A fresh look at workplace performance management

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In certain environments the workforce is made up of younger people. They are more likely to be motivated by the kinds of activities that speak to their experience. Since so many played (or still play) console games, this experience can be used effectively to appeal to them.

Creating meaning for Millennials

Take a quick look at the success of Pokémon GO: the game has taken the globe by storm in less than two weeks. While that’s notable on its own, what is getting people talking is that Millennials are leaving their homes to go and explore their environments in search of the game’s characters. This goes to show that successfully targeting a particular segment of the population can have a real impact – in this case it’s success is even disrupting their lifestyle patterns.

In the same way, the office environment can be adapted to be more meaningful to younger employees. Using gaming principles in a different environment, or gamification, speaks to those employees’ needs as it taps into their competitive energy as they compete for social recognition for themselves and others. This works particularly well within a contact centre environment.

Dashboard benefits

Using a dashboard that is styled like a console game, the agents can monitor their own progress through the day, week and month. If they’re achieving their goals, they are awarded badges, these goals could be for training goals, product knowledge, sales deals closed or customer queries resolved.

Even more than that, managers can also see those dashboards and monitor and compare performance within teams. The variables used to set up the dashboard also have the potential to provide company-wide insights that may contribute to improving the bottom line. If set up correctly, analytics can drill down to the meaningful data that indicates what’s really going on within departments.

A secondary benefit, one which is not much used in SA is in promoting the physical wellness of employees. Sedentary disruption activities appear as prompts through the dashboard at appropriate times of the day, getting the employee out of their desk to stretch and walk around for a couple of minutes.

Central to all of these is to maintain a fresh approach to performance that takes into account the individual in terms of mental and physical health. A holistic approach provides an atmosphere that is more conducive to productivity.