If you watched the recent NBA Draft Lottery, the event had a decidedly Vegas feel. With each of the bottom 14 teams in the league assigned chances based upon reverse order of this year’s record, excitement was created by watching the ping pong balls spin in the lottery machine – and, knowing the odds of the #1 pick for each team, the audience was clearly invested in the process.

This, says Darrin Briggs, President and CEO of Snowfly Incentives, is gamification in action. Gamification has become a common tool in today’s workplace to increase employee productivity, engagement, and job satisfaction.

When you think about it, the principles of gamification are all around us, such as at the grocery store, fitness apps, and Facebook. Briggs defines gamification as “Taking activities in life or in business and adding gaming aspects to an otherwise somewhat mundane activity.” Gamification does not mean playing video games necessarily; but it does involve reinforcing behaviors that will then have a positive outcome for the business and individual.

By creating small, incremental positive behaviors, a cultural shift occurs that moves everyone in the right direction. When these behaviors are tied to business goals, the program is meaningful to staff members. While gamification has taken a foothold in the business world, not all programs are created equally. Briggs estimates that 80 percent of companies administer gamification manually, while 20 percent use some sort of automated program.

Snowfly Incentives is one of these automated programs, offering an employee recognition and incentive system that uses principles of psychology and behavior modification. The business was created in 1999 by Dr. Brooks Mitchell, a behavioral psychologist, who specializes in workplace environments. Computer analysis, and now AI (Artificial Intelligence), utilized by Snowfly quickly determines what’s working, so that changes can be made on the fly for the most effective program tailored to each company.

This is a culture shift in the workplace. As Briggs says “it’s not a manager’s job to motivate people. What you have to do is create an environment where people feel valued and are motivated by whatever motivates them.” Snowfly knows that employees are motivated by different things: for some, it’s money; others prefer time off, the chance to wear jeans at work, a close-up parking spot … the list goes on.

“Our job is to create an environment to motivate people naturally,” says Briggs. “This does not mean you’re playing video games all day. It’s an aspect of taking something that has to do with gaming, but put it into an environment where you don’t see it.”

The Snowfly system has an interface that users log into, with a dashboard displaying their performance of different metrics, leaderboards, and standards. Employees can then “level up” (i.e. work their way up) to earn greater rewards. And Snowfly’s real-time incentives provide immediate rewards – there’s no waiting until the end of the week, month, or quarter to be awarded. Briggs says “If you want to change a behavior, you have to reinforce that behavior as quickly as possible after it was performed.” This goes back to Psychology, and the research of B.F. Skinner and Pavlov.

Another thing that makes Snowfly probably the most unique to the gamification market: by employing Vegas-style principles such as slot-machine style games, an aspect of luck (or chance) increases the effectiveness of the program and the long-term engagement by employees. For various goals met, employees are rewarded with tokens for game play, which then brings possibly larger rewards. The anticipation of the potential reward is part of the fun, and creates buy-in from employees. For employers, the costs are fairly minimal; however, the perceived value, says Briggs, is as much as 40 percent higher than the actual cost.

Gamification creates an environment where both employees and employers find mutual success; a well-placed and administered program is a win-win for all. For more information about Snowfly Incentives, and what they can offer your organization, contact Darrin Briggs at dbriggs@snowfly.com or 1-877-766-9359. Check out their web site, here: Snowfly Incentives.

Want to amp up your output at work and feel energized? Research suggests that listening to upbeat music can bring higher productivity and overall higher feelings of job satisfaction. Give your people the choice of listening to music and watch the work get done!

Rather than piping music that may not appeal to everyone over office speakers, perhaps a better choice would be individual music players (PC, Smartphones, Tablets)– with corresponding headsets – to personalize the experience. Connecting via USB, Bluetooth, or 3.5mm port, our headsets can handle any set-up. With the same headset, take and make phone calls, and stream your music in between. There is no “one size fits all” environment; providing a variety of headsets to choose from will give your staff the chance to choose the one that’s best for them. Perhaps staying within a brand is recommended, to ensure some type of continuity within your organization.

The types of music matter, according to this article from The Telegraph.

Problem-solving or proofreading? Dance music is where it’s at. This genre resulted in a higher overall accuracy and fastest performance across a variety of work tasks. Boogie on down to the best accuracy you’ve ever experienced – and faster!

If you’re working with numbers or extremely detailed information, classical music should be blasting in the background. Spelling errors are also most accurately detected when listening to classical music (12% more!).

To keep up your momentum with data entry tasks, pop music is best. Instrumental, ambient music works well for equation solving. The music tempo can affect productivity – a faster tempo may heighten awareness and produce quicker results; a slower tempo can relax and help you focus on tasks. Overall, though, choosing music that you like best to listen to will ensure your good mood, thus raising your productivity. So, if that music is techno, country, screamo, or Gregorian chants, put that record on and groove.

