What is Learning & Development?

Learning and development is a systematic process that aims to improve an employee’s skills, knowledge, and competency so that they may perform better at work. Learning is concerned with the acquisition of information, skills, and attitudes in particular. Development is the process of extending and developing one’s knowledge in order to achieve one’s development objectives.

What is Gamification?

Gamification is the application of game-inspired design and mechanics into a non- gaming environment. Its purpose is to increase motivation and engagement levels for users, to drive behaviour change and achieve specific goals. Since the term was first coined in 2003, it has continued to grow in prominence. In fact, if you examine the hard data, it suggests that gamification trends have now crossed over into the mainstream.

Today, companies worldwide are now using it to great effect to enhance user engagement and productivity.

Gamification in Learning & Development

With the help of gamification, the L&D teams in various organizations can accelerate the learning and upskilling process. The benefits of gamification include:

• Participant’s learning experience becomes more adaptive and personalized

• Knowledge gap can be identified and subsequently fixed

• Increased participation and engagement, motivating the employees to complete the training

• Application based learning modules

• Improved retention which can help the employees to apply the learnings in real life work scenarios

• Can help establish a positive employer brand image

• Helps create a knowledge sharing environment

Fujitsu Gamification Journey

Fujitsu Limited is a Japanese multinational corporation based in Tokyo that provides information technology services and communication technology equipment. Founded in 1935, it is currently the largest in Japan and the 8th largest IT service provider in the world. It employs around 132,138 employees and provides its services in 180 countries.

In 2014, through its development programs, Fujitsu Spain division discovered that game-based learning is the best instrument for training its employees in new skills and competencies. Gamification as a tool can meet the challenges that Fujitsu Spain’s Human Resources Department was facing concerning its talent development program. Through gamification, Fujitsu has improved on the results of training models and ensured effective learning by three different categories of employees.

Challenges Faced by the HR Department

Fujitsu Spain HR department had to address four major challenges before implementing the development programs that they planned.

Generational Difference

Fujitsu Spain employs almost 1,700 professionals across generations. Employees beyond the age of forty have the same work and have the same obligations as millennials. As a result, the Human Resources Department’s primary challenge was to manage and train a workforce composed of significantly different generations.

Three distinct groups with distinct requirements

High potential employees and key performance individuals are classified into two groups in Fujitsu’s talent development program. Two distinct groups, each with its own set of requirements, interests, and possibilities.

High potential employees have the potential to rise within the organization, whereas key performers are important to the company but have no desire to advance their careers or take on new roles and responsibilities.

There is a third group as well, the company’s 180 managers, each with their own set of demands, circumstances, and time available for professional development within the organization.

The vast geographic dispersion of workforce

Providing standardized training to a geographically dispersed staff is a big challenge for global organizations like Fujitsu. Furthermore, due to the high costs and the fact that employees are often not available to attend training at the same time, classroom training is no longer an option.

Taking a stand against the status quo

The fundamental purpose of Fujitsu’s HR Department was to introduce a completely new approach to talent management and development. Fujitsu used innovation to break away from traditional training methods and provide new learning spaces for employees to design and define their own development within the company.

Therefore, one of the objectives was to encourage people to take charge of their own learning and development.

Gamified Solution to the Problems

Fujitsu addressed the major challenges mentioned previously by implementing GameLearn’s game-based learning development programs.

The solution proposed included:

1. Introduction of innovation in training

2. Promoting learning which is self-directed in nature

3. Including elements to boost motivation

4. Development of new environments for learning

Game-based approach helped the situation by involving three things

1. Practical Content: before implementing the training, the employee is able to use the training and apply it in a safe environment.

2. Simulators: using negotiation, time management and leadership simulators, an employee can perform with confidence due to the absence of risk.

3. Gamification: techniques involving gamification help in personal and group learnings.

To analyse the effectiveness of the newly implemented training methods, Fujitsu used the following indicators:

1. Completion rate: The completion rate of any training determines how many people have completed the whole of the training without dropping out in the middle.

2. Recommendation rate: The number of employees who would want to recommend the training to their peers and friends out of all the employees who had taken the training.

3. Participant feedback: This involves the use of traffic light technique (Shown below) to visually represent the ratings on various parameters. This also involves the applicability rate of the training in real-world scenarios, rated by the employees who completed the training

Shown below are the results of completion rate, recommendation rate and participant feedback for the training conducted by Fujitsu after including the mentioned changes: