5 Must-Haves for Compliance Training Gamification

What is gamification? 

Gamification is a technique that incorporates game elements into non-game environments to make them more engaging and fun for users. The game elements that gamification most often utilizes are: 

• Granting and deducting points for actions 
• Well-defined objectives and tasks such as quests 
• Scoreboards 
• Rewards such as emblems, badges, and trophies 

E-learning gamification applies these principles to digital learning environments to improve learner attention and retention. Gamified e-learning also increases completion rates, creates unique reinforcement opportunities, and allows learners to experience information in different and unique ways. 

It breaks away from approaches that simply present information and content to learners for their passive consumption and instead involves them as active participants in the learning process. 

The Need for Compliance Training Gamification 

Most people associate words like “boring” and “tedious” with compliance training. This is because a vast majority of compliance training programs are developed with regulatory requirements in mind and go against adult learning principles. 

According to a survey conducted by Elucidat, 15% of learners click through compliance modules without reading or listening to the information. 34% just skim-read and tune in and out of the audio. Furthermore, only 45% of employees get training that is relevant to their department or role. 77% say their compliance training programs cater to the entire organization, instead of being separated by job profiles. 

The survey’s findings concluded that learners feel the need for more relevant compliance modules, wish for more interactivity, and want compliance training to be more succinct and to the point. 

Adopting compliance training gamification can help companies fulfill these requirements for their learners. With more effective and potent learning, misconduct incidents are also bound to drop, meaning a tangible return on investment. 

Must-Have Elements for Compliance Training Gamification 

Let us now look at the fundamental elements of an effective gamified compliance training program. 

1. A Narrative with Themes, Challenges, and Obstacles

A narrative or plot is vital to get learners invested in the game-based activities of a course. Narratives can be created by adding the following components: 

• Characters 

• Challenges, tasks, or problems that the learner needs to solve 
• Background information about the setting of the narrative 
• Obstacles to overcome 

A narrative should also be one learners can identify with. This can be achieved in various ways: 

• Personalizing characters to have the same name as learners 

• Giving characters a similar job to learners 
• Making characters fictional members of your organization 
• Using avatars, silhouettes, and illustrations 

2. Rules and/or instructions

Without knowing what action they need to take, learners will not be able to smoothly navigate through the assigned compliance training gamification modules. Thus, all gamified activities should include a clear set of instructions, prompts, and rules to guide learners in the desired direction. 

3. Instant Feedback

Another essential element of compliance training gamification is instant feedback. Part of what makes game-based activities engaging is this mechanic. When learners get consistent responses and inputs for the choices they make, their motivation for finishing the activity increases because of the reward system in their brains. 

While feedback serves a functional purpose, it is also a tool to meet learning objectives by imparting information to learners. Thus, feedback in compliance training gamification should explain why a chosen response or path is correct or incorrect. 

4. Scores, Badges, Level-Ups, and Other Progress Indicators

An easy way to tap into learners’ intrinsic motivation is to offer them incentives and gamification does this especially well. For all progress made in compliance training gamification modules, learners must accumulate a score. Scores don’t have to be simple numbers, they can be collectable badges, tokens, tickets, currencies, etc. 

If your training program allows, you can also add some complexity to this system by introducing levels that learners can progress through at certain score milestones. 

On the flip-side, scores can also be more abstract, in the form of progress bars that simply indicate how far learners are from the end goal. However, a more well-defined progression system is always more impactful and easier to follow. 

5. Rewards

Gamification typically ends with one or more rewards or has rewards sprinkled throughout each activity. In some modules, feedback and scores can suffice as rewards. However, if you are looking to add another layer to your gamified compliance training programs, you can add leaderboards, certificates, emblems, pins, etc. Such rewards are usually more social in nature and involve office communities as well as healthy competition into the mix which helps break the usual monotony of compliance training.

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