“Gaming” has become common-place in much of our everyday lives. Video games and video game counsels have become ever more intricate, with the players on the screen looking almost life-like. Our smartphones that we carry around everywhere can access thousands of games, like the popular app angrybirds. Even social media can be interpreted as a game, posting often gives you more followers on Twitter or friends on Facebook.

So what does gaming have to do with ERP? Theories show that introducing play into the workplace can produce more creativity and focus among workers. This workplace principal has been dubbed “gamification”. Many big Fortune 500 companies have already started implementing games into daily activities to encourage best work from employees. Google created an in-house currency called “Goobles” that engineers can trade in for server time or to bet on certain predictions. Microsoft created a game called “Ribbon Hero” to teach employees how to better use the software.

At a smaller business than Microsoft or Google, creating your own currency or software to use as a game for employees may not be very feasible. You can, however, apply these principles to help your employees through an ERP implementation.

This process of implementing ERP software is long and arduous. Employees will be learning an entirely new process which can be exhausting and can cause them to lose focus. Using gamification can spice up the implementation while also helping your employees to learn as much as they can. For each step in the process, implement a point program that employees can work towards. Whoever gains the most points can win a small prize like lunch out at their favorite restaurant. If you don’t want to create too much competition between employees, have them all working together towards one common goal, adding together points as a team with a prize for the whole team at the end.

Using gamification, though, has to be done right. There is a fine line between using it to help your employees achieve a goal, making the workplace a more fun and creative place to be in and simply using your employees to reach an end goal and squeezing out as much work out of them as possible. As well, it is important to keep structure and rules intact during the game process so you’re not losing employee focus on the project completely for the game aspect.

If done right, gamification can not only benefit your ERP implementation process, but create a productive and fun workplace for your employees. Implementing ERP isn’t technically considered a “fun” project to undertake, but injecting some healthy competition among workers can lift some of the daunting feelings many will no doubt be experiencing.

There is no one-size-fits-all and you have to do some research to find the best ERP solution for you. Read more here.