Would workers be more motivated if they "leveled up" after reaching a certain sales quota? Some companies are trying it.
I frequently write in this space about free web games to play at work, but would the temptation to goof off with video games be as strong if work WAS the video game?
That's what Paul Johnson, CEO of Entellium is trying to do.
According to an article in the New York Times, Entellium is developing customer management software that tries to take advantage of the competitive nature of sales people.
The software, called Rave, shows the employee the "sales stages" they're completing (beating levels) and allows them to build a database of clients using the customer's photo (avatar) along with a list of their likes and dislikes (similar to stats in a role-playing game.)
It's an interesting idea for a motivation hack that could work well for people working mundane jobs.
Imagine a call centre where employees see a status bar on their screen that shows their productivity, especially if it showed them comparison to their co-workers. Competitive nature would most likely kick-in. Then when their status goes up high enough, they "level up" (hopefully with an increase in real-life salary.)
Going to work in order to "beat the next level" may very well the drudge more exciting.
Now if only I could find a way to turn writing into a video game. Though editing would be easy: a crosshair to move around and article and shoot down all the grammatical errors.
