Can you gamify business analytics in your company?

The goal of gamification is to motivate employees to take actions that help you achieve your business goals. Your employees may not perform these actions on their own, but they become invested in doing so when they feel they are personally benefitting.

What is gamification?

Gartner defines gamification as "the use of game mechanics and experience design to digitally engage and motivate people to achieve their goals”. In a business setting, gamification is used to motivate employees, create healthy competition across teams and change behavior. Gamification leads staff members to respond to various scenarios, prompts or challenges and they are rewarded when a goal is met or a task is completed. Rewards often include badges, points or a form of currency, such as tokens. The belief is that creating an immersive experience will increase staff engagement.

How can this apply to a business intelligence setting?

Providing users with an immersive and gamified experience in the use of data is lauded as an important tool to improve productivity and performance in the workplace. By engaging users and enabling them to manipulate data quickly and easily, they are driven to improve their performance through feedback.

With business intelligence software such as Phocas, sales consultants are able to quickly identify which segment of their existing customer base is purchasing less of a product. However, the consultants may not have the motivation to use the data to isolate this trend on their own. By introducing gamification, a sales manager can present a fun and competitive way for sales consultants to detect every opportunity to increase sales.

Should you gamify?

The goal of gamification is to motivate employees to take actions that help you achieve your business goals. These individuals may not perform these actions on their own, but they become invested in doing so when they feel they are personally benefitting. Therefore, it is critical for businesses to continually identify what best motivates their employees and evolve efforts to support that.

As businesses decide whether to incorporate gamification, an important consideration is the increasing numbers of millennials in the workforce and marketplace. Although gamification is aimed at all users, millennials came of age in the digital era and respond well to gamification. So whether you are seeking to increase customer sales or motivate employees, gamification can change how business intelligence is presented and used across your organization.

To further explore the changing face of Business Intelligence, download our guide to the best business planning and analytics.