How to raise field staff productivity through gamification

Playing has become a fundamental part of our daily lives. More and more companies are bringing game logic into their services to offer a simple, friendly and familiar way of keeping users engaged and, above all, doing what the business needs them to do.

The closest example today is the rewards programs credit cards run, which give users a particular benefit based on paying on time, spending more and other desired behaviors — always over the long term and built on small mini-rewards. 

Something else we know for certain is that we work better when we are happy and comfortable, which is why smart companies increasingly look at how to take advantage of the growing popularity of games and of the smart devices people use. Is there a way to combine the two and apply them to work to make it simpler and more enjoyable? The answer is yes, and it is called gamification.

The term “gamification” has been around for quite a while, but in recent years it has been successfully adopted by companies in all kinds of fields with the aim of increasing employees' collaboration, commitment and motivation, as well as delivering training and supporting task management. And that is perhaps the key point: through this method, every task a field worker has to do is injected with gamification techniques and becomes a reward for those who complete them on time and accurately. 

But an important clarification is needed here: gamification does not mean turning something into a game, but implementing the fundamental mechanics of a game.

So gamification techniques take a game's core mechanics — a timed challenge or a clock-paced scenario — and apply them to better engage and motivate users toward certain goals. 

Applying gamification in field service companies

For companies that provide field services and are willing to invest budget and time in adopting these systems, gamification delivers many long-term benefits. 

In fact, organizations that use gamification in task management increase employee commitment by 48% and reduce turnover by 36%, according to a study by Aberdeen Group.

Gamification strategies are a way of shaping the behavior and working habits of field service technicians and administrative staff. According to the Aberdeen report, best-in-class field service companies are more than twice as likely to have a gamification strategy in place for their service team — 32% against the industry average (14%). 

For example, companies in renewable energy, IT maintenance of telecom servers and air conditioning can use gamification in their field service software to improve timings and reward the workers who complete their tasks in the shortest time possible, so that what individual workers do directly affects the company's productivity and efficiency. 

Technicians who complete multiple tasks first time can be given a greater number of points. Accumulating points can lead to bigger rewards later on, such as salary bonuses, higher ratings in an annual review or other benefits.

It is worth noting that gamification techniques do not only help companies internally: they are also solutions on the outside, for keeping clients satisfied. Another application of gamification in field service companies relates to customer service and the possibility of clients giving feedback through ratings.

That lets  companies  identify who is performing well and reward the best workers according to their results. The key here is making sure employees get enough feedback and incentives worth participating in, and working with them on both their individual goals and the company's overall ones.

The challenge in geo-management companies

In companies where a central back-office function coexists with a field team carrying out scheduled work, it is very easy for a divide to open up between the two. Unifying them and making sure everyone follows the same procedures can be far harder than in other kinds of business, where staff roles and responsibilities are not so widely varied.  

Even so, making use of common ground can be an excellent way to bring a company together. And that is exactly where gamification is expected to shine. 

Consider some of the common daily tasks: filling in route sheets, entering expenses, recording work, contingency forms. Many of these are routine and tedious, but what would happen if a competitive element were added that raised the sense of recognition and reward for doing them?

The business benefits of gamification

Gamification sets out to apply people's natural tendencies toward motivation, learning, competition and achievement to the benefit of their working environment and workflow. Implementing a good gamification system draws on those natural tendencies and empowers staff to support the company's business goals. 

We have to understand that every human being has three underlying requirements that support and reinforce their behavior: motivations, abilities and triggers. And here is the important part: to drive any behavior, those three factors have to line up.

Let's look in detail at how they interact to produce the strongest effect.

Motivation: positive reinforcement of behavior (usually delivered through quick rewards) is an external agent that increases people's productivity and focus. 

Abilities: these are internal agents that require the user's aptitude, time and mental sharpness to develop. In that sense, if we want to increase their capacity, we can introduce repeated practice, techniques that improve learning, and the breaking down of tasks into simpler subtasks that make progress visible. That way the user meets small objectives on the way to a larger goal.

Triggers: an alert or notification telling the user when to carry out an activity, at a particular moment.

The challenge for companies is arriving at an effective design that incorporates this gamification system in order to keep staff committed to business goals. 

How do you get there? Here are a few tips, focused on field service companies.

The impact of gamification on service automation 

One of the challenges field service companies face daily is adopting software solutions aimed at cutting time and costs through process automation. Bringing those systems in tends to be complicated, since staff commitment is usually tied to a specific interest. So what we need is a way to build commitment and interest that motivates people. Gamification is an excellent tool for that.

Adding gamification elements to the workflow to get the team involved is very straightforward. The important thing, as mentioned, is to include those three behavioral aspects and establish ways of carrying them out and measuring them. Below are five actions that can easily be built into a gamification strategy.

KPIs for motivation:

Here it is important to set performance indicators (KPIs) aligned with the goals being pursued. Each company and team will decide whether those are weekly, monthly or annual KPIs; what matters is that they are clear and defined from the start, since well-defined objectives are essential to any change in behavior aimed at results.

Creating a rewards system is equally vital. Points, badges or personalized prizes: what this produces is a momentum that keeps staff consistent in meeting their objectives. Rewards act as micro-motivators that, in the short and long term, benefit both the worker and the company.

Leaderboards to strengthen abilities: 

Including leaderboards is key to a gamification system: it lets staff see their performance compared with other users and shows the model employees who represent the goals and values the company stands for. It is a very valuable tool for keeping people motivated to improve their skills and their performance over time.

Reward points for continuous training:

Staff using business software tend to focus only on the functions most essential to their daily work. That can mean some features critical to good management get overlooked. Adding gamification techniques helps encourage and persuade staff to stay up to date and trained, since doing so earns them reward points that unlock further benefits. 

Smart notifications to trigger action:

Management software should notify staff intelligently about when and how to use it. In a field automation setting, that might be when the worker checks in on their assigned job. The notification should remind them what their targets are and how many activities they need to complete to earn the maximum points tied to that job.

Why include gamification in geo-management software?

As we have seen, using game mechanics through gamification techniques lets us easily turn mundane tasks into activities people enjoy. That is achieved by always providing positive feedback, which raises motivation levels and strengthens staff abilities.

But we should not overlook implementation, which is essential to a successful gamification system. And good implementation means designing exercises that encourage staff toward the best course of action, repeating actions until the set objective is met, ranking and comparing achievements with others, and providing everyday ways to improve skills and performance.