The stereotypical image of a gamer is a young adult male, interacting with digital friends via a violent multiplayer game, without ever leaving his living room. In reality, the employees of some of the world’s biggest companies could all be considered gamers in that they engage in competition or recognition schemes – ‘gamification’ – in the course of doing their jobs.

Though the word itself seems at once a sophisticated and banal way to describe a cultural movement that began – on digital platforms, at least – with Atari’s revolutionary Pong in 1972 and has evolved throughout the decades to include such luminaries as Mario and Luigi, Sonic the Hedgehog, Lara Croft and Donkey Kong. The entertainment value of games is what draws people to them, but, in recent years, they have also influenced the way internal communicators reach unengaged workforces.

Gamification is a new word for an old concept. Global business gamification agency Badgeville defines the moniker, “Gamification is the concept of applying game mechanics and game design techniques to engage and motivate people to achieve their goals.” From as early as the 1890s companies like Cracker Jack and Monopoly have been encouraging loyalty among customers through the collection of stamps in return for rewards. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is based around the concept of a gamified promotion; with the Golden Ticket acting as the winning piece and a visit to Wonka’s factory the reward. Even coffee shop punch cards and airline loyalty programmes borrow from gaming techniques.

Yet it wasn’t until the 1970s and later that businesses began to use gamification on a wider scale, usually for the internal audience. Thus, internal communicators are generally positive about gamification. At a yearly internal comms event, the Big Yak, communicators discussed gamification in detail. They pointed to its success in making corporate messaging fun on or offline. But they note the risk inherent in getting it wrong. Implement an unsuccessful programme with no budget and the results will be worse, compared with traditional methods. Jade Eva, now internal comms manager at Transport for London, tweeted at the time, “Gamification: The holy grail of internal comms, IF you get it right.”

The CIPR’s social media panel shared its thoughts on gamification, “Gartner had predicted that by 2014, 80% of gamification apps would fail. Why? Because they’d fail to understand the motivations of the audience. People don’t want a digital high five or a gold coin. They want freedom, a sense of purpose, and the ability to learn something new.”

Yet those who implement gamification ensure things go right. Consultancy and IT services firm Capgemini’s global CTO for digital, Cliff Evans, says gamification fails when it is poorly designed and managed. But, the first task is to get leaders on board, “The first challenge is the name. It instantly conjures images of people playing games at work. After this it is the perception that there is a lack of empirical proof that gamification actually works and can deliver ROI. Thankfully, this is no longer the case with more and more case studies citing figures all the time.”

Badgeville’s technology executive Laura Lilyquist says leaders inherently understand gamification, though they struggle to find a way in which to implement it. She says, “Solid gamification solutions always start with business objectives. Those objectives are then turned into measurable results that gamification can drive.”

Steve Murgatroyd, creative communications specialist at IC consultancy Vista, agrees, “If done properly it can create huge value, you need to make sure that it ties back to real business benefit and not just gamification for the sake of it. If you do it right then you should end up with employees who are more knowledgeable, engaged and committed to doing the right thing.”

The experts clearly advise: get it right. For companies like eBay, TfL, EE, Matalan though, getting it right requires a deep understanding of the type of workforce, its motivations and relationships with the business and a clear set of objectives that can reasonably be achieved through gamification strategies.

EE’s future thinking group cites successful smartphone apps like Angry Birds as a means to harnessing digital technology for use in the workplace. The same strategies and psychologies behind such addictive games, it says, can be used effectively for internal communications.

Involve, an employee engagement agency, worked with eBay on changing the UK workforce’s engagement with the business. Ashley Freeman, head of sales and marketing at Involve, says eBay had the explicit goal of increasing understanding and awareness of company communications. In setting these goals, it was able to use gamification to great success, through a mixture of peer nominations and recognition and rewards. “It was linked to engagement and involvement within the business. The key metric was about driving nominations and getting more people to nominate their peers. Through gamifying the process, we smashed those numbers.” eBay’s ‘Heroes Finder’ campaign sent real-life superheroes across Europe to encourage employees in 10 offices in seven countries to nominate their peers as heroes of the business. The campaign achieved 655 nominations, comprising 45% of the workforce.

He adds, “With any piece of communication, the holy grail is all about ROI and business impact.” Murgatroyd says once leaders understand gamification’s ability to achieve positive ROI, they are less likely to think of gamification as simply their employees playing games at work.

Yet what worked for eBay is not a one-size-fits-all. Non-deskbound workforces or companies with mixed workforces require a different approach. Some businesses have used e-learning techniques to improve games and enhance the ability of new starters or existing employees to understand their roles within the business. In 2013, cosmetics company Lush used a gamified system of challenges and rewards to help train employees and build skills ahead of the busy Christmas quarter.

EDF Energy, a massive international business with both office-based and mobile employees, created a gamification portal, alongside Capgemini, that shared features with social media. This allowed for mobile apps to be developed and rolled out to the diverse workforce. This then encouraged staff to think about EDF’s goals and start suggesting their own ideas on how to make the company better. As a result, 117 ideas were generated, versus 23 through traditional means, and 97% of respondents were in favour of gamification for its ability to improve knowledge sharing and collaboration among employees.

Evans says, “A key benefit is that gamification can help to break down the barriers that often stand in the way of adoption of new ideas or ways of working. The same can be said for ideas or activities that people may not instinctively find interesting. Gamification can be used to make them more engaging and even fun when done really well!”

Involve used a training-based framework for GSK’s marketing department to encourage understanding and adoption of new marketing practices and guidelines, to great success. Matalan, too, has deployed gamification to train staff ahead of the opening of its new London flagship on Oxford Street. The goal was to prepare Matalan’s managers and staff for the demands they would face upon opening. The portal included training on customer service techniques through video and interactive competitive elements.

Digital has done a world of good for improving the profile of gamification and its penetration into workplace communications.

But competition thrives beyond technology.

Lilyquist says digital has, “Raised the bar for enterprise software.” But its history goes deeper, “The first wave of gamification was in customer loyalty applications. This wave used gamification as part of the marketing mix to drive brand engagement. While those opportunities still exist, the larger market is now for gamification to engage employees in business processes. Studies show that two-thirds of employees are disengaged. This is large productivity cost to employers. Employers are interested in any technology that can improve workplace engagement.”

Freeman agrees, “I think gamification is pigeonholed within tech but I don’t think it necessarily needs to be. The term gamification seems to now exist and people apply it to an online environment, but if you were to scrutinise the term altogether, we’ve been gamifying content for years. People become more interested and are willing to engage with [communications].”

Video games, while the most prominent example of the concept known as gamification, are not the only form of its usage. In eBay’s case, the entire communications process was gamified and turned into a competitive journey. Training systems are not games, but e-learning processes imbued with competitive elements. What has changed, Murgatroyd points out, is that gamification is no longer the IC flavour of the week, “If anything it’s been spoken about a bit less recently…Maybe that’s because it’s becoming more accepted within comms?” All signs point to yes, as internal communicators, HR and employee engagement teams can better explain and prove its benefits.

To those who create gamification platforms and to those employing them in a business setting, it really is all about ROI. Evans says, “The bottom line is any area can benefit. There are a lot of good examples of the use gamification in areas like recruitment and customer support. HR is a growth area at the moment, after all gamification is all about people.”