Harvard Business School conducted a recent study with KPMG’s workforce that included 24 offices across 29 months, analyzing the impact of gamification in employee training programs. It measured the impact of gamification on:
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Core KPMG business outcomes tied to training initiatives.
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Overall employee engagement with training
The research found that gamified training experiences led to:
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An uplift in core KPMG business outcomes for offices that had higher levels of participation, including a 25% increase in fee collection, a 22% increase in new opportunities, and a 16% increase in clients.
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Offices with buy-in and participation from leaders had higher overall employee participation in the training program and had higher growth in business outcomes.
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Higher overall job performance from employees who engaged with its Globerunner training program.
As companies seek to create more engaging and interactive learning environments, the use of gamification in training is proving to be an effective strategy for enhancing employee development and improving performance outcomes. This article explores the key benefits, applications, and best practices for integrating gamification into your organization’s training efforts.
What Is Gamification In Training?
Gamification in corporate training is an innovative approach that incorporates game design elements and principles into training programs to enhance engagement, motivation, and learning retention for employees. By introducing gamification elements such as points, badges, leaderboards, challenges, and rewards, gamification transforms traditional learning experiences into an engaging, interactive, and competitive activity.
This training method leverages the psychological principles of reward-based learning, encouraging participation and making acquiring new skills and knowledge more engaging.
Key Features of Gamification for Employee Training
Here are some specific elements of a gamification framework.
- Goals – All workplace training efforts need to be goal-oriented, and gamified training needs to be built around getting employees to reach those goals. Create SMART goals (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) to define the parameters that ensure the objectives are attainable within a specific time frame. This approach eliminates generalities and guesswork, assigns a clear timeline, and sets employees up for success.
- In-lesson game elements – There are many areas to incorporate game elements throughout the learning process, many of which are in-lesson. Things like brief checkpoint quizzes within a narrative lesson, interactive role-playing scenarios, or even vocabulary flashcard games can be part of in-lesson gamification.
- Post-lesson game elements – Game elements can also be applied post-lesson in the form of cumulative knowledge quizzes or recall of earlier lessons. Developing quizzes reinforces newly learned knowledge and ensures maximum learning retention.
- Competitive elements – Incorporating points, badges, and leaderboards allow for friendly competition and motivates learners to complete training activities to the best of their abilities.
- Rewards – While competitive elements such as points and badges make training more engaging, they don’t always work as the only source of motivation. It can be helpful to offer more tangible rewards when learners reach certain milestones as well. Rewards provide employees with incentives to complete lessons and boost engagement.
- Scorecards – Scorecards are progress summaries that display details about the performance of individual learners. They can be customized to include several stats, including the learner’s name and profile photo or avatar, total experience points and badges collected, leaderboard standings, and leveling progress. This tool can be used by the L&D team and learners to monitor pain points and compare success without digging into the data.
Gamified Training vs. Traditional Training Programs
Gamified learning and traditional face-to-face training represent two distinct approaches to employee learning and development. Each has its own strengths and limitations, depending on the learning objectives, audience, and organizational goals.
| Gamified training | Traditional training | |
| Engagement and motivation | Uses game elements (points, badges, leaderboards) to keep learners motivated and engaged. | Relies on lectures, presentations, and written materials, which may lead to passive learning and lower engagement. |
| Learning flexibility | Offers self-paced learning through digital platforms, allowing employees to learn anytime and anywhere. | Follows a fixed schedule and location, requiring learners to attend sessions at set times. |
| Feedback and Performance | Provides instant feedback through real-time progress tracking, quizzes, and performance analytics. | Feedback is usually delayed until after assessments or end-of-session evaluations. |
| Real-World Application | Includes interactive scenarios and simulations that mimic real-world challenges for hands-on training. | More theoretical, with less focus on interactive or practical application of skills in real-time scenarios. |
| Cost and Scalability | Requires initial investment but is scalable and cost-effective for large groups over time. | Often expensive due to costs associated with venues, trainers, and travel, and harder to scale. |
| Collaboration and Social Learning | Encourages friendly competition and team-based challenges to promote collaboration. | Collaboration typically occurs through structured group discussions, with less dynamic interaction. |
| Retention and Knowledge Application | Gamified elements enhance retention and promote practical skills through repetition and rewards. | Focuses on knowledge acquisition, which can be less engaging, leading to lower retention over time. |
Is Gamified Training Better Than Traditional Employee Learning Methods?
