Utilizing Gamification For Employee Fitness And Corporate Wellness

Every dollar invested in a wellness program generates $7 in health care savings - University of Louisville.

Health promotion has become a prime factor of organizational culture, fostering productive employees. Gamification has effectively boosted the wellness program's participation as more and more organizations adopt best practices for their employees. It is a powerful tool for promoting employee engagement and worksite culture.

Gartner's study reports that nearly 70% of global organizations will employ at least one gamified application in their corporate environment. Read on to learn more about the concept behind gamification and how it can transform your workforce to yield better productivity.

What is Gamification?

In simple terms, it is the application of game elements in a non-game context. Gamification strategies can be used to accomplish any desired task or inculcate any desired behavior.

The theory behind gamification is that people naturally desire to socialize and thrive in a competitive setup. This way, they enjoy achieving the rewards and recognition that come with their accomplishments.

Consider the membership cards your local shopping mall, gym, or theater offer. You get reward points, discounts, VIP status, and whatnot as the benefits of your continued purchases.

These customer loyalty programs make you feel valued as a customer and enforce a sense of exclusivity in your mind - an accomplishment! It, in turn, motivates you to keep repeating a certain behavior. Such as purchasing the services and goods of said business establishments.

Elements of Gamification

The concept of gamification has proved to be effective in many business ventures, the ever-growing fitness world being one of them. Some people view gamification as a form of behavior modification with technology.

The digital system of gamification proves to be successful in many ways. A company's entire workforce can be reached with just a button! There is a provision for instant feedback. Also, rewards and achievements are displayed and last longer.

The rule of gamification is simple: Turn a desired behavior into a fun activity!

The Game Set-up

Certain qualities help make gamification more engaging:

1. Collaboration: Encouraging teamwork and community building among employees.
2. Competition: Introducing friendly competitions to motivate employees and boost performance.
3. Points and Leveling up: Implementing a point-based system that rewards employees. This can be done to achieve specific goals and level up as they progress.
4. Goals: Setting clear fitness goals.
5. Badges: Awarding badges to employees upon completing certain tasks or milestones.
6. Fast Feedback: Providing immediate feedback to employees to keep them motivated and on track.
7. Transparency: Making the progress and achievements of employees visible to foster healthy competition.
8. Onboarding: Ensuring that employees voluntarily participate in gamified activities. This helps to maintain the fun and engaging nature of the program.

The most addictive games often involve all the elements listed above. Likewise, these gamification elements are helpful in successfully executing a wellness program. Another important point is to have the consent of all the participating employees.

Research shows that when employees are told to play a game, the fun factor decreases as it becomes a chore. This, in turn, decreases their engagement. So bear in mind that fun things are less fun when they are a requirement.

How Vantage Fit App Combines Game Elements With Its Corporate Wellness Program?

The Vantage Fit app has included gamification techniques that make it desirable so far as employee engagement and wellness platforms are concerned.

The app enables to create simple, engaging wellness programs and challenges to improve employee health. After all, a healthy lifestyle amounts to better productivity in the workplace!

*Here are some basic and effective gamification techniques that Vantage Fit incorporates to give your employees the best workplace experience. *

1. Leaderboard

Vantage Fit is equipped with a real-time transparent leaderboard. This in-built leaderboard enhances healthy competition among your employees. So as to grab the top spot by showcasing who is doing what. This will help make your corporate wellness program much more engaging. And also boost your employees' sportsmanship spirit.

2. Create Contest

Friendly competitions act as great motivators in our lives. Moreover, it is human nature to feel compelled to perform when faced with a challenge. Vantage Fit provides you with the perfect platform to introduce in-house wellness campaigns.

It also provides team challenges, irrespective of the geographical location of your organization. As an employer, you can create and modify health challenges to enhance the employee experience.

The platform also has various health challenges, like walkathons with daily and weekly customizable targets. Group-based workplace wellness challenges are also part of the app's options, which takes the competition to the next level. That way, under a little helpful peer pressure, your employees will be encouraged to perform better while building up team camaraderie at the same time.

