If you’re looking for a new and innovative way to engage employees in learning, we’ve got the solution you need! Gamification in corporate training you will make your staff enjoy the process and get the most out of it. You will also be able to assess your employees’ progress and identify areas for improvement.
Some examples of gamification in corporate training include:
- giving points and creating scoring systems
- allowing participants to customize things
- making people compete with each other
- rewarding trainees with prizes
- giving reasonable challenges
- using simulations
It’s important to note that your training should be digital to gamify properly. And our experience shows that virtual reality solutions are the best setting for game-based learning. Why? To answer this question, let’s first look at the reasons gamification is something you need.
Gamification benefits in the context of employee training
As already mentioned, gamification makes activities more engaging and enjoyable. It activates our brain’s reward system and potentially gives us satisfaction through achievement. As human beings, we generally like competing with others, especially if there is something to win, even a small prize. But how do these facts about gamification in corporate training translate into business benefits?
Higher engagement of trainees
First of all, gamified learning makes the people involved more engaged. And it’s easier to concentrate for longer if what we’re doing is engaging. Thus, gamification in corporate training can be an excellent remedy for the short attention spans of participants. Statistics found on FinancesOnline show that 49% of employees get bored by training at some point unless it’s gamified.
How do we increase employee engagement in practice? By promising a small reward for completing tasks, reaching milestones or getting good test results. These rewards can be financial (a small bonus, for example) but don’t have to be. Other ideas include giving out company merchandise, a gift card, paid time off or unlocking more exciting training modules.
Another way of engaging employees is by making them compete with each other, either individually or in teams. And if you want to get the best out of such a competition, combine it with a reward system. Finally, you can engage trainees by encouraging them to work together to complete tasks. Many people are more productive and focused when collaborating with others.
Better-skilled employees
Training completed by engaged and focused people translates directly into better knowledge retention. Gamification in corporate training also makes it easy to evaluate of skills. Combine the two benefits and you’re on the best way to creating a team of well-trained and highly skilled employees.
How does gamification help in reviewing what participants have learned? There are multiple ways, and we mentioned some of them. For example, a training model with competition and points makes trainees more attentive and motivated to do well on exercises, quizzes, and tests.
Motivated and productive workers
Besides building a skilled and well-trained team, gamification makes your employees more motivated and productive. Statistics from FinancesOnline show that 83% of employees who undergo gamified training are more motivated at work. Only 3% of staff who had game-like effects in their training program are unproductive. Compare that to the 12% figure for the non-gamified group and you get a 75% decrease in ineffective hires.
Gamification in corporate training is clearly desired and enjoyed by people. Because of the increase in knowledge retention it brings, your workers remember more. And they’re more willing to put this knowledge into use effectively because of higher satisfaction levels.
Virtual reality gamification
Virtual reality (VR) is a fantastic tool for training in general. This is because it has a very high learning retention rate comparable to physically performing tasks with your hands. With virtual reality, you activate more neurons than when reading or listening to lectures. In other words, thanks to VR, our brains a more efficient in transferring information from short-term to long-term memory. But how is VR especially useful in gamified training?
Engaging employees, improving knowledge retention, making the experience more enjoyable and memorable – are all things you might be aiming for with gamification in corporate training. But, do you know what has the same advantages and can amplify them? You guessed it, virtual reality. Another article discusses how VR safety training is superior to traditional learning paths.
Moreover, with a VR training application, you can lower the costs of the process. Multiple people can use it an infinite amount of times without any additional costs. You only pay once for the development and hardware. Furthermore, your app can enable adding new modules through an easy-to-use UI. Finally, VR training is accessible from anywhere. You only need the device. The video below comes from a project 4Experience developed for DPD and is a demonstration of what VR can do.
Companies using gamification for training
One company that uses gamified learning methods is Domino’s Pizza. They wanted to train new employees quickly and efficiently. Standard strategies proved ineffective, so Domino’s created a course called Pizza Maker. It included elements of gamification like simulations, skills evaluation and rewards. This made trainees want to improve their scores. As a result, they learned faster, effectively speeding up the onboarding process.
Many other global companies like Samsung, Microsoft and Google make regular use of gamification as well. Some of them utilize it for training purposes, while others focus more on marketing. Nevertheless, game-based solutions help them all in engaging their employees during day-to-day operations and company events.
Develop your VR gamified training program with 4Experience
Considering all the discussed benefits, we strongly recommend using game mechanics in your training efforts. Leaderboards, badges, points, simulations and prizes – all of them can make learning more fun and interactive, resulting in more motivated and better-skilled staff. And if you want to amplify these positive effects, consider developing a virtual reality training program.
At 4Experience, we have been developing custom VR training applications and platforms since 2015. Our team is exceptionally versatile and consists of seasoned developers, programmers, UI designers and 3D artists. The experience we have with similar projects means we only use tested solutions and deliver results tailored to your specific needs.
Find out more about our VR training offer and schedule a free consultation with one of our experts today!
The author generated this text in part with GPT-3, OpenAI’s large-scale language-generation model. Upon generating draft language, the author reviewed, edited, and revised the language to their own liking and takes ultimate responsibility for the content of this publication.
