In our second issue of Enabling Decisions magazine, we asked anyone invested in recruiting, employing, and managing talent within their organisation if MOTIVATION + ENGAGEMENT = EMPLOYEE RETENTION. People who read that article might have thought about what they were offering to keep employees in the post-pandemic world, which, as is widely acknowledged, substantially tilted the balance of the employer-employee relationship. Were there more team lunches organised, bonus schemes tweaked, wellbeing activities scheduled, surveys administered? Hopefully there was some measure, even subjective, that showed increased motivation as a result.
However, motivation is just one of many factors that influence employee retention. Working out how to have a positive impact on employee engagement—maybe that isn’t such an easy lever to pull.
It’s possible for an employee to be happily motivated to stay in a role because of all the fabulous benefits the employer is providing for them, but what if their level of engagement isn’t putting anything back into the organisation other than the expected day-to-day activities of their role? So the job is getting done, but where is the desire to grow, to contribute, to achieve more than the dreaded ‘meets expectations’ rating in performance reviews?
That’s why around 70% of the Global 2000 companies are turning to gamification to increase levels of engagement for both individuals and teams within their organisation. At this point, you may be thinking, “Really? Gamification in finance, you’re joking right?” No, we are very serious. Serious about having fun.
Before we talk about having fun in finance, two words that are rarely used in the same sentence, let’s take a few moments to assess any preconceived notions you may have about gamification based on previous experiences.
Gamification itself is not a new concept. The term has become increasingly popular in recent years, and we see examples of gamification through video games and applications that have revolutionised the world of education. Who would have thought that learning a new language using the Duolingo mobile application could be so much fun? The 54 million monthly active users in 2022 attest to this. The challenges, rewards, and simplification of the app encourage users to take their language learning much further than they would by picking up a textbook or listening to audio recordings. These games and apps serve a practical purpose while also providing entertainment.
