8 Best Examples of Gamification in Corporate Training in 2024

Updated: February 01, 2024

Corporate training is far removed from the snooze-worthy seminars and training meetings of decades past. Today, employees want more, and companies know that they need to approach engagement from a new perspective.

Gamification is one great way to take your corporate training to a whole new level. However, you’ve got to make sure that you’re doing it right. 

What Is Gamification?

Gamification, put simply, is the process of adding game-like elements to things that typically aren’t considered “games”.

In the case of corporate training, gamification adds points, badges, and other game features to otherwise traditional training courses and modules, giving people a new way to learn.

This process has been going on for several decades, but it’s only recently become popular as a choice for training in the workplace.

Keep reading to learn more about this process and how it’s used in corporate training, the benefits, and which companies are showing you how to do it best.

Why Use Gamification in Corporate Training?

There are several reasons to use gamification for training in the corporate environment. Here are some of the best things it can offer. 

1. Incentivize and Accelerate Learning

When people feel engaged and rewarded for their efforts, they learn quicker and are more eager to do so. If you use gamification, you will find that learning is accelerated and people can retain information better than they would in a traditional training class or seminar. And since LinkedIn research shows that "heavy learners"​ are more confident, successful, and happy at work, you should consider every possible to encourage more learning in the workplace.

2. Motivate Action in the Workplace

Sitting around in meetings is a thing of the past. People today want to take active roles in their career and their training. People learn best by doing and gamification motivates everyone to act. 

3. Encourage Social Connections

Many gamification elements include a competitive touch, which allows employees to compete against each other and create a chance to bond while learning important aspects of their job. It’s all about helping people feel like part of the team.

4. Connect to Company Culture

When employees feel engaged, they feel like they belong. They are more inclined to learn and grow with a company that makes them feel connected to a culture that promotes growth and development. Today’s employees demand engagement and culture, and this is one fun way to offer it. 

These are just a few of the reasons so many companies are turning to gamification as a means to help with onboarding and other areas of training. Up next, we’ll discuss some of those areas.

5 Example Areas of Gamification in Corporate Training

Although you can technically gamify just about anything, there are some areas where it is more effective than others. In the corporate world, this process is most often used in the areas below. 

1. Onboarding

New hires need as much engagement and encouragement as possible. You want them to know that your company is a great place to work, right off the bat. What better way to do that than with gamification of their new hire training?

If work is fun, they’ll strive to be the best they can and you’ll have better employees from day one. You can add a points system to training quizzes, have people play games instead of just taking tests, and so much more.

2. Employee Engagement

As mentioned above, today’s employees want to be engaged and feel like they’re part of something. When you are trying to build relationships and connect your teams, especially in the highly remote world of today, it’s helpful to have games and fun ways to engage.

Gamification can be used for simple training refreshers, or even just as a fun way to have a team-building day, such as with a virtual scavenger hunt.

3. Sales 

Promoting sales development is the backbone of many companies. However, the old methods of sales training are not as effective.

Using gamification, people can be rewarded with points or pitted against each other in sales contests. In fact, we’ve seen the latter done for decades-- people have been using sales contests, competitions, and giveaways to promote business and encourage their sales teams to improve their skills and generate more profits. 

4. Compliance

Compliance training is, by and large, one of the most difficult and tedious training modules for any organization. There’s hardly a fun way to train people on regulations, guidelines, laws, and other compliance issues.

However, there are ways that you can now gamify that training, such as creating safety games or having competitions to see who knows the new state laws for your industry best. 

5. Leadership

Leadership training is all about creative engagement. After all, you teach by example. If you provide your leaders with fun, gamified ways to expand their skills and improve their abilities, they will respond in kind.

People like feeling like they’re “leveling up” and not just moving forward in their careers. When you gamify their training and practice, you’re giving them exactly that. This area can even use departments as “teams” to create all kinds of fun games and competitive opportunities. 

5 Examples of Gamification Being Used by Companies

Some companies are already putting these efforts into play. There are all kinds of personal and professional apps out there that are designed to gamify everyday things to make them more enjoyable, help people develop better habits, and more. Here are some of the best examples of gamification on the market today.

1. Scavify

This virtual scavenger hunt app and platform is gamifying engagement and team-building for all types of corporate training and employee bonding. The site has a ton of pre-made hunts to choose from or you can have a custom one designed specifically for your team.

This is great for new hire training, team building days, special events or occasions, or even just to give employees the day off and do something a little different and fun.