The decision between gamified and traditional training depends on the goals, audience, and resources of an organization. Gamified training is particularly effective for engaging learners, providing instant feedback, and building practical skills through interactive scenarios. It is well-suited for organizations looking to boost participation and retain knowledge over time.
However, traditional training still has its place for delivering structured, in-depth knowledge and is often more familiar to industries that rely on compliance-based or highly-regulated training environments.
Why Is Gamification Training Effective?
The effectiveness of gamification in corporate training can be attributed to several psychological principles that drive human behavior and learning:
1. Reward system activation
Gamification triggers the brain’s reward system by offering rewards (such as points, badges, or levels) for completing tasks or achieving goals. This reward mechanism stimulates the release of dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with pleasure and motivation. When employees receive these rewards, they experience a sense of achievement and satisfaction, which encourages continued participation and engagement in the training process.
2. Goal-oriented behavior
Gamification structures learning around clear, attainable goals. Setting and achieving these goals is inherently motivating for most people. When employees have specific objectives to strive for, they are more focused and driven. This goal-oriented approach aligns well with the natural human tendency to seek and achieve objectives, thereby improving engagement and the effectiveness of the training.
3. Competitive drive
Many individuals are naturally competitive, and gamification taps into this by incorporating elements like leaderboards and scoring systems. This healthy competition among peers can motivate employees to engage more deeply with the training content, striving not only to learn but also to excel. It harnesses the social aspect of competition, spurring individuals to improve their performance.
4. Real-time feedback loops and progress tracking
Gamification provides immediate feedback on learners’ actions, essential for effective learning and skill development. This real-time feedback allows employees to understand their strengths and areas for improvement, adjust their strategies, and see the impact of their efforts immediately. Progress tracking, often visualized through progress bars or levels, helps learners see how far they’ve come and how close they are to achieving their goals, further motivating them.
5. Sense of autonomy and control
Gamification often gives learners choices and control over their learning journey. When employees feel they have control over their learning process, their intrinsic motivation increases, leading to more engagement and a deeper commitment to learning.
6. Social learning and collaboration
Many gamification strategies encourage collaboration and social interaction, aligning with the social learning theory, which states that people learn from one another. Through collaborative challenges, group tasks, or sharing achievements, gamification fosters community and collaboration. This not only makes learning more enjoyable but also promotes knowledge sharing and team building.
Benefits of Gamification in Training
Here are a few benefits of integrating a gamification approach to workplace training.
1. Boosts engagement and productivity
The reward system in gamification training makes employees enjoy the process of learning, hence, they are more likely to retain information and keep up with lessons. Just like in other areas of work, increased engagement is tied to productivity and overall enjoyment of employee experience.
2. Encourages social interaction and teamwork
With gamification, training becomes a vehicle for social interaction and team bonding. It incorporates a bit of healthy competition into the training program and keeps learners eager to make progress. When employees are grouped by their department and progress is measured as a unit, they are motivated to demonstrate the aptitude of their team and work together to come out on top.
3. Fosters creativity and innovation
Game elements aren’t restricted to quizzes and memory puzzles, they can be designed to foster creative approaches to challenging situations. For instance, open-ended questions can be incorporated into role-playing scenarios, and responses can be discussed as a group. Or, groups of learners can be assigned a particular problem to be solved together. There isn’t always one right answer when it comes to gamification in training.
4. Improves training results
As it has become more commonly used in the workplace, gamified training has been shown to improve outcomes such as learning retention, workplace productivity, and overall employee experience. With these factors being the ultimate goal of most workplace training, it’s clear that gamification is a great way to maximize the efficiency of training efforts.
