Sanitas launches an overall plan to enhance employee engagement through game-based learning

Gamification as an enticement, self-paced training as an incentive and enhanced engagement as the ultimate goal. Sanitas has succeeded in making game-based learning a useful tool and in harnessing the multiple advantages it offers for raising engagement levels within the company.

Gamelearn’s simulation courses in a game-based learning format were part of an overall plan that sought to enhance staff identification with the healthcare services company. An ambitious plan in which learning and training played a key role from the outset.

To achieve this, Sanitas used a new format and a strong training philosophy. Firstly, the inclusion of game-based learning in a bid to tackle the problem of drop-out rates in online training and to ensure learning based on practical cases. Secondly, by opting for flexible training where the employee has the freedom to choose and create their own learning path within the organization.

The challenge: to get the employee to go to the training, not the other way around

When designing the training program, the Human Resources Department set the following general guidelines:

• Represent real situations that enable employee development through a case-study learning model.
• Develop tools that are genuinely useful for teaching transversal skills. In other words, ensure that the training could be applied to each job, regardless of the employee’s professional background or specialization. The program was mainly targeted at Sanitas’ customer care and sales networks.
• Find solutions that foster employee participation motivate the staff to complete the training and provide a foolproof solution to the high drop-out rates experienced with other training models such as MOOCs. To achieve this, it is essential to offer self-paced and flexible training where the employee has the freedom to choose their own learning and growth pace.

When these guidelines are followed, learning becomes a unique, appealing and useful experience, where the employee goes to the training, not the other way around. Hence, the program is aligned with the company’s overall plan to improve staff commitment. To achieve this, training has to be presented as a tool at the service of the employee, and learning must be seen as the bridge connecting personal growth and development with career success.

It will then be possible to have a better qualified, more competitive and more motivated workforce, which results in greater commitment and engagement. After defining the requirements, Sanitas set about finding a solution that would be capable of effectively addressing the specific features of its training program.

The solution: game-based learning platform

For Sanitas, Gamelearn and its game-based learning solutions proved to be a key element in its ambitious training program. The game-based learning platform was chosen for its ability to:

• Represent real life situations using negotiation and time management simulators, thus putting employees in “real” situations in which they have to apply their skills, while receiving feedback and improvement tips. In other words, it guarantees learning based on practical cases.
• Impact on participant motivation. Because it is game-based, the learning process is different and engages the participant through the use of gamification techniques: rankings, badges, levels, etc.

Picture by William Iven from Unsplash

• Ensure that employees can manage their own training. The platform is accessible online, no additional software needs to be installed and participants only need a device with an Internet connection to access it. Accordingly, employees can choose when, where and with what device to do the training.
• Offer a wide variety of new, non-technical skills that can be applied both to the participant’s personal and professional life. And these include the top ten skills identified by world leaders at the recent Davos World Economic Forum:
  • Self-confidence and emotional intelligence
  • Flexibility
  • Innovation and creativity
  • Negotiation
  • Critical thinking
  • Planning, organization and coordination
  • Problem solving
  • Decision-making
  • People management and teamwork
  • Customer service

The results: the high applicability of learning as the driving force behind engagement

After implementing the program, a total of 326 Sanitas employees have developed and practiced new soft skills using Gamelearn’s learning solutions. And these are the results:

Improved motivation

Compared to other solutions, game-based learning holds the key to solving one of the biggest problems of online training. Thanks to the gamification techniques used and the setting for each serious game, employee motivation soared to the extent that only eight out of every 100 participants failed to complete the training. I.e., the completion rate was 92%.

Real impact on the job

According to the surveys completed by employees at the end of each course, 99% of participants said that they were applying the new skills they had learned to their job, thus demonstrating that the training had a direct impact on their day-to-day work.

Direct impact on enhancing engagement

Sanitas’ Human Resources Department found a direct link between the high applicability of the skills learned and improvement in engagement levels, as can be seen from the results:

The staff engagement level increased by 9% (from 81% to 90%) on account of an overall plan in which skills training through game-based learning played a critical role. This type of training proved to have a direct and positive impact on employees’ day-to-day work.

Conclusion

The game-based learning program implemented at Sanitas led to an improvement in employee engagement levels and, above all, in a change in habits and customs identified by the Human Resources Department.

These changes, which are listed below, are the best indicators for measuring the effectiveness of the learning solution and the applicability of the training:

• Inbox Zero: Sanitas employees have internalized the idea that they are in control of their email, not the other way around
• Effective communication: thanks to the feedback received, communication processes with employees have been improved, thus providing a better understanding of their needs and preferences.
• Personal productivity system: the amount of time spent at department meetings has been reduced, management of contingencies has been optimized and the cost of dealing with urgent, unplanned tasks has been lowered. In other words, each employee has set up their own system for managing everyday tasks.