2. Foursquare

Foursquare was the original social gamification website, built entirely around the premise that gamifying the process of verifying online and physical locations would get people to provide valuable data without the company having to pay for it. Sure enough, the company grew 10 times its size in just five years with gamification added, allowing people to earn points and unlock achievements for using the website or platform.

3. 007 Goldeneye

While this is a bit unconventional, it proves the value of gamification. The movie release was fine, but the video game that was supposed to promote the movie became an icon in and of itself. By gamifying the Bond franchise with such a good game, Nintendo64 actually contributed to the new market where video games are four times more profitable than movies. If you say “Goldeneye”, most people think of the video game first, thanks to gamification. 

4. Todoist

Todoist is just one of the many virtual productivity tools available today, but it’s one that uses gamification quite effectively. The app rewards you for completing tasks and getting things done on schedule, and then you can use those points to cash in for rewards.

This app is great for personal productivity, and it can even be incorporated in the workplace as part of employee growth and development.

5. Duolingo

Duolingo helps people learn a second language of their choice through a variety of science-based methods. The app is free, and is also available in a desktop format.

Gamification Apps and Platforms

So, we’ve convinced of the value of gamification and you’re ready to apply it to your organization. Using an app and platform gives you so many advantages.

It helps automate the entire process and makes it easy to set up for all users. Plus, it makes it easy to organize programs, games, and employees.

There are tons of existing programs and platforms out there to choose from when you want to add gamification to your corporate training, but some are going to serve you better than others. 

Now that you’re more familiar with the gamification industry, here are some tips to help you choose the best platforms and apps for your corporate needs. 

How to Choose an App Platform

The first thing that you will want to consider is how the platform will benefit your employees or your company.

For example, an app like Todoist can promote productivity, organization, and self-management. This can be a great way to encourage growth and development in your teams.

Apps like Scavify can help gamify new hire onboarding, employee engagement programs, and other corporate training programs. You essentially design journeys for employees to go through consisting of interactive challenges (snapping photos, taking videos, answering quiz questions, scanning QR codes, and answering survey questions). Employees then get points for completing these challenges to progress through levels and earn rewards.

Make sure that the apps and platforms are easy to use and designed to be engaging and entertaining for people. The last thing you want is to turn your efforts at fun into a struggle. That will defeat the purpose of gamification-- if people aren’t having a good time, they’re not going to be learning or improving as much as they could be.

You can find gamification apps and platforms available for things like:

• Personal and professional development
• Onboarding
• Sales training
• Leadership training
• Compliance training
• Team building and engagement activities

Consider what you want to gain, how you want to get people involved, and which apps or platforms will best serve to accomplish those goals. 

The Benefits of Gamification in Corporate Training

With all of these new platforms and tools that create learning opportunities for your team, there are a host of benefits that come along.

Games have proven to help increase learning retention and offer a healthy competition for your teams. Plus, now more than ever, it’s a great way for teams to feel connected and engaged to make learning more fun in a stressful world.

The reason that many companies are turning to gamification is that it offers so many benefits:

1. Increased Information Retention

The more interactive and fun something is, the easier it is for people to learn. Think about how much faster kids learn things with all the games and interactive ways they play. Adding fun to learning is a great way to make it stick better. 

2. Improved Engagement

Instead of wondering whether employees are even paying attention to a training class, you can trust that everyone’s engaged and having a good time. This ensures that people will actually be learning and not just checking a box for showing up to a class.

3. Real-World Application

Adding gamification to corporate training can also give you the chance to show people the real-world application of the skills or things that they are learning. Learning things in theory is hard, but learning things in practice makes them easier to remember and helps people perform better overall.

4. Improved Image and Culture

When employees feel engaged and included as a part of their training, at any level, they are going to feel more like the company cares for them and respond in kind. This gives the company a better image and helps foster the ideal company culture that today’s employees demand. 

5. Instant Feedback

Using gamification allows you to instantly see what’s working and what isn’t, as well as ways that you can improve training. People will not want to avoid telling you how they almost slept through the last meeting. They will be happy to tell you how fun it was to win that training game and get a free day off, though. 

The Bottom Line

Gamification can be an intimidating concept for those who are new to it. However, when you break it down, you’ll see that it’s really just about making traditional learning a little more fun and engaging.

For today’s employees and companies, this is more valuable than ever. Whether you’re looking for new ways to engage remote teams, a better training plan for the future, or even just a way to improve your company culture, this is one way to get there.

Check out all of the ways that you can incorporate gamified elements in your corporate training and start leveling up your organization today.