5. Enables shorter feedback cycles
In game design, feedback loops take the result of a given action and use it as input into the same process, making the player feel accomplished and motivated to keep going. In a gamified training context, feedback cycles let learners build on their success to reach goals quickly.
Examples of Gamification in Corporate Training
Here are some applications of gamification training in a corporate setting.
1. Employee onboarding
Gamification enhances the employee onboarding experience by making it interactive and engaging for new hires. Rather than overwhelming new employees with traditional presentations or manuals, gamified onboarding introduces tasks, challenges, and rewards to help employees learn about the company, culture, and processes in a fun way.
Example: Introduce new hires to the company through a series of challenges and quests, where they earn points for completing tasks such as watching orientation videos or participating in team-building activities.
2. Compliance training
Compliance training, often seen as dry or tedious, can be transformed into an engaging experience with gamification. Incorporating scenarios where employees earn points or badges for correctly navigating legal and ethical dilemmas can make learning about compliance more interactive and memorable.
Example: Employees participate in a game that simulates real-world scenarios requiring them to make decisions based on compliance rules. This interactive approach ensures that employees retain critical compliance information more effectively.
3. Upskilling
Gamified training can be used to upskill employees by introducing learning paths that reward progress and mastery of new skills. Employees can complete modules and unlock achievements as they advance through levels of complexity, helping them stay motivated to continue learning.
Example: Incorporating gamification for technical upskilling where employees participate in coding challenges and problem-solving quests. They earn badges and points as they complete increasingly difficult tasks, making the learning experience competitive and rewarding.
4. Product knowledge training
Gamification is particularly effective for product knowledge training, where employees need to learn about new products, features, or updates. By incorporating quizzes, flashcards, and simulations, employees can test their knowledge in real time, making the learning process both fun and practical.
Example: Employees participate in games that simulate customer interactions and test their product knowledge, earning points and badges for completing different levels of training.
5. Sales training
Sales training often requires role-playing, scenario-based learning, and performance tracking, all of which can be gamified to increase engagement and improve results. Sales staff can earn rewards for completing challenges, mastering objection handling, or closing simulated deals, fostering healthy competition and improving sales techniques.
Example: Sales teams compete to complete customer engagement tasks, learn sales techniques, and close virtual deals. This approach not only improves engagement but also helps build real-world sales skills.
Best Practices for Integrating Gamification into Your Corporate Training
Integrating gamification into corporate training can be a highly effective strategy to enhance engagement and learning outcomes. Here are a few best practices to follow to implement it successfully.
1. Identify learning objectives and understand your audience
Before implementing gamification, it’s crucial to define clear learning objectives. Understanding what you want employees to learn ensures that the gamified elements align with these goals. You can implement a SMART goals framework that creates goals based on five criteria areas – specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound, enabling employees to achieve personal goals and OKRs based on clearly defined objectives.
Additionally, knowing your audience helps tailor the experience, ensuring it appeals to different learning styles, generational preferences, and job roles.
2. Insert gamification into existing training programs
Instead of creating new training programs from scratch, integrate gamification elements into existing courses. This involves adding quizzes, interactive leaderboards, or point-based systems to the current content to increase engagement.
3. Develop multiple, role-based learning challenges, levels, and paths
Create role-specific gamified challenges to ensure relevance and engagement in employee training. Different roles might require different skill sets, and gamification must reflect this diversity.
Incorporating multiple levels or paths in the training allows learners to progress at their own pace and choose paths relevant to their roles and interests. This approach caters to varying levels of expertise, making training inclusive for all proficiency levels.
4. Clearly explain the goals and offer enticing rewards
Communicate the objectives of the training experiences and how they align with broader professional or organizational goals. This clarity helps foster a deeper understanding of the training’s value and motivates employees to participate.
Furthermore, offer enticing and meaningful rewards. These could range from digital badges and certificates to tangible benefits like gift vouchers or extra leaves. Ensure that the rewards are aligned with the achievements they represent.
