By Deepti Illa, Director, Corporate Marketing, Bunchball
Deepti Illa, @deeptiilla
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Flexible work schedules are a hot topic these days –so much so that the first full week in May has been designated national “Flexible Work Arrangement Week.”
Why all the interest in time-shifting, job sharing and satellite offices?
Because more and more employees want to strike a balance between life and work. Last year, PwC announced the results of a two-year, global generational study aimed at identifying trends in the workforce. Among the key findings, the research revealed that:
- Most Millennials would prefer a more flexible schedule. 64% said they would like to occasionally work from home; 66% said they would like to shift their work hours.
- Many are feeling the pressure of too many hours in the office. Among all ages polled, 15% of male employees and 21% of female employees said they would give up some of their pay and slow the pace of promotion in exchange for working fewer hours.
And as we’ve discussed before, employees are your company’s most important asset–which means keeping them happy can lead to real business benefits. According to the Harvard Business Review, happy employees are 31% more productive and 300% more creative. They also generate 37% more sales, and their work is 19% more accurate. Put all that together and it’s no surprise why some have asserted that the single greatest advantage in the modern economy is a happily engaged workforce.
But are you doing all you can to keep your employees happy . . . and their work arrangements flexible? Here are a few key points to keep in mind:
- Gamification has emerged as a core component in the drive to create a more engaged and dynamic workforce. For example, a gamification system can help an organization quickly and easily assess employee experience and expertise, so that best candidate for any given task can be identified. In addition, a technology platform for a liquid workforce can combine gamification with enterprise social technologies that provide frictionless tools to define, announce and discuss opportunities within appropriate employee communities, as well as to publicize earned reputations from across the organization
- Remote employees can be especially challenging to keep engaged. Men’s custom clothier J. Hilburn used gamification to reward employee collaboration, sales and ongoing education. Ultimately, the company uncovered key sales and engagement strategies to motivate style consultant partners and increase revenue across the organization.
- Even independent agents benefit from being part of a team. LiveOps, the global leader in cloud contact center and customer service solutions, found that gamification turned a competitive community of independent call center agents into a motivational social hub where agents can learn, earn and showcase their accomplishments. Within one week of rollout, 80% of agents opted in, and 75% return on a bi-weekly basis. Onboarding time was reduced from 160 hours to 14 hours, participating agents outperformed peers by 23% in average call handle time and customer satisfaction increased 9%.
In short, we’ve seen again and again that companies using gamification are better able to leverage their talent and accommodate employees looking for more flexible work arrangements.
Are you ready to honor Flexible Work Arrangement Week? Do your part by learning more about how gamification can help you improve team performance. Download our white paper, Building More Dynamic Teams with Gamification, at http://www.bunchball.com/resources/increasing-team-performance.