Playing games and competing is part of human lives since the beginning. It instills competitiveness and ambitiousness and promotes ingenuity and teamwork. Using gamification, you can bring the basic principles (fun included!) of games out of playgrounds, board game parties and sports events to your workplace and help yourself and others in the process.
Why use game approaches at the office?
John Amos Comenius was a Czech philosopher, educator, and theologist from the 17th century, widely recognized as the father of modern education. He advocated for universal education and coined the concept of learning by playing.
Even though all of us experienced it in our childhood and the teachers were using it since for hundreds of years, game and gamification started to be used in the workplace only in the 21st century, heavily inspired by computer games.
Gamify your assessment center
A great way how to start using game elements in your company is to take advantage of them during the recruitment of new employees. When applied correctly, you can make the whole process more effective, faster and more fun.
Why? When we play games, it is harder for us to try to keep a certain appearance, we show more of our true selves and use our talents more naturally. So, you can have a better picture of the candidate than just using a standard interview. Plus, it’s way more fun for you and the candidates.
Make the newbie feel at home
New employees can sometimes feel awkward and it takes some time to get used to the new company working environment, culture, and colleagues. You can use gamification principles even for this!
Games provide a safe space for making mistakes and trying new things, which will allow the newbie to start working effectively while feeling good as soon as possible. Some companies have structured the whole onboarding process as a game!
Light up the good fire
When working on the same position for a few months or even years, it is easy to get comfortable and even the best employee can lose their motivation. Companies use games to stir things up, get the people out of their daily routines and revive the competition and motivation of their employees.
The games are also useful if you plan to adopt a new system or want your employees to learn something new.
Games for team building
Using games for recruitment, onboarding or change management is still rather rare, but one area of company life in which games are always present are the team building activities.
Which types of team building games are the most popular?
Indoor games are the easiest ones – even a simple game as Scrabble can be used for these purposes if modified properly.
Creative games are gaining traction lately and can be done both on an individual basis or in groups People get to try something new and exciting – like improvisation theater, creating chocolate pralines or shooting a short movie.
Competitions and battle games – sort out the conflicts in your company on a battlefield! Suit up and challenge your colleagues for a battle in paintball, airsoft or even an archery game!
Action games are very popular because they focus on team cooperation and fun. You can try new activities, hunt for treasures and more.
Field trips and survival courses – do you have nice memories of your high school field trips? Maybe you can live through it again with your colleagues! And if your company’s culture is more adventurous, you can even go on an outdoor survival course and test the saying it doesn’t really matter if the experience is good or bad, what’s more important is whether it is intense.
Escape rooms are becoming a favorite pass time of a wide variety of people, and so they might suit your team too! You’ll need to communicate clearly, cooperate and solve riddles, puzzles, and mysterious codes. Some innovative games are even mobile and will challenge you to break into things rather than escape from a room.
Adventures with a story are perfect if you want a fully immersive experience. You can defeat Darth Vader, save lives as a member of M*A*S*H, impress James Bond, find the Holy Grail with Indiana Jones or solve a mystery with Sherlock Holmes!