Wearing a headset could be perceived as rude at your organization (depending upon the environment and expectations) – those with public-facing tasks would probably be discouraged from wearing headsets altogether. Taking regular breaks from wearing a headset may be a good idea to encourage camaraderie with co-workers.

Click on the Comments tab, above, and tell us your favorite music to listen to while you work!

Sources:
"Productivity" Music Works For You
"The Power of Music, Tapped in a Cubicle" New York Times
"Music and Productivity: 5 Ideas for Using Music To Boost Performance" Psychology Today

When your alarm rings each weekday morning, what is your typical response? Do you rush out of bed, excited for the day; or do you tend to “snooze” the alarm a few times, dreading what’s coming next?

If you’re in the latter category, this blog post is for you. Fear not and take heart! We will attempt to help you find hope in your workday. Seven tips from bayt.com just may be the inspiration you need to keep going back to the 9-5 grind (or, the best 8 hours of your day!).

The first is a big picture tip: Clarify your goals. Before you begin, ask yourself what you want to achieve.

Next, establish a game plan to reach those goals. How can you reach your goals? By creating a series of manageable steps that are achievable, provides not only a sense of success, but also a forward momentum that will lead to the ultimate goal. Be sure to ride the wave of success when you reach your goals. It’s easy to forget about the steps that led to your success, and the amount of time it took to get there. This positive wave can then provide the energy to continue onto the next goal. In celebrating success, don’t forget to reward yourself. When you reward yourself, the anticipation of that reward is culminated and a sense of excitement is felt!

As with everything in life, it’s important to keep things in perspective, maintain a healthy work/life balance and most importantly, THINK POSITIVE. Positive thoughts lead to positive actions; a great way to “stay positive” is to recall a moment of success at work, a compliment from a co-worker, or an upcoming day off. Visual reminders, such as displaying positive quotes in your cubicle, can also remind you to think positive.

Tell us what keeps you motivated and excited to go to work each morning on the Comments tab, above!

Angela Garfinkel's recent blog post about the 3 types of employee motivation programs for call center agents provided guidelines for programs that work – in both the short- and long-term. How and when to offer these programs is critical in their overall success toward meeting goals and enhancing productivity in call centers. Another key factor is what to offer for incentives. We gathered a list of ideas for incentives that have had success in various organizations. We would also love to hear about programs that your organizations have implemented that were proven to be beneficial. Please share your successes in our Comments section.

These ideas are listed in order of least to more expensive:
Choice to work on projects they prefer. When an agent has met goals and earned the incentive, giving them a choice in the work that they do helps agent feel in control, and promotes buy-in and interest.

Certificates referring to goal met. Certificates can then be posted in the agent's work space, or a community area, such as break room.

Employee of the Month Parking Spot. This is a particularly valuable incentive if your organization has a large parking lot, and a parking space close to the building would be desirable.

Shift bids. This is an easy one: give agents the chance to bid on a preferred shift time before other employees can bid.

Favorite candy or soda.

Complimentary team lunch. This can be a catered lunch on site, or if possible, meet the team at a restaurant and spend an hour or two eating and getting to know each other.

Money. We found an anecdote on the Internet about a manager who spent his incentive budget on currency in denominations of $1, $5, $20, and $50 bills. Employees would reach in the bag to select their reward. People who selected the $50 got cheers, and the ones who got $5 knew that there were still $50 bills left in the bag!

Company gear. Items such as clothing, mugs, or office supplies can be nice incentives.

Goody bags of useful tools for desk or home. Tape, mini staplers, Post-It notes are a few ideas.

One extra 15-minute break time the day they meet goal. This can provide a nice change of pace for a day.

Small tokens/prizes. Koosh balls, small photo albums, crossword puzzle books or a decorative item for the agent's workspace can be a nice reminder of accomplishment while agents are on calls.

Afternoon snack from a fully-equipped snack cart. How fun to have a cart roll past your desk at an appointed time and you get to choose any snack from the cart!

Gift certificates for massages, manicures, pedicures, movie passes. This idea works if your agents would value these types of gift certificates.

Gift cards to favorite stores or restaurants. Amounts can range from $5 (meeting a daily goal) up to $50.

Fun team activity. Bowling, miniature golfing, volunteering together on a Habitat for Humanity build, attending a hockey game or other sporting event, are just some activities that could build team morale.

Flexible hours, paid time off. This incentive involves your workforce management team, and would be more difficult to implement. For some agents, time is their most valuable resource; giving them some flexibility in their schedule, or an extra day off, could be a powerful motivator to reach goals.

This is not a comprehensive list of incentives, and we are always interested in hearing from you! Have you tried any of these incentives? Do you have a tried and true incentive that works well for your agents? Click on the orange Comments tab at the top of this post and please share your thoughts!