Reward System Gamification

Encouraging healthy competition and cultivating top performers through game-based learning

Friendly competition is a powerful motivational force. Ever-present in the youngest to oldest minds, the desire to be first among one’s peers has been used to drive results in schools for generations and has more recently been used by many sales teams to great effect.

But the line between healthy and unhealthy competition is a thin one. It’s important to cultivate the kind of competition that encourages employees to work towards company goals, and not the kind of competition that encourages sabotaging colleagues, a very common problem in highly-competitive workplaces. Gamifying this competition right from the start, in induction and upskilling training, is a great way to encourage the contest while keeping it friendly and healthy.

Let’s go over a few ways to use gamified reward systems to encourage healthy competition.

Gamified Point Systems

Gamify employee motivation to perform desired actions.

Encourage employees to achieve targets and document results.

The most basic feature of a gamified reward system is a point system to gamify desired, and sometimes undesired behavior. Employees gain points as they perform and document desired behavior, and in some cases lose points for performing undesired behavior. While there are many ways to take advantage of these points, which we’ll go over, the points themselves can serve as a great way to quantify performance and deliver immediate feedback when employees successfully perform desired tasks.

For eLearning, a points system based on assessment scores is an easy way to integrate these principles with very little effort. Additionally, points might be gained based on how many upskilling modules learners complete in a quarter.

In any case, the metrics by which points are gained should encourage and reward desired behaviors, with minor rewards for expected good behavior and larger rewards for going above and beyond.

For teams and training programs that rely heavily on innovation and problem-solving, be sure to keep your reward criteria broad enough that you don’t stifle creativity. That way your teams do not simply scramble to achieve narrow objectives while ignoring anything outside of the scope of the defined point system. Broad criteria allow you to reward innovative thinkers and adapt the reward system to new markets and environments.

Gamified Leaderboards

Gamified contests to encourage healthy competition

Celebrate and motivate top performers

One of the most powerful ways to use a point system to encourage and motivate employees is a gamified leaderboard where high scores are publicized, and top performers are celebrated at regular intervals. This can sometimes be combined with gifts, which we’ll discuss soon, but can often be effective simply as a lasting point of prestige.

Employee halls of fame and awards often serve as motivational recognition and positive feedback that encourages employees to strive for success. Many companies will run quarterly or yearly rewards and recognitions ceremonies where first, second, and third-place performers are rewarded with Olympics-style recognition from management. The gamified nature of the competition and ceremony can often keep the tone of the contest fun and jovial.

Gamified Gifts

Gamify rewards and bonuses for performers

Instill employee loyalty through personalization

While bonuses and other physical or monetary rewards for exceptional performance are common in many corporate environments, the gamification of these gifts can often dramatically improve their impact on employee loyalty and the motivation to get them again. Gestures like a complimentary lunch or pizza party for the highest-scoring teams can dramatically boost camaraderie, encourage performance, and impact how employees think and feel about their company.

G-Cube has helped hundreds of companies across many industries take the first step into gamification, from partial to full-scale transformations, and we’d love to help you too. If you’d like to get started with reward system gamification, whether that’s building a new gamified learning module or adding reward gamification to an existing module, we’d love to hear from you. You can reach out to us here for a free consultation.

You can also check out our blog on other gamification techniques here.