gamification in employee engagement - 5 success stories - manu melwin joy

5 Success StoriesGamification in Employee Engagement

Prepared By Manu Melwin Joy

Assistant ProfessorSCMS School of Technology and Management

Kerala, India.Phone – 9744551114

Mail – [email protected]

Kindly restrict the use of slides for personal purpose. Please seek permission to reproduce the same in public forms and presentations.

5 Success Stories

1. Aspire 2. Idea Street3. Microsoft Case Study4. Plant Ville5. The Wikipedia Adventure

ASPIREGamification in Employee Engagement

CISCO

• Cisco use gamification across a number of key programs. One program where they have extensively incorporated gamification techniques is their Social Media Training Program.

CISCO

• This program offers a unique opportunity for employees and contractors at Cisco to build their social media skillset. And the opportunity to leverage the skills they learn is manifold.

CISCO

• For example, sales account managers learn to use Twitter to reach their customers and human resources representatives learn to use LinkedIn to reach potential candidates.

CISCO

• And, there are many other

job roles that benefit

through social media, such

as marketing (of course!)

and product development.

Progression Levels

• The Social Media Training Program includes three levels of certification: – Specialist– Strategist and – Master.

Progression Levels

• Each level of certification

requires players to show

increasing levels of social

media expertise.

Progression Levels

• At the Specialist level, players are required to take 15 courses. At the Strategist level, players are required to take an additional 13 courses and author a blog post.

Progression Levels

• And, at the Master level, players are required to 10 courses and create case study illustrating an integrated social media initiative or create a social media strategy.

Progression Levels

• In addition, there are also four sub-specializations available:– Social Media for HR– Social Media for Sales– Social Media for Executive

Communication Managers– Social Media for Internal

Partner Teams

Bring Fun into the Mix with Team Challenges

• In addition, the program

incorporates team

challenges where players

can join together in small

teams or participate as an

entire organization to

complete the certification.

Bring Fun into the Mix with Team Challenges

• This is an effective way for

individuals in an

organization to grow new

skills together. And players

earn badges for completing

team challenges.

Firing up Motivation

• Learning is often an intrinsically

motivated activity. Individuals

enjoy the challenge of learning

new skills. And, learning new

professional skills can help

them advance in their careers.


• And, when you combine the intrinsic motivation with gamification techniques, this further encourages participation and engagement. The Social Media Training program and the use of gamification drive engagement through various techniques.


• Exploration

– Players have fun exploring

social media topics. There are

many courses available, and

participants can learn about

the different aspects of social

media through the courses.


• Progression Loops– With three levels of certification,

four sub-specializations, and mid-way level accomplishments, players can progress through multiple levels of learning. Each class completed is a small challenge achieved. And, each level of certification is the larger challenge. The goal of the game is to get from Specialist to Master for the core learning track.


• Teamwork– Humans are social animals.

And, the team challenges allow players to collaborate and compete with each other. Working together as a team to achieve a goal can be fun.


• Over 650 individuals have

been certified with more

than 13,000 courses taken.

And, this number continues

to grow every day.

Idea StreetGamification in Employee Engagement

Idea Street

• The United Kingdom’s

Department of Work

and Pensions created

an application called

Idea Street.

Idea Street

• The purpose was to

increase employee

collaboration and

facilitate the sharing

of new project ideas.

Idea Street• The satisfaction of contributing

ideas, getting quick feedback,

receiving badges, and moving

up on the leaderboard has

motivated the department’s

employees to use the

application.

Idea Street• Within the first 18

months, about 4,000

employees generated

1,400 new candidate

projects on Idea Street.

Idea Street

• From this, 63

projects have been

implemented by the

Department.

Microsoft Case StudyGamification in Employee Engagement

Microsoft

• The Challenge: Microsoft has

myriad language localization

needs for its many products,

and ensuring that

translations were accurate

and made sense was a huge

challenge for just one team.

Microsoft

• Gamified Solution: Microsoft built a

“Language Quality" game, which

involved a very simple Silverlight

application that let users view

screens to check for language

accuracy. Microsoft included

intentionally poor translations to

make sure its employees were

actually paying attention.

Microsoft

• Results: 4,500 users reviewed

500,000 screens to correct or

improve translations based on

their native languages. Microsoft

Japan actually took a company-

wide day off to play the game

and ended up winning the

leaderboard.

Microsoft

• The Windows Language

Quality Game is a

serious game to ensure

the translation quality of

software.

Microsoft

• Players help verify and correct the

translations of software into their

own language. The game not only

encouraged people to contribute

to it by making it fun, but also

channeled civic engagement by

allowing everyone to help make

Windows a better product.

