Gamified training to engage and develop human capital in the company

As a strategic HR partner to companies and the workforce in Bulgaria, our focus at Manpower follows the current needs of the market and our partners. In early 2021, this naturally led to the expansion of our portfolio with a new service segment - Assert People Development, and innovative workforce development training.  

What positives do gamified trainings bring in a predominantly digital communication environment and what are their advantages over traditional methods, long known on the market will be told by Rositsa Diamandieva, part of our Assert People Development team.

One of the new pillars in Manpower's portfolio is Assert People What exactly do these new services cover?

With Assert Development, we have opened a whole new page in human capital development with innovative services focused on employee retention and engagement.

The big innovation here is Gamelearn gamified training - an online training platform in the form of video simulations.  The platform includes a variety of content and formats of gamified training that take the learner out of the standard business routine and place them in a parallel virtual environment with real situations and case studies.

Thus, the various Gamelearn games are applied to develop key skills such as leadership and team management, sales skills, negotiation skills, time management, etc.

How did you choose to incorporate gamified training into your services during a pandemic?

The pandemic has further accelerated the trend we've seen - in recent years we've increasingly seen a decline in interest and effectiveness of standard training. Traditional lecture formats do not allow the trainee to experiment or test solutions on their own, which negatively impacts motivation to participate and the learning outcomes themselves.

The need for new training tools was clear. And the pandemic has contributed to new digital learning environments going from a better alternative to a painful necessity.  Companies had an immediate need for solutions to continue employee development remotely.

We specifically chose gamified Gamelearn training because it met all the new requirements - ensuring engagement, motivation, and efficiency from the comfort of our own homes. In addition, the gamified format helps to ensure that training is not just seen as a chore, but is also enjoyable for the learner.

Which type of training do you see the most interest in from clients and partners?

At the moment, we are seeing the most interest in simulations that train complex skills.

Let me give you a concrete example - effective team management is based on successfully delegating responsibilities, giving feedback, motivating employees, and more. Often, our partners turn to us in search of a solution to further develop this skill set in their team leaders.

In these situations, we recommend the gamified Pacific simulator, which mimics the daily life of a team leader with all of its responsibilities and goals, except that the learner takes on the role of the leader of a shipwrecked group of people that must leave an uninhabited island within a set timeframe. Pacific is a graphic example of how skills become tools, bringing progress to the game and helping the learner reach their end goal.

What are the roots of gamification as a method and what advantages does it bring when applied in professional training?

There have been references to 'gamefying' online systems as far back as the 1980s, but it was only in 2010 that the term became widely accepted in the sense that businesses now give it. The advantages are numerous, but if we were to highlight the three most important, they would be:

Engagement - imagine the game as a means of designing systems that motivate people to do things. The reason for this is obvious - the human brain is innately wired to want to solve puzzles and riddles. Dressing up training in gamified formats helps bring this level of engagement and motivation to accomplish missions into the professional training and development process.

Experiment - Mastering any game involves experimentation. If the format is effective - neither too hard nor too easy - players are continually motivated to strive for improvement by testing new and different approaches. Bringing this practice to the work environment contributes to the development of an innovative spirit and the improvement of various processes, and products in the organization.

Result - and perhaps the most important argument - gamification works! Although not yet established as a standard practice, a number of companies are seeing significant positive results from incorporating gamification elements into their business processes. And we're not just talking about Silicon Valley tech companies here, but also market veterans like McDonald's, Man, Nike, and many others.

How are they perceived by learners?

A big plus is that trainees don't feel like they are subject to a development plan or program. This makes them more relaxed and allows them to have fun while experimenting and working on their skills. The satisfaction assessment we conduct after the end of each training shows that 96% of people who have gone through Gamelearn training feel an improvement in the targeted skills and 93% of them would recommend similar training to colleagues and friends.  

Our partners report that employees are visibly more engaged after training, contribute new ideas and even the mood in teams is different - energised and driven to new achievements. In addition to the skills development and qualifications of teams, such results also bring direct positives to the overall employer brand and the way people perceive companies.

For more questions, please contact our Assert People Development Specialist - Rositsa Diamandieva ([email protected])