Guest Post: Gamifying Human Resources

While games were once solely played for pleasure, game and simulation applications are now used widely within companies as a tool for organizational development. 

Who would have thought you could increase utilization of a software application or compliance with a business policy simply by turning the process into a game?

Whether your goal as a human resources professional is to improve company morale, facilitate internal communications, or deliver professional training, gamification is a great way to spark one’s competitive edge and foster learning and development within an organization. 

Here's how you can “gamify” employee relations for greater organizational success.

Know What to Gamify

Achievement Levels

Sculpt your company’s culture with achievements that reflect your core values and mission. Achievements could be awarded simply based on tenure (one year anniversary) or could recognize individual contributions towards specific company goals (meeting sales goals).

Award/Redemption

Many perks and benefits employers offer today are one size fits all. But what if employees could redeem points they’ve earned by working at your company for the extra perks/compensation/benefits they want? Imagine a world in which you could redeem your badge/achievement points at work for extra vacation, premium healthcare, or something important to you.

Participation

HR professionals can see an increase in participation/compliance rates in their projects if they can turn it into a competition, especially if there is a public leader board that shows how everyone is doing. It might not bother a particular individual that they are tardy in complying with a human resources request, but no one wants to be responsible for losing the game for their team.

Know How To Gamify

Workplace Badges

Social badges are typically rewarded for small, yet significant accomplishments or milestones. They work because people can’t seem to resist collecting badges if there’s one to be earned. HR professionals can create badges to promote almost any type of behavior within an organization.

Imagine creating badges to promote attendance (perfect attendance badge), on boarding (certified in company culture badge), or even compliance with benefits enrollment deadlines (early enroller badge).

Quizzes

After a company-wide presentation or webinar, quiz your employee base on their retention of key points. To spark competition between colleagues, you could even post scores, and offer prizes for the individuals or departments who received the highest marks.

Foursquare

Consider utilizing already existing platforms such as Foursquare to create gaming among employees. Perfect for the natural-born competitor, this platform is ideal for attendance incentives, as employees are able to check-in and compete to become mayors of their respective organizations.

Why Gamify?

Ultimately, gamification works well in part due to a behavioral economics principle that human resources and organizational behavior professionals can use to their advantage. People make decisions based on either economic norms or social norms. Decisions made based on economic norms are based on logic, supply, and demand. Decisions made based on social norms involve relationships, emotions, and subjective feeling. Gamification helps take decisions out of the economic realm (i.e., “I’m here because of the paycheck”) and place them into the social realm (i.e., “I’m here because I believe in what we do”).

How else could you gamify human resources? Is there an employee task with a low compliance rate? Or could you use games to drive the mission, vision and guiding principles of your company?

About the Author: Josh Braaten is an Online Marketing Manager at Rasmussen College, where he blogs about educational degree programs such as Human Resources and Organizational Leadership and Business Management with a Specialization in Human Resources. Josh is passionate about search engine optimization and web analytics and blogs about Internet marketing in his free time.

Is Your Resume Fact or Fiction?

This guest post is authored by Jeri Johansen, PHR, Executive Assistant at Crimcheck. Crimcheck.com provides background checks for businesses large and small nationwide. Crimcheck.com background checks include criminal history, education verification, employment verification, driving records and more.

Ok, so you got your degree and are on the road to begin your career. Why not make your resume shine above the rest with some minor embellishment? Well, for one, gone are the days when you could walk into an interview with a copy of your diploma and that would suffice for authenticating your degree. These days, employers will verify degree, date of graduation and school, at the least. In reality, honesty on a resume is much more highly valued than anything else.

The Society for Human Resource Management estimates that 53% of all resumes contain some form of inaccuracy. Human Resource departments are very aware of this statistic. In my line of work I see all sorts of resume fraud, ranging from the older worker who changes their date of graduation because they think that will help get them in the door, to the recent graduate who states they have one year of managerial experience (while they were still away at college). We won't even discuss criminal records and personal references in this blog, but I could write a novel on the issues that come up during interviews, employment applications, and resumes that immediately rule an applicant out of the pool.

The education portion of your resume should reflect accurate dates, school name and degree type. It will be verified, and these days, verification is as easy as a couple of clicks of the keyboard. Your work history should be truthful regarding non-paid work and internships. Don't try to reflect them as if they were paid jobs. List your job responsibilities accurately, as they will most likely be verified with a phone call to your supervisor.

Employers know that when the job market tightens, resume fraud increases. Employers can afford to be even more selective in selecting candidates. Any false claim or date is a red flag to the recruiter. If the applicant would lie on their resume, how trustworthy could they be?

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3 Thoughts From a New HR Professional

This Guest Post is authored by Ben Eubanks, an HR professional who loves to write and enjoys giving and receiving career advice.

Leaping into a field like HR is quite interesting. I’ve only been doing this for a short while, but I can tell that it’s like nothing else out there. We take problems and make them our own. We sometimes have the thankless job of policing and cleaning up after poor employee behaviors.

But then there’s the other side of the equation. We fix problems. Help people to love their jobs. Reward people for performing exemplary work. Guide employees along their career paths toward a rich, satisfying future. Sure, HR has its quirks, but by keeping a few ideas in mind, your work can be more fulfilling, exciting, and engaging.

Enthusiasm is Essential

I often get complimented on my enthusiasm. It’s a product of many things—from my fresh perspective to my desire to learn everything right now. Enthusiasm is essential not only in the early years, but in the later ones as well. What good is having all of those years of experience if you’ve turned into a curmudgeon? Having the right blend of knowledge and enthusiasm turns you into a credible advocate for the profession as a whole. Plus, it can help you to inspire others.

Humor is Handy

Humor is handy in so many different situations. I think that’s one thing that sets me apart from so many HR professionals. Growing up in a small business with parents who injected liberal doses of humor into the workplace prepared me for my role in HR. Sure, I can be funny, but it’s nothing for me to step into a serious role as required. Being able to laugh (especially at yourself) will go a long way toward increasing your longevity in regards to both career and physical health. Sharing that humor will make you stand out.

Maintenance is Mandatory

Like a marriage or a flower, proper care will help your HR career to flourish. Continually seeking new ways to innovate in the workplace will make you more valuable to the organization, and going out of your way to network with other professionals on Twitter or LinkedIn can make quite a difference in your own career in the long run. Keep in mind that the HR field changes very often, and it’s up to you to face that challenge head on. Be competent and current in what matters to you and your organization, and you will be highly valued by the leadership.

Of course, like much that I write, these HR thoughts can be applied to both new professionals and veterans, but that doesn’t mean they are any less true. Keeping enthusiasm, humor, and a “maintenance mindset” will mean that a young professional won’t be as likely to get burned out, and they could help a seasoned veteran along toward a stellar career.

Ben writes his own blog, UpstartHR. True to his words, Ben is enthusiastic, funny and focused and he is developing quite a presence on line. Did I mention he has energy?  Subscribe to his blog and follow him on Twitter to (try to) keep up with him. 

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