Utilizing serious games in corporate training is a strategy that has been around for a while. Over the years, it has proven to be one of the most effective approaches to deliver fun and engaging online training.
It’s more like learning in disguise. That means on the outside they are merely an online game that focuses on delivering fun and entertainment. However, on the inside, they are driving and motivating employees to acquire new skills and knowledge.
Apart from that, they can help boost your employee retention ability. However, many companies see training generally as a financial drain, so much so that it’s the first to take a hit when left with a low budget.
What if I told you that you don’t have to cut down on your training because of your budget? What if I told you that there are ways you can increase your corporate training ROI through serious games.
In this article, we’ll be exploring the different ways of boosting your corporate training ROI through serious games. Hopefully, you can find a reason why you should incorporate serious games in order to increase your business profitability.
Employee engagement and knowledge retention
One way to increase your corporate training ROI through serious games is by focusing on your employee engagement. Serious games are popular because of their proven success in engaging learners and helping them acquire knowledge.
If serious games are well designed, they can serve as tools to motivate your learners to complete specific online courses. Besides, you can also utilize them to develop sticky training for your employees.
If they can acquire knowledge and retain it, they can apply it to their job, hence increasing your business productivity.
Focus on learning outcomes
Designing serious games is not just about employee engagement, you need to focus each level on a specific learning objective. So, to increase your corporate training ROI through serious games, you need to focus on both business and employee learning goals.
Firstly, you’ll have to take your time and consider your business goals, which is increasing your training ROI. Secondly, research your employees to determine the type of serious game formats they crave.
Also, you should research the type of learning experience and platform they prefer. Putting that together, you can be sure of delivering training that caters to their needs and also boosts your corporate training ROI.
Offer flexibility
By offering flexibility, you can increase your corporate training ROI through serious games. With the increasing rate of mobile usage, most employees prefer to play mobile games.
So ensure that you utilize the right technology and design your serious games to be responsive to different devices and browsers. By so doing, you can offer your employees/players the flexibility to learn anytime, irrespective of their location.
Cost-effectiveness
Although creating serious games requires money upfront, it’s cost-effective in the long run. That’s because you can use it over and over again to deliver training and achieve an expected boost in your training ROI.
There are many serious game authoring tools that you can use to design engaging serious games. Opt for one that has reusability features. By so doing, you are able to save money while achieving the same results.
Implement feedback system
Implementing a feedback system can also help you increase your corporate training ROI. Feedback is an essential tool for continuous improvement. It can also help you increase the completion rate of your serious games.
When your employees play your serious games and fail a particular level, you can give them feedback/hints that enable them to progress. However, you need to ensure that it is relevant to the employee’s real-life tasks.
Also, you must add feedback in order to explain why one option is better than the other. By so doing, your employees will be able to understand the effect their problem-solving patterns have on their real-life jobs.
Introduce a set of rules
If you want to increase your corporate training ROI, you should introduce a set of rules for your games. Humans are attracted to rules, and as such, setting rules can help you bring your training to life.
Ensure you relate with your game design teams and find a good way to lay down your rules.
Conclusion
If your organization is on a strict budget, cutting down your training is not the right move. Instead, you should follow the above tips to improve your serious games and increase your training ROI.
1st published in eLearning Industry.
