Striving to make everyday business tasks more engaging, a growing number of firms, including International Business Machines Corp. and consulting firm Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd., are incorporating elements of videogames into the workplace.
They're deploying reward and competitive tactics commonly found in the gaming world to make tasks such as management training, data entry and brainstorming seem less like work. Employees receive points or badges for completing jobs or meeting time limits for assignments, for example. Companies also may use leaderboards, which let players view one another's scores, to encourage friendly competition and motivate performance, experts say.
This "gamification" of the workplace, or "enterprise gamification" in tech-industry parlance, is a fast-growing business. Companies have used digital games for a number of years to help market products to consumers and build brand loyalty. What's emerging is using games to motivate their own employees.
Daniel Benoni on 11 Apr 12Startups are a lot of work! He quits AcmeCorp and takes a cushy executive gig at a fortune-500 tech firm. Jill's left solo. Years pass. Jill first works without salary, then pays herself a pittance. She bootstraps the company, starting with consulting and moving on the develop a highly successful web service. As she brings on staff, she issues stock to new employees, ultimately handing out a half-million shares of the company. Eventually she's the CEO of a 50-person firm, pulling down a respectable $200k per year as the CEO; nearly as much as Jack's pulling down at his gig (not including his benefits and bonuses).
