Incorporating gaming elements into workplace training and development has become more and more popular in recent years.  Gamification is gaining adherents from companies of all sizes for employee onboarding, process education, and product training.

The Intel® Retail Edge Program has experienced extraordinary success with gamification and has found that presenting information in a gamified manner to sales associates helps to improve content acquisition and engagement.

When associates engage with the Program, they feel energized about gaining detailed knowledge regarding new Intel® products and technologies, the latest OEM PCs powered by Intel, customer interaction techniques, and tips for increasing sales.

What Is Gamification?

Gamified learning borrows proven techniques from the gaming world to instill learner motivation and keep them coming back for more. It starts by utilizing game mechanics to enhance educational content.

Examples used within the Intel® Retail Edge Program include:

• Awarding "Chips" as associates progress
   
• Offering badges as recognition for achievements
   
• Increasing challenges as new "levels" are obtained
   
• Providing background story narratives that add context and interest
   
• Displaying leaderboards to increase competition
   
• Giving tangible rewards based on individual or team accomplishments

Stimulating graphics and sounds like those used in video games further increase emotional engagement with the training material. Retail sales associates acquire a higher sense of self-worth, social recognition, and achievement when training collateral is combined with gaming principles.

Backed by Science

Gamification has been increasingly adopted by Learning Management System (LMS) vendors and leading brands. Its rousing success is firmly rooted in findings by neuroscientists:

• The positive feelings learners experience when reaching goals and receiving rewards is based on increased dopamine secretion. This positive feedback encourages them to achieve even more.
   
• Serotonin release occurs when revisiting past achievements such as earned badges or a high position on the leaderboard.
   
• Gameplay increases endorphin levels, which reduces stress and induces euphoria, which facilitates information acquisition.
   
• Gameplay stimulates the hippocampus, where new memories are made, facilitating the storage and recall of new information.

When gamification is incorporated into learning correctly and effectively, sales associates aren't thinking about game mechanics or human brain endocrinology. Instead, they are simply having fun soaking up new knowledge.

Additional Elements of Successful Gamification

Everyone has an innate desire to feel valued. Achieving one's goals, especially through competition with other individuals or teams, feeds this desire. However, as we have learned over the last 19 years through the Intel® Retail Edge Program, several essential steps must be taken to ensure the most efficient and effective online learning resource:

• Frequent, positive feedback is required, along with a "try again" context that encourages rather than discourages the associate when they falter.
   
• Content must be presented in various formats to accommodate different learning styles.
   
• Learning progress must be displayed clearly and meaningfully in ways that an associate can anticipate.
   
• Building a community of learners within and across sales teams ensures program adoption and frequent engagement.
   
• Competitions are excellent motivators and must coincide with retailer goals, such as seasonal promotions when sales numbers are critical.

The Intel® Retail Edge Program is a top destination for sales associates built upon sound gamification principles and many years of successful growth. It facilitates sales associate participation from work or home, on desktops, or mobile devices.

By participating in the Program, they become an integral part of a robust online community designed to support their efforts to gain knowledge to sell products and create exceptional customer experiences.

This article has been updated. See the original version here.

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