Blog

For a team to work, one has to recruit people with intelligence, support them in the learning process, foster their capabilities, empower them, train them, encourage their creative thinking and stimulate their spirit of constant improvement. All these tasks are crucial for leveraging talent, the real driving force that drives the progress of a company. Few tools have been seen to be as effective for developing personal skills and leadership capacity as games, something children do intuitively but people abandon scornfully on entering adult age, without realising that playing is equivalent to learning.

Companies are now returning to childhood to take games on board again, and apply them to the management of their human resources, a working methodology called 'gamification' (game-based learning).

In line with the expert's opinion, gamification aimed at the management of talent and human capital in a company is a trend that has taken root in the early 21st century and is here to stay. This analysis is shared by the consultancy firm Gartner, which claims that 50% of innovation processes in companies now include gamification. Figures from Gartner also show that 70% of the companies in the Global 2000 List use these techniques in different areas, while a study published by Deloitte affirms that 25% of processes in companies will include gamification in the next few years.

Advantages for workers and companies

The main advantages of using games in training processes for people lie in their enormous potential to bring out employees' talent and motivation, but also as a formula to foster communication, teamwork and a commitment shared by employees, partners and clients.

“Through play we can bring about disinhibition, reduce levels of prejudice, break taboos, promote disruptive thinking, foster collaborative creation and stimulate the desire to improve," says Ms Gómez Mayor.

As well as benefits in terms of the personal growth of teams, these techniques also show advantages for companies that apply them, for example, easy follow-up and monitoring of results.

“These kinds of systems encourage participation. Furthermore, it is easy to monitor the progress of participants, and this can be implemented for all members of an organization at the same time without worrying about its size or hierarchical structure, as gamification aims to involve all the people who intervene in an organization”, she adds.

Phone House, which is part of Dominion, has successfully tried out gamification to bring the best out of its team. In 2017 it developed the training video game "2100" together with the company Gamelearn. This initiative, which won the innovation prize awarded by the Spanish Association of e-Learning Suppliers (APeL), aims at improving capabilities in the field of client management. It presents 14 real scenarios that enable the user to build his/her own commercial empire.

Thanks to this game it was seen how the participants made a journey that went from reflection to action, i.e. from hypotheses and theories to practical implementation. This has also helped to align the objectives of the company's partners with those of the firm.

The use of gamification makes it possible to dynamize the process of incorporation of new employees, check their progress at each of the stages that make up the process of integration into a new company and bring about a joining process that is personal, simple and fun. It also reduces personnel turnover and raises productivity.

it seems that the reality contradicts the popular saying: you can’t force people to learn. Playing is not just for children.