A new survey published by a learning management systems company has found the stunning benefits of gamification in the workplace. The report published by TalentLMS was prepared after surveying nearly 400 employees in the age range of 18 to 69 years with a mean age of 36. Here are a few key findings from the survey.

Impact of gamification on productivity

One of the primary objectives of using gamification is to improve employee engagement and overall productivity. The TalentLMS study found that an overwhelming 87 percent of surveyed participants believed that gamification has helped them improve productivity at work. This is a near eight percentage points jump up from a similar survey conducted in 2014 when 79% of the participants responded in the affirmative.

Besides productivity, the survey also found that gamification can potentially improve employee engagement. Over 84% of the participants pointed this in the survey while 82% of them also believed that gamification makes them happier at work.

What motivates employees

Could gamification nudge employees to perform boring tasks faster? The TalentLMS survey found that intrinsic factors contributed towards motivation for over 40% of the people. But this figure is higher for challenging tasks compared to boring ones. One in five employees feel gamification helps them clear tasks, especially when they are boring. The study found that gamification factors consistently moved up the list of motivational factors when it comes to boring tasks. On an average, extrinsic motivational factors like “completing the task will help my colleagues” or “everyone on my team was completing the same task” stayed at 37% regardless of the kind of task given.

Interestingly, gamification also tends to impact intrinsic motivational factors of employees. An overwhelming 87% of the surveyed participants said gamification helped them gain a greater sense of creativity and freedom while around 81% of them believed it helped them build a personality and provided them with a sense of belonging.

Gamification helps gamers

One of the most key takeaways from the survey was the direct correlation between gaming and gamification. The study found that avid gamers who played games every day or fairly often were 92% more likely to observe higher productivity through gamification compared to the 40% of respondents who noted that they did not play any sort of games.

But while this might indicate that the younger participants were more likely to find gamification useful, this was not found to be true. As a matter of fact, more than 26% of employees aged 45 and above found gamification as an effective motivator compared to just 13% of employees in the 18-25 year age range.

Penalizing employees doesn’t work

Businesses have been grappling to find a sweet spot between the carrot and the stick for ages. If this survey is anything to go by, it shows that the stick method fails to work as a source of employee motivation. Asked to choose a source of motivation, less than seven percent of the surveyed participants pointed out the possibility of being penalized for the non-completion of task. This was as true for boring tasks as it is for challenging ones.

Gamification has proven to be one of the most effective ways to motivate employees at work and improve productivity. This survey has shone the light on this topic one more time and has reinforced the importance of making work tasks fun in order to make employees more efficient.