Game On!

Gamification at Work

By Yardi Blog Staff on Oct 31, 2014 in News

Can you remember back to your middle school days? Perhaps it’s a different visual for everyone, but mine is a crystal clear picture with smell-o-vision. You know that “this classroom of preteens is barely discovering deodorant” smell? I remember it well. I also remember the antagonistic nature of boys versus girls in raucous gameplay. Nothing else could whip my classmates into a competitive frenzy then when my fourth grade teacher would split us up into gender-based teams and break out the trivia cards. Oh, the exhilaration of walking up to the white board to triumphantly strike a line through four slashes to make a total of five points.

This practice continued well into the sixth grade, where our history teacher allowed our class to finally pick our own teammates and compete in the ultimate quiz game where the answer was provided…you just had to phrase the question properly. “What is, Jeopardy!?” Each team would compete fiercely to rack up the most points, unknowingly learning and retaining information for a final exam. Ah, the thrill of victory.

The rules of gamification

Gaming techniques like these, incorporating elements like points and leaderboards, are far from new. The concept is rooted in the deeper mechanics of game creation, which has a rich history in both the competition and education realms. Dr. Karl Kapp, assistant director of Bloomsburg University’s Institute for Interactive Technologies, writes: “A well designed game is a system in which players engage in an abstract challenge, defined by rules, interactivity and feedback that result in a quantifiable outcome often eliciting an emotional reaction.”

This emotional reaction, when applied to learning, can translate into a sense of confidence, achievement and success. This is why many human resource professionals are now constructing employee development and retention programs through what is called “gamification.” In fact, the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) has labeled gamification as “the hottest new trend” in HR for 2014.

Dr. Kapp notes in a white paper, however, that gamification is much more than the latest buzzword in the professional world. “Gamification should be thought of as the concept of using game-based mechanics, aesthetics and game thinking to engage people, motivate action, promote learning, and solve problems.” These game-based mechanics are affirmed by HR Magazine contributing editor Bill Roberts. In his article on the pros and cons of gamification, Roberts writes that, “content-based gamification, turns the content itself into something that resembles a game, but one with business objectives at its core.” He cautions learning professionals to remember their business objectives first when developing training programs.

Teamwork, training, and beating boredom

Yardi Client Services Team Leader and Trainer Dewayne Jordan has applied this approach to gamification in developing his training sessions. “With the new trainers we are using it more and more,” says Jordan. “We play ‘Wheel of Yardi’ where we use a website wheel for the teams to get additional points after answering questions correctly.  We play ‘Yardi Speedway’ which is the same concept except there is a little car that moves across the screen as you get your answer correct. We use all of these for reviewing purposes after the content has been delivered.”

Jordan says the use of such games is effective for team building and helpful for breaking up the monotony of lecture. “I believe that working together in a team environment, especially during training, sets the right expectations of collaborative working. I think that’s the key to life here at Yardi. No one can do this job on their own so it’s important that people learn how to work together effectively and have fun while doing it.”

There are obstacles in integrating gameplay into training. Dr. Klapp notes that “games are expensive to both deliver and integrate into a curriculum of an organization.” Creating games is a time-consuming expense that can actually take longer to develop than a traditional lecture. “Add to the mix an online game and the programming and development costs become a large part of the overall costs of the game,” he concludes.

It’s all fun and games until the Zombie apocalypse…then it’s called “team building”

Some companies, like Room Escape Adventures, have started offering team building learning games as a service. Our Yardi Dallas team was recently “Trapped in a Room With a Zombie.” A Yardi employee suggested the game as a team building exercise to Yardi Consulting Practices Manager Julie Bradley and Director of Global Solutions Donovan Garner. Bradley says they were sold on the idea based on the employee’s enthusiasm after experiencing the game first hand.

12 employees went to Room Escape Adventures’ Dallas location. They were locked in a room with a hungry “zombie” chained to the wall. To find the key to their freedom, the team had to work together to solve a series of brain teasers and riddles. The catch: they only had one hour to escape the clutches of the zombie. Every five minutes, the zombie’s chain was given some slack while the team raced through the “clues.”

Bradley says the clues were mentally challenging and required group collaboration to solve them. “For example, there were several briefcases around the room that contained clues to find the key we needed to escape. The briefcases had combination locks, and we had to solve other clues to figure out the combination of the locks so that we could open the briefcases and get more clues.”

Only a few team members cheated death while others were captured by the zombie. The challenge promoted communication, leadership and thinking outside the box. “The team really had to come together and collaborate,” says Bradley. She says the logical thinking component of the game is applicable to related concepts in daily tasks. “It’s such a big help with all of the troubleshooting we do every day.”

Whether it’s zombie role playing or channeling your inner Alex Trebek, we’d love to hear about how your organization has used gamification for training employees. Share your thoughts and best practices in the comments section. If you haven’t tried the approach, is it one you feel would have relevant application in property management?