MSPNetworks Blog

When you want your workforce to operate more productively, and engagement has been shown to have positive effects on productivity, it makes sense that you would want to actively promote activities that have been shown to improve engagement. One approach that many companies and organizations are now embracing is gamification. Let’s discuss the concept of gamification, and how it might benefit your business.

For starters, it may help to get some more context into what gamification is, exactly.

Understanding Workplace Gamification

At its core, gamification is the philosophy of making rote processes and tasks more engaging by taking the components that make games fun and integrating them into these tasks and processes. In theory, this will result in a more content workforce, and a more successful business, and there is plenty of anecdotal evidence to support how effective this approach can be.

For just one example, one only has to turn to the many different educational applications and computer software titles available today. Concealed behind a fun story and the colorful characters driving the plot, the game’s mechanics actively encourage learning by requiring the young player to complete activities designed to improve their skills in mathematics and grammar. In this way, the learning process becomes more fun, motivating the children playing the game to continue doing so.

The same approach can be found in many applications aimed towards adults--specifically, adults in the workplace.

Gamifying the Workplace

One of the best things about workplace gamification is how easily it can be applied to someone’s processes at any level. For example:

• Training processes can be gamified by using learning portals that introduce new recruits and veterans alike to basic workplace requirements and procedures.
• Gamified achievements and rewards can be given to employees for accomplishing more and sticking to set procedures.
• In the game format, feedback and contextual correction can be given live, allowing your employees to experience real-time training benefits.

Of course, we also have to discuss the benefit to the well-being of your employees that gamification can bring. Many companies have elected to gamify the health status of their employees over their daily tasks. This has helped to fight the impacts that a sedentary job has been shown to have on an employee’s health. With healthier employees, companies also see decreased absenteeism, as sick days become less frequently needed.

Finally, gamification is hugely beneficial to team building. Look at how popular eSports have become amongst companies, with coworkers forming teams to play together as a group. Sure, this makes them a more cohesive and communicative team, but the real benefit comes from the engagement your team will feel as a result of these games. Ideally, it is an employee who is left to organize and manage these activities, making the results much more organic.

While eSports are a little out of our professional wheelhouse, we can assist your company’s productivity with numerous IT solutions and other strategies! To find out more about what we can do for you, reach out to us at (516) 403-9001.

No matter how hard some organizations may try, the technology solutions that a business leverages simply aren’t meant to last forever. You may have noticed that some of your systems are less effective than they once were, and that your competition seems to be playing with a different set of rules. Sounds like it’s high time you implemented a few upgrades.

Why Upgrades Can’t Be Avoided Indefinitely

Look, I get it… it probably seems that you just acquired whatever it is that is giving you a hard time and trust me - I understand how frustrating it can be when something doesn’t work as expected. Despite my chosen career path, I don’t like having to deal with my own technology any more than I have to.

Unfortunately, the nature of the beast means that your technology needs to be maintained - the more thoughtfully, the better.

Don’t get me wrong - there are solutions that will last quite a bit longer than others. You just have to know how to choose the one that fits your business’ priorities. Let’s review a few key considerations to doing so.

How to Determine Which Upgrade Should Come Next

There are quite a few considerations to balance when you have to plan out your upgrade strategy. Based on your company’s individual internal makeup, some of these are going to be more effective than others at informing your plans. Regardless, your upgrades need to be implemented based on a unified principle…. Otherwise, your implementation will likely grow disorganized and fail.

As a result, it is crucial that you rally your modernization efforts behind one of these principles.

1. Simplified Design

Older IT systems have a few shared traits. Not only were these systems often a mixed conglomeration of different technologies and the accompanying considerations, they were also designed with a very modular focus - one or two processes could run very smoothly, but only as long as the business’ focus didn’t shift.

Modern systems are a little different. Not only are they largely built based on standardized languages and components, they can therefore be leveraged to use application programming interfaces (or APIs) to, putting it simply, get your different IT components to play nicely with one another. Going further, modern systems can also leverage advanced processes, like artificial intelligence and machine learning. These capabilities allow users to complete their tasks more quickly, improving productivity and keeping employees happy by providing them with technology that ‘learns’ their habits.

2. Prioritization of User Benefits and Value

One of the biggest benefits of any newly implemented or modernized IT solution is the improved value that its users can experience due to the changes made. Consider your capabilities (and those of your staff) with your current technology. Are you able to provide the highest level of value to your customers and clients by leveraging the solutions you currently have?

If your systems aren’t modernized, that isn’t so likely.

Automation is a huge reason for this. If you aren’t reducing the amount of tasks that your employees need to complete in order to advance your business, you’re going to find it difficult to increase their productivity. As a result, it’s important that your IT solutions deliver value to your users that they can translate into operational benefits.

3. Compliance to Company Culture

When determining the technology upgrade policy that will best benefit your business, it can be valuable to consider how that technology will fit into your company’s internal culture. At the same time, you should also ensure that your staff is prepared to incorporate the changes you have planned. Part of this means that you need to communicate these changes up front.

It will also help you to lean on those employees who are most accepting of these changes and utilize them as a source of information. Are there any concerns that haven’t reached the ears of management? Leveraging these employees to gauge the actual culture within your company will help to inform what the most effective technology implementations would be.

Making Your Technology Implementations Happen

For more assistance in determining what your most crucial technology needs are, reach out to MSPNetworks. We can help you to select the solutions that will have the most effect on your business and can be properly maintained to get the most out of them. Give us a call at (516) 403-9001 to learn more.