Making gamification even easier – get to know your employees

By Brandon Marsico, Lucas Systems

Gamification is more than just a concept designed to make your workplace fun. It vastly boosts productivity, engagement, and retention through the implementation of game mechanics to keep employees motivated. Understanding a bit more about your workers’ personalities and “gamer types” can help make the implementation of any feedback process or gamification program even easier ensuring a successful transition with your employees.

A competitive advantage to attract and retain workers

It’s no surprise that warehouse workers find the concept of gamification beneficial to their own careers. A recent survey by Lucas Systems found that 84% of warehouse employees are more likely to stay with a company that developed a program featuring competition in their workplace. With competition being one of the main driving forces of interest behind a game in any form, it’s easy to see why gamification is becoming more and more popular with warehouse workers.

Understanding player types and game mechanics

There are four different player-types in a game: Explorers, killers, achievers, and socializers.

These are similar to a DISC assessment, which is a common personality test that measures four main personality traits (Dominant, Influencer, Steady, Conscientious) to help people understand their behavior in the workplace. Based on concepts advanced by William Moulton Marston, the DISC assessment is a way to uncover your strengths, weaknesses and preferences, and help your team work better together. However, It doesn’t always take a full DISC assessment to know where your employees fall among the personality spectrum, but it does help to know about the different gamer types, DISC personality types, and what motivates them so you can incorporate the best gamification mechanics that you think will resonate the most with your staff.

Explorers typically gravitate to open-world role-playing games (Elder Scrolls and Starfield) where the focus of the game puts the player in an alternative universe where they follow a non-linear path to create their own and/or follow multiple dynamic storylines built within the game based on the player’s actions and decisions. These games do not consist of multiple levels, but a singular persistent virtual world that the player can mold as their own using the game mechanics available. Employees with C-type personalities may be more prone to being an explorer-type player over others for a couple reasons. C-types are analytical thinkers and they enjoy solving puzzles independently (puzzles can be a core feature of exploration games). In addition, these games are typically single player focused, which means they do not support or contain any multiplayer game elements. This is ideal for C-types, as they prefer to work independently.

To appeal to the explorer player type in a warehouse setting, you can implement game mechanics that emphasize discovery, curiosity, and the satisfaction of uncovering new knowledge or experiences. For example, place hidden challenges or Easter eggs around the warehouse. These could be small tasks or puzzles that, when discovered and solved, provide rewards such as badges, points, or even tangible rewards. You could also possibly introduce a system of collectibles scattered throughout the warehouse. These could be virtual items that employees collect through a mobile app by scanning QR codes or physical tokens. Collecting a complete set could unlock special rewards.

The killer-type is a player that enjoys games with fast-paced action where one needs to rely heavily on intuition and reflexes to overcome an adversary. These games are very combat and competition heavy, think Call of Duty and Battlefield series, and action role-playing games (Dark Souls and Diablo series). These games follow a more pre-defined linear story path with multiple levels and/or tiers of difficulty to test players’ skill as they work through the game. This type of player remains engaged with these of games due to the use of leaderboards, ranking systems, and badges that clearly display the player’s aptitude against others.

When correlating to the DISC assessment, this player-type and mechanics may appeal more to someone considered to have a Type D personality. These personalities are more dominant, direct, and decisive, placing high value in challenges. Bottom line, D personalities thrive on competition and they want to win. You may also find S personalities under this player type. S personalities tend to be motivated by steady progress towards a goal which action role-playing games typically offer mechanics to support.

To appeal to this player type in a warehouse setting, you can implement game mechanics that emphasize competition, dominance, and the thrill of outperforming others. Regularly recognizing and rewarding the MVPs of the warehouse, or organize team-based competitions that encourage collaboration while still fostering a competitive spirit are other possible areas of engagement.

The next player-type we are going to examine are called socializers. These players gravitate towards games with online multiplayer and other social elements that connect players with each other. Socializers are found in almost any genre of game with social elements involved including, player-versus-player competition, player-versus-environment cooperative gameplay, text and voice chat support, challenges requiring teamwork and collaboration, the formation of “guilds” or “clans” which are groups of players with a commonly shared interest within the game.

Those with an I-style personality may be more inclined to be a socializer in video gaming because they are typically very upbeat and collaborative, consistently seeking novelty.

To appeal to the socializer in a warehouse setting, you can implement game mechanics that emphasize social interaction, collaboration, and community building. Things like team-based challenges, social leaderboards, recognition and celebrations, and communication platforms such as chat groups, forums, or social networks where employees can share experiences, offer support, and build relationships.

Lastly, there are achievers. Like socializers, achievers can be found across many genres of games. The key differentiator with achievers is that their focus is typically on reaching a predefined goal or “achievement” within a game. A prime example of achievement systems are the Microsoft Xbox and Sony PlayStation Gamerscore and trophy systems. There can also be collectable virtual points, badges, and cosmetic upgrades to their virtual avatar that they can show off to other players. This is a way for players to earn prestige with other gamers in the community.

This playing style can appeal to multiple personality types. D style personalities may enjoy the additional challenge obtaining a video game achievement entails while C personalities may possess the critical thinking and determination to complete the challenge.

For these workers, think of achievement badges and recognition, progression levels, monthly or quarterly awards and detailed feedback and reviews.

So what types of gamification or games mechanics are best?

Most players are not entirely singular to one player-type, but enjoy numerous features from games that cater to multiple player-types. For this reason, it’s important to incorporate a mix of mechanics within your feedback and gamification implementations including leaderboards, competition, incentives, rewards, recognition, fun, and teamwork/collaboration. This will help each personality and gamer type to find their specific motivators within the gamification environment. Periodically adjusting or changing the elements of gamification implementations can also help to keep things fresh and interesting for employees.

Another crucial aspect from our gamification research is the significance of employee recognition as a powerful motivator. While incentives boost participation, many workers primarily seek acknowledgment for their positive contributions to the organization. This recognition doesn’t need to be elaborate or costly. Additionally, trust is fundamental to gamification success. Employees may be wary of gamification resembling excessive surveillance. Over 42% of non-supervisory employees in the survey indicated that excessive management oversight would deter them from participating in gamification. If gamification is designed for supervisors rather than employees, it can lead to dissatisfaction instead of increased engagement.

Engagement comes from recognition; good relationships with colleagues; satisfaction of achievement and more. It’s about creating an environment that wins the worker, as we explained in our Competing for the warehouse workforce of the future insights. As a leader, are you spending time out on the warehouse floor, talking and engaging with your staff to learn what motivates them? Might personality assessments help you better gauge what kind of players they are and what core mechanics will resonate with them? Talk to your staff, get to know them, and learn their player and personality types so you can onboard a gamification, or any employee engagement program that you know will have a positive impact.

Brandon Marsico is a dynamic and analytical professional with a diverse background, encompassing nearly a decade of experience in strategic digital marketing and project management across various industries. A U.S. Army combat veteran, Brandon has transitioned his leadership skills and disciplined approach to the civilian sector, currently specializing in supply chain and distribution.

Throughout his career, Brandon has established himself as a natural leader with a proven track record of dramatically driving revenue, expanding market presence, and enhancing online visibility and positioning. His expertise lies in leveraging data-driven insights to build high-performance teams and design custom, scalable SEO strategies and digital campaigns that align with clients’ and organizations’ visions, missions, and long-term business objectives.