gets amplified by the office environment but does not entirely depend on it. The answer then is purposeful engagement of the workforce. Thankfully, one half of this equation is easily defined by the work that the team is expected to. The other half is built up by how they do it. This “how” is what has been severely affected by the Work From Anywhere model, as this is now beyond the control of the organisation. But do not despair, there is still much you can do – the answer is gamifying the remote workplace.
Imagine the most engaging experiences of your life: a road trip, an inspiring course, a deeply satisfying project you worked on – what did they all have in common? They were playful and rewarding. They were a treasure hunt, where each step egged you on to the next one. You had partners along with you through the journey – these journeys would be meaningless without all the memories created along the way. This act of creating a playful and rewarding experience, ensuring that a ton of memories are created along the way is what the process of gamification aspires to.
So, what is gamification? It is the application of game-like mechanics such as scoring, rewards, badges and trophies, competition (like a leaderboard) or missions, etc in a nongaming environment. It helps you convert traditional processes into a game-like fun and engaging process. It helps increase engagement, satisfaction and loyalty for your audience. It helps form habits and gives positive reinforcement. It can be used to convert any dull process into a high involvement one – one that attracts attention to all the right details. Look at Fitbit, HealthifyMe, CrownIT, most of the Reward Programs for quick examples of how gamification can make engaging activities out of things that most of us dread.
Let us look at an example: In the traditional world, a company hires a new employee and puts them in the team. This team organises a video call and introduces the new member to all the other team members. After a small conversation, the team starts their regular scrum cycles and project delivery. And eventually the new member gels in with the team and forms relationships. In the gamified world, a company hires a new employee and puts them in a team. Their gamified Slack bot connects this new employee with a new buddy every day and helps them have a conversation on three questions about each other ranging from their hobbies and passions to their job profiles and skill sets.
At the end of the month, the entire team gets together and plays a quiz where each question is about a specific trait and each person gets to choose a fellow team member who expresses that trait. At the end of the quiz, the results are published. The team then gets to discuss the outcomes and gets to give feedback to each other. Not only does this team forge stronger relationships but also helps each other grow faster.
Similar experiences can be made out of the project management practices, HR processes, rewards and recognitions programs, and many more. The “Employee of the Month” program in many companies is a good example of basic gamification practices. A more transparent and objective targets-based-bonus system could be another great example of gamification.
Gamification does not have to be limited to the HR department. Any team leader, in any department can convert (with a little help, of course!) most of the conventional processes into a highly engaging, gamified process. This goes a long way in meeting the organizational goals and objectives. Another great thing about gamification is that it is not dependent on a physical presence. Since it is how you approach a process, it can easily be customised and implemented for the workplace whether in an office or remote.
Gamification does not need to be highly technology dependent either. It is an application of an action-oriented, outcome-based approach to processes; this can be speedily implemented and executed via technology (Sure!) but can easily be done in a lesser technology-dependent way too. You just need to approach your gamification design in a suitable way.
Keep in mind: every dark cloud has a silver lining. The pandemic and ensuing lockdowns and workfrom-home have been unprecedented, and many organisations were caught by surprise. Organisations that respond to such challenges by being adaptable and flexible, create an innovative work culture that not only successfully engages their remote workforce, but also inspires them to continue doing their best work.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kinshuk Sunil is the Founder & CEO of Hashstash – a premier game development studio that helps customers to effectively communicate and achieve business objectives through games. Over the years, he has worked with clients like Byju’s, Glance, and Vodafone Foundation. He is, also, the Head of Technology at MyyTake – a new-media startup formed by a stellar team with over 20 years of media experience. At MyyTake he is building the next-gen platforms for the digitally young.
For comments and feedback, you can reach the author on kinshuk@hashstash.in.
