CASE #2

CASE STUDY HRM SOCIAL

With Effective Analysis, Work isnt Just a Game

Job Analysis can support one of the hot trends in business, called gamification. To gamify work, organizations use elements of games designed to yield better results, and they apply them to jobs to enable stronger performance. For example, they observe how runners and cyclists are motivated when they can share their routes and data such as duration, distance and speed with their friends on social media, or how teams of players collaborate to defeat an enemy in an online game.

A leaderboard displaying a list of the top scorers also is a widely used tool to motivate players to improve and earn a place on the list.

Employers can easily create a leaderboard of top salespeople, ask employees to post their progress on a team project, or award badges for completing training modules. But, when a gamification effort is just a matter of adding playful features to the companys internal website, employees may ignore it. Well-planned gamification helps employees achieve goals that are relevant to their own and their organizations success. This is where job analysis comes in, by pinpointing what employees should be accomplishing and what skills and resources they need. Gamification works when it aligns with job requirements and the learning of relevant skills. For example, Dominos has transformed its training to make pizzas into a web-based game wit achievements, points and levels.

In the United Kingdom, the Department of Work and Pension (DWP) wanted its employees to become more active in developing useful ideas for innovation. To gamify this aspect of employees jobs, the company set up a collaboration site on its internal network. Employees are encouraged to submit ideas and vote on the ideas they think are most valuable. As ideas earn votes, they move up a leaderboard, and the company acts on the. Coming up with an idea that wins votes is exciting; seeing it move up the leaderboard is even more motivating; and of course, seeing it make a change for the better is the best prize of all.

Questions

1. Suppose you are a Human Resources Manager at a company that is going to gamify the job of its sales-people. How would job analysis help you advise the team on which behaviours to reward?

2. In the same scenario, how would job analysis help you advise the team on which kinds of rewards to incorporate?