There’s a video of a six-year-old boy on YouTube playing Guitar Hero. This kid was blazing fast and didn’t miss a note through the entire song. He certainly didn’t read the directions and then master the steps as he progressed through the more advanced stages. How exactly did he do it?

If a child can learn how to watch a rapidly moving video screen while listening to music and then perform a multitude of synchronous moves – without written or spoken directions –can employees also learn how to do their job in a similar way?

History shows developers have been marrying games and learning for some time now. Granted it had humble beginnings. Everyone remembers the awkward drag and drop interactions where pictures and animated GIFs were used to add a “fun” element. Soon it progressed to answering questions in a game show format, even allowing you to play for prizes or in competition with co-workers.

The latest learning platforms can increasingly resemble top-of-the-line gaming systems.

Today gamification has evolved to learning courses where the employee can be fully immersed into an environment to learn complex tasks before they ever touch the actual software or equipment. According to Gartner Research, 40 percent of the Global 1000 companies reported using gamification as the primary mechanism to improve their business operations. The future also looks pretty exciting where groups of remote employees can virtually enter learning pods and interact as teams in gaming scenarios.

An Interactive Interface Blasts Users’ Frustrations

This brings us to a very interesting junction. With all this great technological gaming knowledge, it’s still rare to see it being used in the gateway of learning: learning management system (LMS) interface! Utilization of the LMS for non-compliance training still averages single digit rates across most industries. But when the platform is designed with the user experience in mind, utilization invariably rises.

Here are a few examples where organizations used gamification in an LMS interface to drive business success while also increasing employee satisfaction.

1. A global pharmaceutical company wanted to get help desk analysts up to speed quicker while also standardizing how to diagnose calls. They utilized a jukebox image with flashing lights, music and employee leaderboard as the home page. Working with stakeholders they used the jukebox selection buttons to direct employees to content in the LMS that correlated to the organizations top 10 help desk inquiries. The results included analysts being “floor ready” in half the time, a central knowledgebase where better educated analysts increased first call resolution by 18 percent and happier employees, which lowered staff turnover by 25 percent.
2. A travel organization wanted employees to be more knowledgeable about the products and services they offered. A worldwide map was used as a Home Page where they were prompted to answer questions from a rotating database. As they successfully answered, their passport was stamped and they flew to different countries. This gamification was accompanied by airplane sounds and music from assorted locales and resulted in higher employee satisfaction and an increase in sales of 17 percent.

The Journey Begins with a Jump

The LMS interface page (otherwise known as the jump page) is a webpage that you or a vendor can create. You can also work with the people in your organization that created your company website for guidance and hosting options. Another tip is to speak with your LMS provider who can provide best practices on keeping current on LMS updates to make sure all of your links continue to perform properly. Finally, consult with stakeholders and gain support for your gaming analogy to entice your users into a new type of learning world.

Game-Based Learning Helps Your Employees Level-Up

In all steps of the learning process, training that feels more like a game has been proven to enhance engagement and knowledge retention. Organizations can benefit greatly in terms of utilization, user engagement and ultimately productivity as they implement game-based tactics into their LMS interface and courseware.

Gamification is a trend that’s here to stay. Now that businesses are catching on, gradually their employees (like that kid on YouTube) will start hitting all the right notes on expert level.