Think video games are just a fun way to pass time? Think again. If you’ve ever tracked steps on your phone, kept a streak going on Duolingo, or completed a summer reading challenge, you’ve participated in a game—one with tangible, real-life benefits. When we gamify our lives, we make it easier to stay active, develop new skills, and so much more.
The same applies at work. Sure, playing Xbox during the workday won’t exactly land you a promotion. (If anything, it’ll land you a prompt gesture toward the door.) That said, gaming can be a surprisingly powerful motivator—for your employees, clients, partners, and just about anyone else.
In this article, we’ll explore the ins and outs of gamification in training. Learn how to incorporate game design into your education program, so you can make it easier for your audience to learn, retain, and apply new information. We’ll also share key features, benefits, and examples of gamification in training done right.
What Is Gamification in Training?
Gamification in training is the process of applying game design principles to workplace education to incentivize learning, improve knowledge retention, and achieve greater business outcomes. Gamified training takes many forms, but is most often associated with digital learning, such as courses, quizzes, certifications, and webinars.
Why Gamify Learning?
Gamification in corporate training may seem counterintuitive. Aren’t games a leisure activity? Do they have a meaningful purpose in the workplace?
The answer is surprisingly simple: Games are fun. They’re thrilling. When implemented thoughtfully, gamification elements can motivate your target audience and keep them glued to what they’re reading, watching, or listening to. For your education team, that means more opportunities to teach new skills and deepen existing knowledge.
But the why behind gamification goes beyond that. Jane McGonigal, a game designer and psychology PhD who has partnered with organizations such as the World Bank and the American Heart Association, gave a 2010 TED Talk extolling the benefits of gamification. When education and gaming meet, it encourages greater productivity, stronger collaboration, and more innovative outcomes.
Consider all of the above, and the question becomes: Why shouldn’t games belong at work?
Benefits of Game-Based Learning
So, you understand the big picture “why” behind gamification in training. But how exactly can game-inspired education level up your existing training program? Let’s dig into the details.
Here are five of the biggest benefits of gamification in training:
Greater engagement
As an education leader, you know that your work offers value. According to LinkedIn, seven in 10 people say learning makes them feel more connected to their organization. Consider another finding—that Gen Z values learning for career growth disproportionately more (53%) than any other generation at work (37%)—and the value prop couldn’t be clearer.
Gamification in training is a great way to further those engagement efforts. By making learning a tactile, interactive experience, you give users the agency to learn at their own pace and skill level. Consider that games are also fun, and you have a recipe for education that improves learner engagement and decreases drop-off rates.
Stronger collaboration
The internet is like the Wild West: You don’t always know what to expect, and you need to be careful because of it. Although there’s an abundance of misinformation on the web, when harnessed responsibly, it’s a means of unprecedented collaboration and community.
Gamified training programs take advantage of this collaboration through social learning. Every discussion forum you start, social post you highlight, or comment you respond to builds trust with your community. And as you build that community, the discussions—and learnings—only become more organic. Soon, your community might even run itself! (Just be sure to moderate.)
Superior innovation
As McGonigal mentioned in her TED Talk, gamified learning can be a boon for innovation. Why? In games, players are faced with increasingly difficult challenges. These challenges often force you to think in novel ways; by the end of the experience, you may be asked to consider a variety of inputs and devise a wholly unique solution.
Gamification in training follows a similar logic. By designing education with a game-based mindset, you can focus less on telling users what to do and more on showing them how things work. With the right learning curve, you give your audience the tools they need to troubleshoot problems and drive creative results.
Better knowledge retention
Games have had a long history of educating audiences. In the ‘80s and ‘90s, games like Reader Rabbit and Treasure Mountain! helped children practice their times tables, learn new words, and improve their reading comprehension. Even today, Kerbal Space Program and the ever-popular Minecraft have helped users explore space and even develop makeshift computers.
Gamified training may not be an actual game, but it offers similar benefits. In a 2024 study, researchers found a positive correlation between certain game mechanics—including points, leaderboards, and badges—and knowledge retention. It makes practical sense, too: When you gamify training in the workplace, you break down complex topics into easier, more attainable goals. You also provide meaningful feedback (e.g., a passing grade, a high score) that encourages future learning and development.
Higher productivity
Consider all of the prior benefits—engagement, collaboration, innovation, and retention—and it should come as no surprise that gamification in training helps boost productivity. In our 2023 State of Education Initiative Ownership Report, which surveyed 445 education professionals, we found that 42% of respondents look forward to going to work each day. That number drops dramatically—to 10%—for those who feel they lack the right training and knowledge.
Ten percent—and these are education experts! If they get disengaged when things go south, imagine what that number might look like for your entire organization.
Game-based education motivates employees and ensures they learn what they need to succeed. Where traditional education might take a “one size fits all” approach, gamification gives agency to users looking to chart their own learning journey. Nurture that interest, and it’ll pay dividends in both discretionary effort and productivity.
Key Elements of Gamified Learning
Achieving a gamified learning experience doesn’t happen by accident. To implement gamification properly, it’s important to understand some fundamental elements of game design.
You don’t need to be Shigeru Miyamoto to make a compelling gamified experience. Here’s a crash course of six crucial game elements to incorporate into your customer, partner, or employee training.
Goals
Goals are everywhere in business. From the C-Suite down to entry-level contributors, everyone has personal and professional goals that help them learn new skills and drive toward success.
