Gamification in business: Four ways to get your incentive plan right

SearchCIO-Midmarket's most-recent tweet jam focused on gamification in business -- specifically, the failures that can doom well-intentioned organizations looking to establish an incentive plan for game-minded employees.

By definition, gamification is the application of game theory concepts to non-game activities such as work. The overarching goal of gamification in business is to engage employees with an activity they find enjoyable to influence their work ethic, and therefore business processes, in a positive way.

Sound like it's all fun and games? Before you break out the Monopoly pieces, take a step back and consider your method of injecting gamification into the business. If your approach doesn't match employees' wants or needs, you might as well consider your battleship prematurely sunk.

Here are four ways to avoid gamification failure from our tweet jam participants, and advice for crafting the right gamification incentive plan for your workplace:

1. Avoid creating "faux-fun." Making routine, habitual tasks less monotonous by adding a gaming aspect could benefit both employee morale and business processes. But be wary of adding a "layer of faux-fun," said @moniquevberg, a SearchCIO-Midmarket contributor, who advised IT leaders to transform mechanical tasks completely with gamification and incentive plans:

@rachelattt Agreed. And important to transform rote tasks rather than adding a layer of faux-fun that drags out the monotony. #CIOChat

— Monique van den Berg (@moniquevberg) May 8, 2013

[email protected]moniquevberg "Faux-fun that drags out the monotony" -- the bane of any #gamification program. Ppl know when you're toying w/ them #CIOChat

— RachelTT (@RachelatTT) May 8, 2013

2. Lame games with little ROI might leave employees feeling manipulated. Don't do that. There are some fantastic applications of gamification, and an argument can be made that a social, stimulated staff is a happy and productive one. But there's a difference between employees playing games in the service of their work and employees feeling like their work is playing games with them:

@ltucci @tt_nicole #ciochat the danger is that if there's a bad attempt the employees just feel really manipulated #lamegames

— Wendy Schuchart (@wendyschuchart) May 8, 2013

@wendyschuchart #Gamification fail whale #CIOChat

— RachelTT (@RachelatTT) May 8, 2013

3. Be careful about rewarding people for completing tasks they should be doing anyway. Organizations are turning to gamification and incentive plans to make tasks less monotonous, but our SearchCompliance editor warned leaders not to reward necessary behaviors, lest employees think that completing those tasks qualifies as "doing extra":

@itcompliance You don't necessarily award for something they have to do, you award for them doing it faster or other pieces of it #CIOchat

— Brian Katz (@bmkatz) May 8, 2013

4. Don't focus on the type of reward; instead, focus on demonstrating added value to employees. When many organizations establish a gamification incentive plan, the rewards tend toward virtual badges and online leaderboards, rather than anything tangible. In our tweet jam, writers and editors debated the importance of real-life rewards vs. the significance of gamification rewards that communicate, "We appreciate your hard work and daily efforts. Here is an example of the value you are adding to our organization":

@rachelattt True, but studies show feeling helpful or adding value apparently goes a long way (before you start wanting swag) #CIOchat

— Karen Goulart (@KarenGoulart) May 8, 2013

@wendyschuchart You're not alone. Gartner says by 2014, 80% of gamified apps will fail to meet biz objectives due to poor design. #CIOchat

— Nicole Laskowski (@TT_Nicole) May 8, 2013

@ltucci @wendyschuchart Focus more on designing "player-centric apps" than sheer game mechanics (points, badges, etc.) #CIOchat

— Nicole Laskowski (@TT_Nicole) May 8, 2013

It's probably safe to say that nobody wants to take part in gamification in business if it entails playing poorly designed games or feeling manipulated by upper management. SearchCIO-Midmarket's tweet jam participants shared their gamification and incentive plan don'ts, but we'd like to hear what our readers have to say. Answer our poll and sound off in the comment section below.

Read more comments from this tweet jam by searching the #CIOChat hashtag on Twitter and follow @CIOMidmarket on Twitter to be notified about upcoming Twitter discussions.