Human resources | Expert praises gamification techniques to train employees

Tom Abbott

Having adequate employee training resources remains a challenge for businesses in Macau, along with increasing sales competition from the many large companies in the region.

Tom Abbott, founder and director of Soco/Sales Training, a sales optimization company in Singapore, said that his company has increased their volume of work in Macau, assisting companies optimize their sales processes.

“We also hold sessions on improving and measuring the ROI of training. There’s definitely a gap there,” he said, speaking on the sidelines of his presentation.

Yesterday, Abbott spoke on how to plan and implement a holistic training system to reduce costs and optimize results at a breakfast meeting held by the France Macau Chamber of Commerce.

According to Abbott, making required training available on mobile devices for employees leads to a 40 percent increase in productivity, adding that some 48 percent of online training on TrainTool occurred outside of office hours in 2016.

Abbott then suggested that companies should learn how to motivate their team members by making them feel that what they do at work matters, making them feel competent and giving them a sense of autonomy.

According to his data, by using gamification, learners scored 15 percent higher in skill-based knowledge and 9 percent higher than using traditional methods.

“Using gamification, for example, increases retention and engagement,” he said, noting that the use of e-learning could also boost both factors from 10 to 60 percent.

Abbott noted that there was nothing preventing Macau from using e-learning infrastructure. Thus, he suggested that companies either design their own programs, or work with external parties that have something established, using plug and play materials. 

“[However] gaming can be a bit of a challenge. Gaming may have some firewall issues but there are different ways where you can host those videos on different platforms that we have found quite successful,” Abbott said.

“If you have the will and the mindset to adopt e-learning, there is a way,” he emphasized.

However, Abbott, who has clients in the SAR, including gaming operators, observed that there are still companies who refuse to use technology to train their employees.

“There’s going to be winners and losers when it comes to performance here in Macau. The sooner you get on board, the sooner you’ll reap those rewards,” he said. “Those that lag behind will lose.”

In training employees, Abbott shared that companies should determine how much trainees learn in the form of increased knowledge and understanding, and measure changes in the on-the-job behavior of trainees.