To Infinity and Beyond-Gamifying IT Service-Desk Training: A Case Study

Abstract

The Information & Technology Services Department at a mid‐sized comprehensive university in the Midwest identified a need for a more engaging onboarding training module that emphasized basic technology skills and customer service skills. A gamification strategy was developed to increase employee motivation and provide a more thorough onboarding experience. This strategy included digital and physical leaderboards, leveling up, and bonus prizes and challenges tied together by a space exploration theme. Results from the qualitative feedback indicate that the training program design was well‐received by participants, meeting Level 1 of Kirkpatrick's Evaluation Scale. Additional comparison results of two years’ of annual campus surveys indicate that the gamification training strategy had some positive impact on customer satisfaction with the performance of the IT Service Desk.

Gamification in human resource management—Status quo and quo vadis

“…They argue that gamification provides a promising opportunity to change behavior with regard to organizational strategies and goals, as well as to increase engagement and retention within the learning environment by fostering the feeling of being in a flow (Jorge and Sutton, 2016). In a similar vein, Miller and colleagues (2018) emphasize that gamified training increases employee loyalty and customer satisfaction through increased training effectiveness. The authors present a gamified software tool, including game design elements such as levels, points, leaderboards, teamwork, and rewards to improve IT training outcomes.…”

Gamification for HRD: Systematic Review and Future Research Directions

“…Santhanam et al (2016) suggested examining the impact of self-efficacy and engagement, particularly as they relate to competitive aspects of gamified experiences. There is also emerging evidence worth exploring deeper regarding variation in gamification’s impact due to different types of problem solvers (Dissanayake et al, 2019) and technical versus non-technical expertise of employees (Miller et al, 2018).…”

“…Thus, for the effective usage of gamification in the HRD domain, a deeper understanding of the experiential outcomes of gamification and its relationship to the HRD outcomes is needed. Current studies on gamification for HRD have recommended extending the scope of research further in multiple specific areas related to HRD outcomes across Kirkpatrick’s four levels of evaluation (Maltseva et al, 2019; Miller et al, 2018) with the focus on more comprehensive evaluations of gamification interventions (Landers et al, 2017).…”

“…Researchers advocated more field testing as it would give a better and more realistic idea (Santhanam et al, 2016). The need for pre–post-testing and triangulating of the data was also suggested (Miller et al, 2018).…”

Service Desk Onboarding Training Environment

“…The service desk employees receive reputation points based on their activities regarding (1) submitting detailed ticket records, (2) creating knowledge articles and transferring knowledge, (3) enhancing the quality of knowledge articles, and (4) getting positive feedback from customers about usefulness of their service. A similar approach with the introduction of gamification was presented by Miller et al (2018); however, their solution aimed more at new staff members in training during their onboarding process. Unlike Yuan et al (2017), they used additional elements of gamification in the form of leader boards, levelling up, bonus prizes or challenges.…”