35 episodes

Welcome to Game Changer, a show on using gamification to engage employees. Join us as industry experts discuss one of the hottest trends in business today: using fun and game-thinking as a strategy to better engage employees in their work and in areas such as health and wellness, recruiting, and more. This is a special podcast series by the producers of the top-rated podcast, Engaging Leader.
Game Changer is the show for CEOs, HR Executives, and other business leaders to learn about internal gamification. Over the course of this series, you'll hear examples and pitfalls, discover how to assess when it's an appropriate strategy, and learn to evaluate gamification partners and game ideas.

Game Changer | Employee Gamification | Internal Enterprise Gamification | hosted by Jesse Lahey, Aspendale Communications Engaging Leader

    • Business
    • 4.9 • 27 Ratings

Welcome to Game Changer, a show on using gamification to engage employees. Join us as industry experts discuss one of the hottest trends in business today: using fun and game-thinking as a strategy to better engage employees in their work and in areas such as health and wellness, recruiting, and more. This is a special podcast series by the producers of the top-rated podcast, Engaging Leader.
Game Changer is the show for CEOs, HR Executives, and other business leaders to learn about internal gamification. Over the course of this series, you'll hear examples and pitfalls, discover how to assess when it's an appropriate strategy, and learn to evaluate gamification partners and game ideas.

    GC35: Enhancing Millennial Performance at Work | with Aaren Terrett

    GC35: Enhancing Millennial Performance at Work | with Aaren Terrett

    We are in the early years of a fundamental demographic shift. The Millennial generation — which is even larger than the massive Baby Boom generation — now makes up a third of the workforce. As younger millennials continue to graduate from college, their powerful mix of values, communication style, and work perspective is driving a work-culture revolution.

    As you lead a team that’s increasingly made up of millennials, understanding their motivators is essential to your success. This is a challenge that Aaren Terrett knows very well, since his organization is made up almost entirely of millennials.

    Aaren is director of sales operations at O2E Brands, the parent company of 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, Wow 1 Day Painting, You Move Me, and Shack Shine. What’s the secret to his company’s success in producing consistent and sustained motivation in its millennial workforce?

    “We apply the principles of frequent feedback, recognition of success, and instant communication,” Aaren says. “Some people call it gamification. We call it leadership of our people. It’s the way the millennial workforce likes to be led.”

    Jesse and Aaren discuss the profile of the millennial at work, and how O2E has used gamification principles to shape a positive culture, improve customer service, and increase productivity. Their discussion includes:



    Contests, prizes, and instant and visually engaging public recognition,

    New-hire training that includes interactive video game structures, and

    Gamification principles incorporated into their recruiting and career advancement processes.



    Aaren Terrett is the director of sales operations at O2E Brands, headquartered in Vancouver, BC. O2E, which stands for “ordinary to exceptional,” operates four franchise brands with a combined revenue of $150M.

    Resources Mentioned in This Episode



    Website: o2ebrands.com

    LinkedIn: O2E Brands

    Twitter: @1800gotjunk

    Facebook: /1-800-GOT-JUNK?

    Article: Gamifying Your Workforce: How to Make Engagement Fun

    Article: Peer to peer: What should my business do to effectively engage with millennials?

    Visual examples



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    If you like our show, please rate us on iTunes. That makes a huge difference in helping more people discover it. We love to know your thoughts about this episode. Please submit your comments below! You can also email comments to Jesse at jesse@engagingleader.com, subscribe to him on Facebook, or follow him on a href="http://www.twitter.

    • 30 min
    GC34: 8 Gamification Resources for Talent Acquisition

    GC34: 8 Gamification Resources for Talent Acquisition

    For several years, recruiting has been one of the business processes that has best leveraged the potential of gamification. According to a recent article in HR Magazine, gamification can be an effective strategy for talent acquisition because of the power to:



    Trigger interest in job openings,

    Enable (and reward) current employees to easily share job openings with their external network and get feedback on their contacts’ progress during the recruiting process,

    Project an innovative image of the employer,

    Give candidates a realistic preview of the job, and

    Predict applicants’ future job performance.





    Resources Mentioned in This Episode

    Previously discussed on GameChanger:



    Zao

    Bunchball

    Badgeville



    Additional gamification resources profiled by HR Magazine: 



    Captain Up

    Games for Business

    HackerRank

    mLevel

    Pymetrics 



    To stay up on the latest news and trends in employee gamification, join the Game Changer group on LinkedIn.

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    Your Feedback

    If you like our show, please rate us on iTunes. That makes a huge difference in helping more people discover it. We love to know your thoughts about this episode. Please submit your comments below! You can also email comments to Jesse at jesse@engagingleader.com, subscribe to him on Facebook, or follow him on Twitter.

