Gamification as a tool for workforce retention

- How can training become a tool for retention?

Tamás Pintér: The accelerated world is also being felt in the training market. Customers are increasingly demanding that we take employees out of work for as short a period as possible. HR managers want to find the most time-efficient solution possible: to train employees to a high professional standard, with a good schedule, and in a cost-effective way. With changing market conditions - war, energy crisis, inflation - HR budgets will be squeezed in many places, so those who can and want to continue to spend on training will have a strong competitive advantage and a choice in the market. I think professional training will come to the fore, as well as competency development that is short (for example half a day or 4 to 5 days) and online. Skills development and training courses requiring several days of face-to-face presence have become a luxury. Both the profession and the market are looking for a healthy balance between what training can be delivered online and when face-to-face is essential.

Skills development through play

- A few hours or even half a day is rarely enough to change behaviour and develop certain skills in a lasting way. How to reconcile "pressing" market needs with real results

Tamás Pintér: Closing yourself for several days in a classic training session focusing on a single topic or skill has its drawbacks as well as its obvious advantages. The advantage is that such an intensive training gives the opportunity to go deeper, it creates a topical effect, but the immediate feedback is usually missing. In contrastthe continuity of shorter, continuous training phases of up to 15 minutes, when a topic is returned to regularly, and everyday events are woven into the development, can be more effective. Moreover, in a fast-paced world, people are exposed to a wide range of stimuli, so the ability to filter them is an important question. The good thing about focused, retreat-based training is that it deals only with the here and now, while online skills development caters to the fast-paced 21st century. In this case, you have to focus on something for a quarter of an hour, and the rest of the time is left for work and other tasks. Covid has brought us many solutions that we didn't think were possible before. For example, two and a half, three years ago, there wasn't really a culture of solving problems online. In the training sessions, we completed the tests on the spot, while precious minutes passed. Now the participant comes to the training having already completed the relevant test online, so we only need to focus on what we need to improve in the training, with the information we already have.

- The much talked about many stimuli, short time, maintaining attention requires different methods and tools in a fast-paced world. Something that is interesting, exciting. Is this where gamification can help?

Tamás Pintér: It's very easy to capture attention, there are many psychologically sound, tried and tested exercises. Advertising, social media and of course online games exploit this. Today, especially among the younger generation, there is hardly anyone who has not played a game on their smart device.

Gamification gamification (gamification - editor) is about constantly bringing the participant back and placing him/her in a world with which he/she can easily identify, yet still play a role. In addition, they also receive continuous feedback, in whatever form - collecting tokens or points - to continuously improve their virtual character. This is a culture, because it is the world we live in, and it is the duty of the profession to be able to use this resource to its advantage. The key difference between gamification and live training is that gamification encourages people to make development a habit. It rewards the software for returning to it. In other words, it is addictive, and it is the goal that decides whether the habit is used for good. Gamification relies on basic psychological tools, so it works for people who are not used to this world or who have not played games before. Someone who has missed the world of computer games in their life, and stumbles into a gamified skill-building session at a workplace development session, will be just as engaged because of the psychological grounding, and may even develop a good sense of competition between colleagues.

Tamás Pintér will also give a presentation at the Training Roundtable Conference on 3 October, where he will introduce their gamification-based skills development programme.