5 reasons gamification will help you keep your Millennial workers
It’s no secret that Millennials are hitting the “reset” button on their careers at shorter intervals than ever before: 91% expect to leave their jobs in the next three years. This means it’s time to harness gamification’s power to retain your Millenial workers.
“Gamification,” says Darryn van den Berg: MD of Passion4Development, “is about making what we do fun. Contrary to popular belief, it is not simply about just adding games into business. The point of making learning fun and less boring is to increase people’s engagement with what is being learned.”
The key here is…ENGAGE! And what are more engaging than video games? According to Millennials, nothing. Understand and play (pun intended) to Millennials’ hard-wired gaming needs so you can effectively retain them as employees in the workplace.
Keep your Millenials: The 5Cs of gamification
1. Customise
Millennials want their career path to be unique to their strengths and desires, much like customising their own avatar (game character) with unique abilities, traits and appearances. They also want options to choose specific missions and try different game tracks or storylines. Play to that need for customisation and give them options for growth.
2. Control
Millennials want ownership of their positions and tasks. They’re used to holding a controller, moving their avatar and controlling their character’s decisions and the ultimate outcome of the mission so give them more responsibility over their tasks.
3. Cultivate
One of the Millennials’ greatest desires is to acquire transferable life skills. In the gaming world, they have the option to enter tutorials where they can increase their avatars’ strength or gain new traits that will assist in accomplishing the mission. Tell them your expectations and then highlight where they can go to advance themselves.
4. Collaborate
Millennials learn better and quicker in teams. They don’t think twice about playing games with others online, and when they win, they’ll post the score on Facebook. Embrace this new sense of sharing and collaborating that surrounds gaming and social networks and use it to foster competition and innovation among your team.
5. Consequence (aka cause)
Millennials desire the ‘epic win’. They want to have an impact - today! They struggle from level to level and puzzle to puzzle to overthrow the final boss (which was Bowser for us old-school Millennials), rescue the princess and save the world. Communicate ‘the why’ so they know who and what they’re playing for so that they can fully commit to the cause.