    • 17 min
    GC33: Playing a Better Game of Business | with Simcha Gluck of FreshBiz

    GC33: Playing a Better Game of Business | with Simcha Gluck of FreshBiz

    Gamification concepts continue to be integrated as part of normal business practices; sometimes it’s as subtle as taking inspiration from certain game elements when tweaking a business process, and at the other end of the spectrum, sometimes it’s literally creating a game for people to play. For one growing company, they not only have created a game that tens of thousands of people have played, they are changing the overall “game” of business itself — to transform corporate culture, education, and entrepreneurship.

    As long-time listeners of Jesse’s podcasts know, he’s passionate about the power of business and communication to make a positive difference in communities and in individual lives.

    FreshBiz Global is a “For-Benefit” training company with a mission to infuse fun, multidimensional winning, and smart thinking into organizations around the world.

    They accomplish this through workshops based on their award-winning FreshBiz board game (also soon to be released in digital format), the book The New Entrepreneurz, and the plug-and-play FreshBiz Training Kit for trainers and managers to take teams through transformational learning experiences.

    The FreshBiz game creates a business simulation where players create “Smartnerships,” play Action Cards, learn to leverage their strengths, and use other principles that help them embody a “For-Benefit” approach to business, where success is when everyone wins. The intention is that playing the game helps people rewire their brain to a mindset that is more collaborative, open, creative, and daring, so they not only sharpen their entrepreneurial skills but also experience an approach to business that maximizes benefit for everyone playing rather than just maximizing profit at all cost.

    Currently, over 35,000 people across 20 countries — from business students and entrepreneurs to executives and teams — have gone through the FreshBiz experience and are now smarter in business and life.

    Simcha Gluck is the chief trainer and co-founder of FreshBiz Global. He is also co-author of the book The New Entrepreneurz: Changing the Way You Play Life, and he hosts the radio talk show Innovation Nation on Voice of Israel.

    Resources Mentioned in This Episode



    Website:  http://www.freshbizgame.com/

    Twitter:  @FreshBizGame

    GameChangers500: www.freshbiz.gamechangers500.com

    Book: The New Entrepreneurz: Changing the Way You Play Life

    Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/simchagluck

    Facebook: www.facebook.com/FreshBiz/



    To stay up on the latest news and trends in employee gamification, join the Game Changer group on LinkedIn.

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    • 32 min
    GC32: Engaging Employees as Brand Ambassadors | with Ivan Tsarynny of PostBeyond

    GC32: Engaging Employees as Brand Ambassadors | with Ivan Tsarynny of PostBeyond

    Social media has a powerful effect on company sales and recruiting efforts. But just having a corporate communications person post things on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter doesn’t actually bring results. On social media, people pay attention to people, not to companies.



    Employees and partners collectively have an audience 10x larger than the company itself. ~ Technorati Advocacy Study

    Brand messages are re-shared 24x more frequently when distributed by employees vs. companies. ~ MSLGroup

    Content shared by an employee generates 8x more engagement than content shared by a company. ~ SocialMediaToday Report 2014

    Today we’ll discuss the challenges that have prevented most companies from effectively engaging their employees as ambassadors on social sharing sites. And we’ll discuss one option that seems to be working for Starbucks, Molson Coors, and other companies.

    Ivan Tsarynny is the co-founder and CEO of PostBeyond, a gamified platform that helps employees of large companies more effectively engage as ambassadors on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.



    Launched in April 2013, PostBeyond provides a Pinterest-style library that curates online articles and images that are relevant to company interests. Content is first suggested for the library by employees as well as an automated aggregation engine. If it gets the thumbs-up from corporate, the content is filtered into the library, where employees can share the posts without worrying about crossing liability lines.

    Resources Mentioned in This Episode



    * Website:  postbeyond.com

    * White paper: Employee Advocacy: Where Trust Builds Bottom Line

    * Guide: Employee Social Media Policy Guidelines

    * Twitter: @Ivan_Tsarynny and @postbeyond



    To stay up on the latest news and trends in employee gamification, join the Game Changer group on LinkedIn.

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    Your Feedback

    If you like our show, please rate us on iTunes. That makes a huge difference in helping more people discover it. We love to know your thoughts about this episode. Please submit your comments below! You can also email comments to Jesse at jesse@engagingleader.com, subscribe to him on Facebook, or follow him on Twitter.

    • 33 min
    GC31: Gamified Goal Setting in the Enterprise: Helping People Win at Work | with Kris Duggan of BetterWorks

    GC31: Gamified Goal Setting in the Enterprise: Helping People Win at Work | with Kris Duggan of BetterWorks

    Focusing on goals establishes a business culture of innovation and collaboration because you are measuring ongoing operations, not a single point in time. For organizations to drive better performance, goal setting should be done frequently, and should focus on just a few high-quality, high-impact goals.