Microsoft

• Ross Smith is the Director of

Test at Microsoft, and he has

been in the software industry

for over 20 years. He has 5

software patents, and he is one

of the authors of, “The Practical

Guide to Defect Prevention.”

Microsoft

• He is currently researching the

impact of games and social

networking tools on management

education and requisite skills for new

managers. His work led to the

creation of 42projects, which is an

experiment that uses trust as the

basis for promoting individual

confidence, risk-taking, and creativity.

Microsoft

• His work on productivity gaming for next-

generation employees and management

initiatives is a great example of how

gamification has changed the

professional landscape. Such an example

is the Windows Language Quality Game,

which was a successful initiative to find a

cost-effective and fun way to increase the

quality of the native language versions of

Windows.

How Microsoft Leads with Gamification

• Ross understands the shifting

demographics of the workforce and

believes that companies need to

redefine how work “works”. The future

generation of employees, Gen Y, has

grown up with technology integrated

into their daily lives, effectively changing

the way today’s world communicates,

prioritizes, and produces.


• Gen X managers need to

understand how to bring out the

creativity of Gen Y’s unique

talents rather than inhibiting

possible risk-taking. To improve

upon management and

innovation, Ross Smith

created productivity games.


• Productivity games are a subset

of serious games, and they

incorporate using game elements

to boost engagement and

creativity of otherwise dull or

difficult tasks. Ross believes that

games and collaborative play help

motivate and make work fun.


• His theory is that collaborative

play builds trust among the

players, and that trust leads to

greater experimentation. A higher

degree of experimentation leads

to creativity, innovation, and

increased personal satisfaction.


• In a highly competitive business

environment, composure is

needed at all levels to ensure a

high quality product and quality

of life for employees.

Composure starts with trust, and

trust can be built with

productivity games.

PLANTVILLEGamification in Engagement

SIEMENS• Plantville is an innovative,

educational and fun way for

Siemens to engage customers,

employees, prospects, students

and the general public while

driving awareness of Siemens

technologies and brand.

SIEMENS• The game enables players to

improve the health of their

plants by learning about and

applying industrial and

infrastructure products and

solutions from Siemens.

SIEMENS• Gamers will be measured on

a number of Key

Performance Indicators

(KPIs), including safety, on

time delivery, quality,

energy management and

employee satisfaction.

SIEMENS• Throughout the game,

players will be able to

interact with Pete the Plant

Manager, whose plant has

just won the "Plant of the

Year" award.

SIEMENS• Pete shares his best

practices throughout the

game to help players

achieve outstanding results

in plant performance.

SIEMENS• He will use webisodes, the

Plantville Cafe, Puzzlers, and

Facebook, LinkedIn and

Twitter accounts to dialogue

with gamers, provide hints to

playing the game, and host a

leader board for contestants.

SIEMENS• In Plantville, players can

select which of the three

virtual plants they would

like to manage first: – a

bottling plant, a vitamin

plant or a plant that builds

trains.

SIEMENS• At the start of the game,

each type of plant is faced

with different challenges.

The players must identify the

challenges facing their plant

and implement solutions to

improve the plant's KPIs.

SIEMENS• Gamers will compete with

one another on a number of

levels, including plant-to-plant

and on specific KPIs. Pete's

leader board will keep track of

which players are performing

the best on each of the levels.

The Wikipedia AdventureGamification in Employee Engagement

The Wikipedia Adventure• Wikipedia is the world’s

most popular online

encyclopedia and one of the

most visited sites on the

web, but for users, it also is

known for being complicated

and intimidating.

The Wikipedia Adventure• As a result, the number of

volunteer editors has

dropped since 2007,

prompting the company to

develop “The Wikipedia

Adventure”.

The Wikipedia Adventure• It is a seven-mission,

gamified interactive

onboarding tutorial to

teach people how to edit

Wikipedia in just a few

hours.

The Wikipedia Adventure• The program takes the

user through a simulated

quest to edit an article,

meeting challenges

along the way.

The Wikipedia Adventure• They can earn badges and

barnstars for personal

accomplishments such as

bringing a piece of content up to

a higher standard and diligent

copyediting. Users can then

display their badges publicly.

The Wikipedia Adventure• According to Jake Orlowitz,

administrator and editor at

Wikipedia, 89% of the

participants who complete the

game feel more confident as

editors, 77% want to edit more,

and they make 290% more edits

than non-participants.

gamification in employee engagement - 5 success stories - manu melwin joy

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