Gamification of the workplace

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204294504576615371783795248.html?mod=e2tw

by pitdesi • 15 years ago

14 12 15 years ago

online.wsj.com

scarmig• 15 years ago

I expect most responses here to be critical of the trend mentioned in the article. I see it as useful.

Its utility is limited to tasks that are commensurate, however. This means you can't really apply it to creative work. It's difficult to compare a developer to another using the kind of simple metric that easily lends itself to gamification. Even if you use something as general as time, you'll fail, because the question is time to what? Unless you've got two people working on different implementations of the same feature, you'll still be measuring different things. (And if you do have two working on generating two independent implementations of the same exact feature, any gains from competitiveness will be more than offset by wasted time.)

Other tasks, like data entry or content generation, do have easily comparable metrics, like rows per minute or clickthroughs. So it should be expected to work better there.

luu• 15 years ago

So, they're replacing incentive based pay structures with points, leaderboards, and badges? Where do I sign up?

The people I know at companies where everyone is explicitly ranked and rated in a way that's made public (e.g., Intel) mostly dislike the pressure it adds and the comparisons it creates. If pay and promotions are based off these leaderboards, then this has all the advantages and disadvantages of the Intel system, and there's nothing new here. If the leaderboards are just "flavor", then this is just another form of lucite plaque, and there's nothing new here.

mathattack• 15 years ago

Gamification has always existing in large companies, though historically it's been more subtle.

At 5 years you get a nice pen. At 10 years you get a larger carpet in your office. At 20 years you get a silver picture frame. At 30 years you get a nice retirement party with free shrimp for your friends.

Yes - really - I knew LOTS of people at old Ma Bell would hang on underpaid for several years just to get the free shrimp for their friends at the retirement party.

All of these come at the expensive of opportunity, interesting work, and money.

2arrs2ells• 15 years ago

Microsoft has been incorporating RPG-like elements into their review/promotion system for a while. By developing certain skills and finishing achievements, you can "level up" getting increased pay and responsibilities.

/not a MSFT employee - but that's how my MSFT friends describe it

vogonj• 15 years ago

it's not as clear-cut as that -- it's mostly a combination of a traditional "you should work on these things and get better at having X, Y, and Z desirable qualities" conversations with your boss and Microsoft's love of creating systems with jargon that is inscrutable to the outside.

(disclaimer: I'm a Microsoft employee with about 3 years served.)

maaku• 15 years ago

I work for a large defense contractor, and that description could just as easily apply to us.

However it is neither fun nor productive. The majority of the official classifications are mismatched and/or inapplicable (but nevertheless required hoops to jump through), and getting any change approved requires heaps of paperwork. About this time last year I threatened to quit with an offer letter in hand from a startup; my company promised to match my salary to the offer. A year later, I'm only just now getting the rest of the raise and promotion, because of the skill qualifications, achievements, etc. that we had to get filed and approved.

That certainly makes me feel happy about the “gamification” of my industry.

foulmouthboy• 15 years ago

This is getting ridiculous. The idea of bonuses, rewards for completing tasks, the earning of newer impressive titles, gifts for accomplishing things coworkers couldn't. It's not the gamefication of work. It's just work.

jtap• 15 years ago

A couple of years ago I was working at a company that had a pretty large sales center. Just for kicks I created a fantasy sales center app. You got to pick people from marketing who were generating leads, salespeople, and sales managers. You could only play each person 3 days out of a week. I was pretty surprised to see the positive impact it had on the company. Everyone was interested in sales. Discussions on how to increase sales numbers increased, and projects shifted from what might help the company to what would increase sales. Sometimes the sales team members would get upset about getting benched but hey make the sale and I'll put you back in. :)

pkamb• 15 years ago

And global consulting firm Deloitte employs digital games for its Deloitte Leadership Academy, an executive education program it uses to train clients and its own consultants.

Gamification doesn't mean "playing videogames designed to teach you about work". I got the sense that that's what many of the companies in the article are using, HR "games" for employee training. Proper gamification is a feedback loop that pushes the person to do better in their actual job.

jmjerlecki• 15 years ago

Seems like there might be an idea for a start up in there

adjohn• 15 years ago

Sounds like http://www.lovemachineinc.com/

ja27• 15 years ago

I've been thinking for a while that the next phase of my career might be as a "gamification expert". I enjoy Foursquare, Gowalla, etc. and have a reasonable amount of interest in game theory, game design and mechanics, and psychology. But whenever I even type "gamification" I cringe. Can it really be a good thing for so many companies? Does it matter as long as they'll spend money on it?

I love this quote from Chris Dixon: "The next big thing will start out looking like a toy". That's certainly the prevailing attitude about "gamification". http://cdixon.org/2011/09/28/some-lessons-learned/

Gamification of the workplace

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