Note: Today’s post is part of our ‘Editor’s Picks’ series in which we highlight recent posts from our sponsors that provide supply chain insights and advice. This article comes from Ben Smeland, Senior Software Engineer, at Lucas Systems, and looks at gamification in the warehouse.
While labor issues are prompting many organizations to accelerate their efforts in exploring automation and technology, a rather interesting and somewhat outside the norm technology that shows potential and is being used by some organizations such as Amazon to improve employee engagement and retention is gamification.
Gamification is defined as “the application of typical game elements (eg, scoring, competing with others, game rules) to other areas of activity”, in this case, work. While this may not be a priority for many DC operators in terms of priority technology investments, based on some recent survey results, it may be worth exploring. In a survey by talent lms, 81% of respondents said gamification provides a sense of belonging and purpose in the workplace, while 89% of respondents said gamification drives competition and motivation. ‘enthusiasm.
Gamification makes warehouse tasks interesting and employees more engaged. It’s a creative solution to the industry-wide challenge of retaining your warehouse workers despite the current labor shortage. There are several ways to take advantage of gamification techniques to make typically repetitive tasks more interesting. Let’s look at some of these ways through the lens of the three pillars of gamification.
3 pillars of gamification
Because everyone is different in terms of needs and motivations, gamification is not a one-size-fits-all solution. Mixing a number of approaches that cover the components of each person’s motivation can help you develop a successful pattern. This is where the three main pillars of gamification come in: personal pride, socialization and competition.
The first one, personal pride, is essentially the simple act of feeling good about being recognized. No one competes for this and it may only concern the individual worker. It can include things like a prompt or message letting you know you’re doing better than target rates that have been set, or you’re tracking to set a personal best. In the event of a personal best, he can even bring out a touch of the 3rd pillar, competition.
A lab experiment in which two elements of gamification, goal setting and feedback, were implemented in a wearable warehouse management system (WMS) interface to examine their effect on engagement and user performance in an article preparation task, concluded that gamification can successfully increase employee engagement, at least in the short term. Results also showed that the integration of self-set goals and feedback game elements had the greatest potential to generate long-term intrinsic motivation and meaningful engagement, leading to increased employee engagement and performance. employees.
To read the full article, click here.