    BetterWorks is an enterprise goals platform designed to enable all employees to visualize both the inputs and outputs influencing behaviors. This includes communicating the value and impact of more strategic goal setting, tracking, and management to everyone. When you operationalize goal setting, your organization can more efficiently manage business performance and achieve the following:



    * Smarter planning with increased employee engagement, motivation, and clarity of purpose. Your organization can spend more time deciding what activities should be accomplished, ensuring quarterly goals match the strategic vision. At the same time, you can ensure you are enabling all employees to make progress on tasks associated with meaningful work. You have a gauge for how your organization is tracking to your business plan, and full transparency into where employees and teams are on track and/or need assistance.

    * Increased visibility across silos. An enterprise goals platform brings transparency to the performance management process. Instead of goals being discussed twice a year—during goal setting in January and performance reviews in December—goal platforms provide on-going and increased visibility into goal progress (success and failure), bottom up, top down, and across teams, creating a more open culture that encourages collaborative problem solving and promotes faster decision making.



    BetterWorks is designed to engage, empower, and cross-functionally align workers to set, track, and manage goals and become operationally excellent. Its built-in features support five key pillars:



    * Connected. Goals are aligned vertically, cross-functionally, and with your company’s mission.

    * Supported. Employees regularly engage with peers’ goals by providing relevant praise and feedback.

    * Adaptable. Individuals refine goals and focus goals as priorities shift to get the right work done.

    * Progress-Based. Employees update goals frequently so small wins are continually captured.

    * Aspirational. Individuals remain motivated and challenged through meaningful stretch goals.



    Kris Duggan is CEO of BetterWorks. Previously, he was founder of Badgeville. BetterWorks began with the simple, but deeply held goal of helping people feel like they are winning at work. Their enterprise goals platform, based on “Goal Science” thinking, is designed to engage, empower, and cross-functionally align workers. BetterWorks drives high-performing companies to become operationally excellent, and provide powerful insights about how work gets done.

    Resources Mentioned in This Episode



    * Podcast: GC02: Badge of Engagement

    * Website: BetterWorks

    * White Paper: Goal Science Best Practices

    * Article: Does Performance Management Make the Grade?

    * Publication from Bersin by Deloitte: Guide to Performance Management Software 2015

    * Twitter: a href="https://twitter.

    • 26 min
    GC30: The Game of Benefits | with Dr. Ann Clark and Erin Krehbiel of ACI/MacroLife

    GC30: The Game of Benefits | with Dr. Ann Clark and Erin Krehbiel of ACI/MacroLife

    Gamification and mobile technology can both make it easier for employees to use their benefits, and provide the motivation to make it what they want to do. In past episodes of Game Changer, we’ve looked at some gamified applications related to certain health benefits – such as episode 3 with UnitedHealth, episode 7 with Movable, and episode 11 with Mindbloom. Today, we’re looking at MacroLife and its creators say it integrates not just health care but a wide range of employee benefits.

    MacroLife is a new gamified benefits solution from ACI Specialty Benefits, one of the 10 largest providers in the US of Employee Assistance Program (EAP) services, as well as wellness, work/life, concierge, and student assistance services.

    Resources Mentioned in This Episode



    * Video about MacroLife: acieap.com/gameofbenefits

    * Video about ACI: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rp5ClfeyLv8

    * MacroLife website:  www.acimacrolife.com

    * ACI Website: http://www.acispecialtybenefits.com

    * Twitter: @ACISpecBenefits

    * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/aci-specialty-benefits

    * Facebook www.facebook.com/ACISpecialtyBenefits



    To stay up on the latest news and trends in employee gamification, join the Game Changer group on LinkedIn.

    Subscription Links

















    iTunes

    Stitcher

    RSS







    Your Feedback

    If you like our show, please rate us on iTunes. That makes a huge difference in helping more people discover it. We love to know your thoughts about this episode. Please submit your comments below! You can also email comments to Jesse at jesse@engagingleader.com, subscribe to him on Facebook, or follow him on Twitter.

    • 34 min

Customer Reviews

4.9 out of 5
27 Ratings

27 Ratings

Monica Harrison ,

Excellent podcast!

Jesse offers advice and insight on gamification and how to apply it. This podcast is a big help in improving leadership skills and employee engagement.

kellyswilliams ,

Makes gamification cool

Just when gamification was starting to become white noise, I stumbled on this podcast. It really casts gamification in a whole new light. I'm starting to see how this could really become applicable within my industry!

how is then name taken ,

The Game

I love this podcast. I have been trying to study Gamification, and this is a good starting point.

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