Update Your Playbook - Update Your Playbook

Customizing Gamification By 2014, over 70 percent of the Forbes Global 2000 will have at least one gamified application13, according to Gartner. But, Gartner cautions that 80 percent of gamified applications will fail to meet business objectives by 2014, primarily due to poor design.13 It is critical to design a gamification solution that is tailored to your organization’s culture. Companies should build gamification solutions around four considerations: people, process, technology and organization (see Figure 8).

People—Appealing to your employees Imagine employees receiving automatic, location-based alerts providing policy guidance on their smart phones, instead of having to search through email archives for booking procedures. With the demographic makeup of the workforce changing, that’s the kind of communication that employees expect and appreciate. Savvy utilization of the mobile channel, such as sending real-time reminders, can initiate a more interactive and pointed dialogue with employees about expense management.

Figure 8 | Incorporating gamification

People

Assess DEMOGRAPHIC characteristics of the workforce that may influence adoption.

Example
• What percentage of the workforce is
either Generation x or Generation Y?

Technology

Identify and integrate with SYSTEMS and TECHNOLOGIES that are already in place.

Example
• How will any gamification solution
integrate with existing tracking and
measurement systems?

Source: Accenture
Process—Integrating at
the right point
Identifying the most common points of
program non-compliance—such as booking
outside of the company’s travel booking
tool—is a starting point for designing an
effective gamification solution. The key to
truly changing behavior, however, will be
to influence or remind employees at the
moment when they are making decisions
and reward desired behaviors. Then,
understanding what drives employees to
use other tools—loyalty to a specific hotel
chain or lack of familiarity with policies—
will be the next consideration.

Technology—Integrating
travel and expense data
For several large corporations that are in
the process of designing gamification
solutions, a key success factor is having
access to accurate and consistent travel
and expense data. One company we spoke
with mentioned the importance of having
a single global platform from which to
source this data. The benefits are two-fold:
simplification, since information comes
from a common source, and streamlining,
since fewer system integrations may be
needed. Other companies manage multiple
platforms by engaging a third party
technology provider to consolidate and
reconcile data across the organization.

Gamification applications should be capable of integrating with existing systems and data sources. Data accuracy is important when using a solution that monitors and tracks behavior. Employees are unlikely to embrace gamification if they feel that the information used to evaluate behavior is unreliable, or that their efforts to participate are not adequately recognized.

Organization—Fitting the culture Perhaps the most important consideration for designing a gamification solution is to monitor alignment with the organizational culture. A highly motivated sales force, accustomed to posting and rewarding sales performance, may be receptive to competitions or leader boards. Conversely, a collaborative team-based culture may respond less positively to individual competitions because they may create a “winners vs. losers” dynamic. Creative ways of appealing to collaborative environments may include awarding points for sharing knowledge or recommended practices. Different game mechanics and constructions will be appropriate for different organizations.