3. Customizable Trophies and Badges

Badges and trophies distinguish our progress. They also make us feel accomplished. Plus, they are fun to collect. With our customizable trophies and badges, you can show your appreciation to your employees for each goal they accomplish. This will boost the morale of your workforce.

4. Personalized Health Diary

Using this feature, users can keep a daily log of their fitness regime, which includes daily activities and meals. This helps them to track their progress and gives them an honest idea about how far they have to go in their health journeys. Without these, the users might feel lost and lose their motivation to keep striving for a healthier lifestyle.

5. Fitness Points and Gift Cards

The Vantage Fit app provides a point-based rewarding system to make the transition to a healthy lifestyle more lucrative. This is a flexible system that helps employers to save up on their employee healthcare costs.

The fitness points are allocated to an employee's unified wallet once they complete a health task. The employer also gets to choose how these points get distributed among the employees.

The employees can redeem the fitness points as gift cards from our growing list of global brands. This feature is available globally. They can also redeem these gift cards directly from the app to purchase items from various e-commerce and in-store brands.

Also Read: Wellness Incentive Ideas To Boost Your Corporate Programs

6. Employee Engagement

Gamification can be easily used to change workplace culture. Setting up a challenge as simple as a step-counting challenge or activities like walking or running a certain distance and even dividing your employees into teams can boost engagement and motivate your employees.

How Gamification Improves Corporate Wellness?

1. Employer-Sponsored Fitness Programs

These initiatives show employees their health matters. Companies invest in these programs to create a positive work environment. Gamification adds fun, increasing employee engagement and participation.

2. Impact of Obesity on Healthcare Spending

Obesity drives up healthcare costs significantly. Studies show that obese Americans spend almost 36% more on healthcare costs and 77% on medicines than healthy people.

Gamification encourages physical activity and healthier eating, helping address obesity in the workforce and saving employers money.

3. A Cost-Effective Approach

Employers may hesitate to invest in wellness programs due to perceived high costs. But when considering long-term benefits like lower healthcare expenses and higher employee retention, the return on investment becomes clear.

That is, the investment costs compared to the return on investment are very low. Research shows successful wellness programs can reduce healthcare costs by 15% to 55%.

4. Cultivating Healthy Habits for Long-Term Benefits

Gamification emphasizes lasting impacts on employee well-being instead of just short-term results. Regular participation in fitness activities leads to healthier lifestyles beyond the program. This reduces absenteeism, boosts productivity, and fosters a healthier company culture over time.

5. Team Challenges

Corporate fitness programs with team challenges promote friendship among employees. It also fosters unity and motivation. Working together towards shared goals makes team members invested in each other's success.

This boosts collaboration and accountability, helping participants stay committed to their fitness goals.

6. The Growing Concern of Healthcare Costs

Employers want to find innovative ways to control expenses while keeping their workforce healthy. This is due to rising healthcare costs. Recent studies show about 77% of companies have seen a significant increase in healthcare costs over the last five years.

Proactive approaches to employee wellness are essential to address this trend. Here, gamification offers a promising solution.

Conclusion

Rising healthcare costs and sedentary lifestyles have become significant concerns for employers. However, a transformative solution is incorporating gamification methods into employee fitness programs.

Employers can encourage their workforce to achieve fitness goals by leveraging team challenges and healthy habits. Transform your workforce into a healthy and happy community by associating with Vantage Fit! Let's make fitness FUN!

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. What are examples of employee gamification?

• Leaderboards and Points: Employees compete for top positions based on their training progress.
• Badges and Certifications: Completing training modules earns employees badges and certifications.
• Training Challenges: Interactive quizzes and challenges to unlock rewards.
• Simulation Games: Real-life scenarios for employees to practice decision-making skills.

2. What is an example of gamification in health?

A fitness app that encourages users to stay active with -

• Step challenges
• Rewards for fitness goals
• Progress tracking, and
• Virtual coaching.

3. Is gamification effective in motivating exercise?

Yes, gamification motivates exercise by making it enjoyable and rewarding. Fitness apps with gamification elements increase engagement and adherence to exercise routines.