One of the most challenging parts of managing a remote environment is determining the best approach to get everyone on the same page. Remote work comes with a high price of getting lost in the distinct worlds with different ideas and different goals. In this new and brave remote world, older ways of managing project teams don’t usually work. Unique approaches and strategies are required to solve the problems of every remotely connected employee.

Gamification

Gamification is one such approach that is taking the corporate world by storm.

It is the utilization and application of gaming principles and mechanics to make a task appealing and engaging. These principles incorporate the leader board, leveling system, points system, collaboration, competition or fast feedback, and achievements and rewards.

Gamification is an excellent model that can motivate desired behaviors and improve business outcomes. It works for both on-site employees and remote workers.

Gamification Strategies to Manage a Remote Team

Here are 3 simple gamification strategies that you can utilize to engage remote teams:

1. Take Full Advantage of Your Chat Tool

Using emojis as responses to the comments and posts of others is a powerful way to facilitate engaging, personalized, and minimalistic communication. Ideal chat apps make engagement easy with collaboration-specific features. For instance, file sharing has now become a matter of few drags and drop, hyperlinks automatically generate previews in the chat for a better understanding of the shared information.

Must-have Features of a Chat Application

• Organized conversations
• Universal search with filtering features
• Audio and video chat
• Easy to control and navigate options
• Collaboration

Here is the list of 15 Best Team Chat Apps (To Use in 2020).

2. Create a Badge System

Badges are an excellent method of creating an incentive system to improve employee performance and motivate a team to reach their goals faster. One way of doing this is by giving employees the option to commend their  colleagues by assigning relevant skill-based badges

The focus should be on ‘why’ the badge was earned, in place of ‘who’ acquired the most. Chat tools like Slack have a built-in plugin that incorporates custom badges into your ecosystem with ease.

3. Train Employees with Gamification

Having the right employee onboarding process and training plays an integral part in an organization’s success. By introducing game-based elements to the onboarding process and training, you make them engaging and fun.

Gamification is an excellent approach to teach existing employees new skills needed to excel in the workplace as well. Deloitte is one such example that deployed gamification successfully. Deloitte applied gamification principles on their in-house training program ‘Deloitte Leadership Academy (DLA).’ This move helped the company to motivate employees to complete training courses and got even more sign-ups.

Deloitte incorporated gamification elements like missions, badges, and leaderboards into their training curriculum to engage employees. According to Deloitte, there is a 37% increase in returning users to the training site each week.

Gamification: Compelling Motivator for Remote Employees.

Technological advancement has made it possible to hire amazing talents regardless of their location. Gamification helps companies to have more engaging business processes, especially with remote workers. It keeps the lines of communication more accessible, open, and compelling. Most importantly, it ensures that remote agents genuinely feel part of the team and stay motivated in the corporate culture.

Read more: 4 Creative Ways Managers Can Engage with their Remote Teams