Using Gamification to Influence Business Travelers' Behavior

Gamification is proving to be successful when applied to many different subjects. In the classroom children are scoring higher. In the workplace employees are becoming more engaged at work and generating more revenue for their employers. Now it is being applied to business travel.

Business travel has changed a lot in recent years. A recent Forbes article highlighted the changes in corporate travel in recent years.  Employees are increasingly personalizing their travel experiences by updating seat assignments, customizing in-flight meals and booking their own hotel rooms without the involvement of a corporate travel planner. But with all of this flexibility, business travelers are pushing the limits of their company’s travel rules and budgets. Companies have turned to gamification to solve this issue. Here are two examples of tactics companies are using to change employee behavior.

Travel management company Ovation rewards travelers for obeying the company’s policies. They earn points and can redeem them for merchandise from digital stores.

Rocketrip, a gamified travel service for companies, rewards clients' employees who adhere corporate policies with cash. The closer they follow or beat the budget that is set, the higher the reward.

In an age where personalization is central to consumer's experiences, convincing people to sacrifice a bit of that experience for the good of the company is a tough task. Entrepreneurs have risen to the challenge and used gamification as a means to fix this trending problem. And it’s working.

Games vs. Gamification: What's the Difference?

Although gamification is a hot topic these days many people still struggle to understand the difference between games and gamification. The confusion is often amplified when organizations try to make a business case for gamification as an internal or external communications vehicle. We've created a cheat sheet to help our clients understand the difference. 

If you'd like to schedule a webinar to learn about best practices in gamification contact us today! 

Four Apps to Gamify Your Life

As gamification continues to be a prominent topic of discussion in the workplace, it is simultaneously growing in the social world. With smart phones becoming a necessity in our lives, apps have become a useful tool to keep us organized, entertained and up to date in our fluctuating world. There are now apps that are designed to help you live the lifestyle you desire, and will reward you for every step towards that direction. Here are some notable apps that can help gamify your personal life. 

AchieveMint: If you have been struggling to keep a healthy lifestyle, this app may be exactly what you need. Whether you walk the dog, take the stairs over an elevator, shop healthy, or even tweet about something healthy, you get rewarded with points. Five thousand points earns you twenty five dollars, and you will soon be eager to do the activities that earn you the most points, like go on extensive runs or do yoga. Just link it up with mobile apps like RunKeeper, Fitbit, Foursquare, Twitter, Facebook and your healthy activities will be sent to AchieveMint.

RecycleBank: Similar to AchieveMint, this app rewards you with points and discounts for going green in any way possible. Bike to work, recycle, donate clothes, buy environmentally friendly products, share green tips and you will get rewarded. Even taking online ecology quizzes can earn you points.

#NwPlyng: Bringing gamification into the music world makes perfect sense. Rewarding people to share their favorite songs and artists with friends (something they do anyway) will give them even more of an incentive to do so. This app does precisely that.  You can share the current song playing on your iPhone with others, and as a result you are rewarded with “records” (badges). The more plays and shares of a certain artist, the higher title you are given (a different “record”), legitimizing your love and knowledge of that artist for people to see. You are also urged to share an artist’s lesser known songs and will get uniquely rewarded with special artist “records” for doing so.

Mobee: Companies who are in dire need of accurate feedback from their customers can turn to the gamification tactic for a solution. Mobee, a mobile app started by an MIT student, lets you, the “secret shopper”, take a unanimous survey of your current location about the experience you are having. A quick survey earns you a discount or free item, depending on the place.  It’s a win-win for both the company that needs consumer data and the shopper that can always use a discount.

The high ratings of the apps can be credited to the natural success of gamification. We are all instinctively competitors in one way or another, and want people to know what we have mastered and how educated we are in certain fields.  This system can be applicable to employees at work. Creating a system for employees to earn badges and rewards that praise them for their knowledge, skills and accomplishments raises morale and brings positive energy, confidence and diligence to their work ethics.  Gamification motivates employees to demonstrate their competencies and achievements, while continuing to develop their skills.  Through gamification work can become a place where we have a chance to show off our talents and create opportunities for our hard work to receive attention and recognition from managers and peers.

Engaging Millennials with Gamification

           It’s no secret that the Millennial generation is fond of texting, tweeting, posting, linking, and anything else that involves being connected. This generation has been raised on technology, and the majority of this group probably doesn’t even remember a time when Facebook and smartphones didn’t exist. While studies have shown that some aspects of constantly being connected and “on” result in negative side effects, we would like to point out a very positive effect that could greatly benefit your organization.

            Because Millennials are such a technically inclined generation, gamification, the application of characteristics from games into non-gaming contexts in order to motivate and engage employees, comes naturally. Be it an app on their phones or a computer program, gamification is practically tailored for the Millennial generation. Studies also show that Millennials thrive on instant gratification, something that gamification can easily provide. Real-time feedback engages employees, but is usually close to impossible to give. With gamification it is now easily achievable.

            Today’s managers can enhance Millennial employee motivation, productivity and loyalty by aligning their company’s recognition strategies with the needs, preferences and values of Millennial professionals. But remember this… gamification is not just for Millennials, it can be effective for all demographics. If you are interested in learning more about Millennials and gamification, visit our website.

Why Gamification should be on your agenda in 2014

Are you considering gamification as part of your employee communications strategy next year? Gamification is on the rise with our clients, and there is great reason for it.  We’ve outlined a few of the many compelling reasons why we believe 2014 is the year of gamification. 

Gamification breaks through the noise. There are a LOT of messages that come down through various organizations every day, and we all know that things get lost in the shuffle. Using gamification as an engagement strategy gets people's attention and creates an immediate connection.

Gamification facilitates faster learning and retention. Gamification has a 10 times higher retention rate than traditional computer based learning systems. 

Gamification builds high levels of engagement. Gamification turns the normal and boring every day work experience into something engaging and fun!

Gamification encourages a little healthy competition. 51% of American adults agree that if a layer of competition were added to everyday activities, they'd be more likely to keep a closer watch of their behavior in those areas. -JWT Intelligence 

Employees are empowered to actively gauge their performance. Everyone loves real time feedback- but lets be honest, feedback usually occurs in yearly reviews or during one-on-one meetings with your boss. Gamification allows employees to immediately know when they make a wrong move or guess a wrong answer- and they can instantly see their progress when they are doing well.

Gamification provides easy access to data and analytics. We have learned with our own projects the power of gamification when it comes to data collection and analysis. It's great because you can build a program to run analytics to see exactly what type of mechanics are working and which aren't, and how employees are performing.

If you’d like to learn more about how we are using gamification to inspire, motivate and engage with employees across different industries, click here to get in touch with us today.