Gamification in corporate training to enhance engagement: An approach

Abstract

Engagement in the companies' training programs is a crucial issue for their success. Every company faces the matter in different manners: some enterprises promote mandatory courses or programs; however, they may result not enough effective, due to a low level of motivation that can compromise learning and retention. Other enterprises prefer to adopt voluntary courses or programs, but in this case enrollment and completion depend on many factors: the time that workers can spend on training without compromising their main tasks; the directives of managers; the individual motivation. Another way to face corporate training may exploit gamification to enhance engagement. The authors present the design and implementation of a gamified course of office automation, developed for the employees of a large media company. Our approach attempts to go beyond the well-known triad point-badges-leaderboards, employing also a narrative, the Bartle's taxonomy of player types and the Selfdetermination theory by Deci and Ryan.