Bosses should help staff up their game – literally

Gamified rewards and bonuses not only introduce an element of fun to the workplace, but also increasing employee performance – and over half of all bosses are losing out on productivity by not making use of them.

A survey of 1,096 UK workers, by workplace incentives and rewards provider One4all Rewards, published in the Workers On Top Of Their Game Report, surveyed employees from different age groups, genders and industries and revealed that almost one in two (46 per cent) of UK workers would feel more motivated to work hard and one in five (20 per cent) would increase their performance if their employer introduced a points based rewards and bonus system.

Gamification is increasingly being used in workplaces, with Gartner reporting 40 per cent of Global 1000 organisations are doing so to motivate and encourage positive behaviours.

The technique works by setting small rewards for desired actions and then inviting workers to repeat that behaviour, which they do in anticipation of the same result. Virtually one in three (32 per cent) UK workers said they would work harder to unlock rewards and bonuses in this way.

There are also clear softer benefits of gamified rewards systems, with 37 per cent of UK workers claiming this would also increase their happiness at work, while almost the same number (36 per cent) said it would make them feel more engaged with their company.

Finally, two in five (38 per cent) of those surveyed said that working towards rewards and bonuses would make work more fun.

Alan Smith, UK managing director at One4all Rewards, said: “In SMEs, finding the budget for a rewards scheme can be tough, but gamified rewards can be more flexible in some ways and they don’t have to involve large budgets. While some might think that these kinds of rewards are more complex to implement, this isn’t necessarily the case and there are many companies out there that can help with implementing these rewards.

“As we can see from the survey data, and the sheer number of workers who said that the implementation of a gamified reward system would make them work harder, the cost of implementing this kind of rewards could soon be recouped by the increased productivity employers would benefit from.”

Top 5 benefits of gamified rewards to business:

1. An increase in employee motivation – 46%
2. Employees would find work more fun – 38%
3. An increase in employee happiness – 37%
4. A boost to employee morale – 36%
5. Employees will work harder – 32%