Gamification in training also benefits from a clear set of objectives. Say you’re creating employee education to enable teams to better sell your products. When building your curriculum, consider not just the end goal (e.g., “sell more products”), but also the smaller milestones that’ll get you there.
For instance, your training could consist of modules such as:
- The art of cold calling
- Writing effective emails
- How to close your first deal
- Expansion talk tracks
...And so on. The point is this: Games aren’t conquered in a day, and neither is a team’s workload. To help employees learn effectively, it’s important to celebrate their progress (no matter how small) and provide consistent goals to work toward.
Feedback
A healthy learning environment is filled with feedback. Think back to middle or high school, when you received a letter grade based on your test results. If you received an A, it was validation you were doing great work; if you got a D, it was a call to revisit the basics.
Learner engagement feeds off these positive and negative loops—and gamification in training is no different. As you build eLearning for your audience, consider what types of feedback will encourage improvement. One common form of feedback is a badge system, where users collect a visual certificate upon completing a course or certification. But it’s far from the only one. Progress bars, daily streaks, and even a simple “Nice job!” are all ways to keep learners on the right track.
Accessibility
“Accessible design is good design.” It’s a common saying that applies far beyond the world of tech. When we create experiences that reflect the rich diversity of our learners, we open the door for all people to thrive.
Game design shares that same philosophy. It isn’t enough that your training is informative or engaging; if it can’t be appreciated by the masses, it likely isn’t good enough to be appreciated by the few. Thankfully, there’s a wealth of guidelines on how to create accessible eLearning as you build out your program.
Rewards
No matter how accessible and intuitive your training is, there needs to be an incentive to opt in. In many cases, that incentive is an intrinsic drive to upskill in one’s job or career. However, that’s not always the case—especially when educating audiences outside your organization, like clients or channel partners.
That’s where extrinsic incentives come into play. Gamification is built on the philosophy of rewarding participation—whether by letting users earn points, redeem gift cards, or earn fancy titles for a virtual avatar. Ultimately, there’s no better reward than the joy of learning, but you can supplement that thrill with the right carrot.
Community
Gone are the days when learning was conducted solely in classrooms or learning centers. Today’s education is global, often taking place over public forums like LinkedIn or Facebook.
You might not run a social media giant, but you still can reap the benefits. Community-based learning is only becoming more popular, and Millenials and Gen Z are in the driver’s seat. To make your education truly enticing, see that it incorporates gamification that rewards conversation. Leaderboards allow your users to compare scores and compete for first place. Likewise, badges can be shared over the internet, attracting new faces to your program.
Fun
Former Nintendo executive Reggie Fils-Aimé once said, “If [the game’s] not fun, why bother?” Of course, amusement likely isn’t your primary consideration when building gamification in training. There are likely times when your training is decidedly “unfun” (e.g., sensitivity training).
Still, it’s hard to deny the appeal. As a designer or facilitator, you play an outsized role in helping others upskill their lives and careers. For many learners, your teachings will be memorable—but you have the opportunity to make that experience magical with a little fun.
Examples of Gamification in Training
Want some healthy inspiration as you explore gamification for your training needs? Here are some companies that make it look easy.
For many, LinkedIn is a place to update your resume, publish thought leadership, and celebrate work anniversaries. It’s a great platform for all that, but many of its best features lie beyond the news feed. There’s an entire education platform, LinkedIn Learning, that’s dedicated to helping workers upskill for current and future jobs. As you complete courses, you’re encouraged to share your newfound skills with colleagues and peers, encouraging others to do the same.
LinkedIn has even implemented its own set of word games, designed to help keep the mind sharp and de-stress after a long day. Though still in their early stages, these games support leaderboards for friendly competition and are a clever way to keep people engaged with the platform.
MyFitnessPal
There are quite a few calorie-tracking apps on the market, but none are as popular as MyFitnessPal. What sets it apart is its ease of use. Tracking foods is as simple as searching a database or, if you have a premium subscription, scanning a barcode. The app also features a robust dashboard to help people track everything from gym repetitions to glasses of water.
The interface is simple, yet effective, with a focus on spending calories from your available pool throughout the day. The goal is straightforward—stick to your calorie count—and there’s regular feedback in the form of macronutrient readouts and daily weigh-ins.
Duolingo
Duolingo often makes headlines for its larger-than-life social media strategy, but the company backs up the talk with compelling content. In just over a decade, the company has grown from a fledgling language app to a massive business, raking in half a billion dollars in annual revenue.
The keys to Duolingo’s success are its slick user interface and smart incentives. Setting up an account is breezy, and users can pick a language and jump into the action in just a few minutes. Courses are presented in a quest-like fashion: Complete an intro lesson, and you’ll unlock access to more advanced learning. As you proceed, you’ll unlock experience points (XP) based on your performance.
It’s a decidedly game-like way to approach education—and that’s the point. While it’s rare to see a company invest as fully in gamification as Duolingo, the results speak for themselves.
Deliver Best-in-Class Gamified Learning With Intellum
Gamification is powerful, but can also distract from the learning experience if you’re focused on the wrong elements.
With Intellum’s learning management system, there’s no guesswork. Our reputation-based gamification isn’t built on arbitrary points or awards, but on real-based skills that naturally incentivize people to improve. Encourage your audience to build their reputation, earn new credentials, and redeem prizes, all while keeping the focus on learning.
Learn more about our gamification tools, and take your training program to the next level.
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