5. Allow for social interaction
Encouraging social interaction within the training program improves engagement. Social interactions can be facilitated through group challenges, discussion forums, or collaborative tasks. This approach not only makes learning more enjoyable but also promotes knowledge sharing and team building, enhancing the overall learning experience for your employees.
6. Use friendly competition
Introduce elements such as points, badges, and leaderboards to foster a sense of competition amongst your employees. This friendly competition motivates employees to participate and engage more actively with the training.
Ensure that the competition remains healthy and inclusive. Recognize various achievements to cater to strengths and contributions, not just the top performers.
7. Measure the success of your training gamification with data
Tracking employee performance and engagement through data analytics helps you understand the effectiveness of your gamification strategy. Metrics such as completion rates, quiz scores, and time spent on tasks can provide valuable insights into whether the gamified elements are driving desired outcomes.
Use an LMS with built-in analytics to track progress and see which employees are excelling in their training. Analyze the data to identify any gaps and adjust the content accordingly.
8. Make it fun
Last but not least, ensure that the gamification elements are fun. The primary goal of gamification is to make learning enjoyable, so the design must be engaging and entertaining.
Fun elements can include humorous content, visually appealing graphics, and creative storytelling. The idea is to create an enjoyable learning experience employees enjoy and look forward to.
5 Tools to Gamify Corporate Training & Development
1. EdApp
- G2 Rating: 4.7
- Pricing: Starting at $0.00
EdApp is a mobile-first microlearning platform designed for corporate training. It offers features such as interactive lessons, gamified quizzes, and spaced repetition, making learning engaging and effective. Aside from the gamification features, EdApp has several microlearning templates that you can incorporate when creating courses.
2. Gametize
- G2 Rating: 4.5
- Pricing: Starting at $0.00 – $500 a month
Gametize is an enterprise-grade L&D tool that specializes in creating gamified experiences for learning and engagement. The platform allows you to design gamified content by choosing from a vast library of game templates, which are divided into project categories like employee engagement, learning and development, talent acquisition, etc. You can also boost training engagement and completion rates using flashcards, quizzes, and interactive challenges. It is an excellent solution that fosters a sense of community and achievement in corporate training programs.
3. Edgagement
- G2 Rating: NA
- Pricing: Not available online
Edgagement is a training gamification tool that uses a simple drag-and-drop feature to help you build gamified microlearning courses, quizzes, and surveys for your teams. you can create engaging training materials with little to no knowledge of graphic design by using over 15 game templates. This platform uses interactive content, like quizzes and polls, to enhance learning and participation. It’s suitable for organizations looking to make their training more dynamic and interactive.
4. Centrical
- G2 Rating: 4.6
- Pricing: Not available online
Centrical is a gamification training software has an intuitive user interface that allows you to create polished game-based learning materials without needing advanced technical design skills. You can customize learning challenges, set reward-winning competitions, or design quest-based game narratives to help your employees practice skills and improve their overall knowledge and skills. The platform integrates advanced gamification, microlearning, and real-time performance management. It’s ideal for organizations aligning training with performance goals and business outcomes.
5. Qstream
- G2 Rating: 4.6
- Pricing: Not available online
Qstream is designed to reinforce training through scenario-based quizzes and challenges. This platform uses spaced repetition and analytics to improve knowledge retention and identify areas where learners need more support. Managers can determine training efficacy, address knowledge gaps, and track overall employee performance in real-time with functional tool components like proficiency heatmaps, leaderboards, team comparisons, and analytics dashboards.
Real-Life Successful Gamification Examples in Organizations
In the past decade, businesses across almost every industry have incorporated gamification principles into employee training. This has provided abundant evidence suggesting that gamification provides a versatile framework that can be incorporated into existing workplace training or used to build out new L&D initiatives.
Deloitte Leadership Academy
Deloitte is a prominent international professional services network that provides various services like consulting, auditing, and risk advisory to its clients around the world. In 2008, the Deloitte Leadership Academy (DLA) was established as an online internal training program. DLA used gamification principles to boost engagement and regular participation by 37% by early 2013. Achievements were shareable on sites like LinkedIn, incentivizing participation by boosting the public reputation of individual employees. In 2011, Deloitte established what is now called Deloitte University, which serves as its real-life hub for employee learning, development, networking, and well-being.
Cisco
Digital communications technology company, Cisco, uses gamification to train its employees to become social media experts. Its social media training program provides several levels of certification, including a number of sub-specializations specific to different job functions. Cisco’s L&D program includes team challenges that promote collaborative training, exploration of social media topics, and progression loops that guide learners along the path to mastery of social media skills. This program has been hugely successful, equipping Cisco employees with the knowledge they need to use social media effectively in a professional context.
McDonald’s Japan
New associates at McDonald’s Japan are trained in their work duties, flipping burgers and even frying fries, via a specially designed Nintendo game. New hires complete these training games at home, so they could focus on other necessary skills when they clocked into work. This is a great example of innovative gamification that saved McDonald’s plenty of time and money.
Formlabs
Formlabs, a leading manufacturer of 3D printers and software, is a brand really serious about delivering exceptional customer service. The company operates with over 180 partners and 2000 technicians globally, and needed a training solution that was engaging and convenient for its widespread network. Their answer was TalentLMS, a platform that supports gamification elements such as points, leaderboards, and certificates. This approach allows partners to engage in customer service training in a fun, interactive way, helping them provide excellent service across the board.
By incorporating gamified features, partners are motivated to compete and excel in their training, which in turn, supports Formlabs’ goal of delivering superior customer service.
SAP
SAP implemented a gamified training program called “Roadwarrior” to train their sales representative. SAP Roadwarrior is a game that simulates a customer meeting in which the sales rep needs to respond to customer questions to earn points and unlock badges.
Various industries, types of clients, and scenarios are integrated into the game as levels wherein it puts sales reps into simulated client meetings to prepare them for real meetings, and it allows players to socialize, compete with and motivate each other. A leaderboard shows the score of all players, motivating the sales reps to try to do better than their colleagues.
As a result, SAP saw a significant increase in user engagement and a 12% increase in sales performance within the first few months.
Challenges and Considerations in Implementing Gamified Training
Here are some challenges and considerations to keep in mind while implementing gamified training.
Over-competition
While competition can drive engagement, an excessive focus on competition within gamified training can create an unhealthy environment. If learners become overly focused on winning or outperforming others, it can lead to stress, anxiety, or even resentment among employees.
It’s essential to balance competition with collaboration by including both individual and team-based activities. Encouraging learners to focus on personal progress, as well as the overall team performance, can reduce negative competitive pressures.
Relevance to learning objectives
One common pitfall of gamified training is focusing too much on entertainment and not enough on the actual learning outcomes. If the game mechanics and rewards do not align with the training objectives, learners might enjoy the experience but fail to grasp the essential skills or knowledge needed for their roles.
When designing gamified training, the core focus must remain on aligning the game elements with clear learning objectives. Points, badges, and other rewards must be tied to meaningful achievements and knowledge retention, ensuring the training serves its purpose in skill development or behavioral change.
Technical and resource investments
Implementing gamification in corporate training often requires significant technical infrastructure and resources. Organizations need the right tools, such as Learning Management Systems (LMS) that support gamification features like points, leaderboards, and progress tracking. Additionally, the design and development of engaging game-based content can be time-consuming and costly, especially if the training needs to be scalable across a large workforce.
Companies must assess their technical capabilities and budget before fully integrating gamification into training.
Training Clicks Better With Whatfix
Incorporating gamification into training helps create a more dynamic and interactive learning environment, but for maximum impact, it’s essential to provide learners with guidance at the right moment.
Whatfix‘s in-app guidance offers employees contextual and engaging training experiences, allowing them to learn while performing tasks in real-time. This moment-of-need support ensures that learners are not only motivated through gamified elements but also equipped with the tools and assistance they need to succeed instantly. By combining gamification with Whatfix’s interactive, in-app support, organizations can create more impactful training programs that promote continuous learning and help employees stay productive while mastering new skills.
To learn more about Whatfix, schedule a free demo with us today!
