Wright Solutions has recently launched a portfolio of Compliance Training Apps. These are mobile compliance games that help organisations identify risk & save money and transform mandatory compliance training into a fun, intelligible and quantifiable experience
This is an exciting and innovative product that we feel is the future of training.
We were going to write a long and detailed blog
explaining why and then we noticed a Sunday Times article that sums it all
up.
Game over for dull training
Rule books and boring videos are out. Web and mobile applications that simulate real-life work challenges are the future
Compliance training is tedious. Nobody wants to spend more time than they have to in a windowless room with a folder full of notes and a check list. Certainly not if the alternative is quizzing an attractive woman about her relationship with a powerful man, or combing a colleague’s office for incriminating evidence?
The logic behind these unique Apps is that they look and feel like a computer game but provide training in how to investigate what may be a case of sexual harassment or Anti-Bribery & Corruption at a fictional Fortune 500 company.
Two things underpin the approach. The first is that playing games engages people in solving problems and motivates them to do it. Alongside that is the story-telling aspect, which improves people’s recall of what they learn. So taking something dry about insider trading or Diversity & Inclusion and slip that into a game, a story, and we know that people are much more likely to remember it than with other forms of training.
Organisations are increasingly turning to gamification, the use of the fun, engaging nature of games to encourage people to complete dull tasks, said Aaron Dignan, author of Game Frame, a guide to using games as a strategy for success, and chief executive of Undercurrent, a digital consultancy. “They take elements of games, whether that’s poker or Monopoly or Call of Duty, and apply them to school or the workplace or even home life,” he said. “Something as simple as adding a more immediate feedback loop, like Nike did with Nike Plus [a marketing initiative that allows runners to compare their performance with others on the internet]. It got people’s competitive juices flowing and meant that more people engaged with it.”
Gamification taps into human psychology. “It’s in our nature to turn things into games. We are constantly competing with ourselves — ‘How long will it take me to do this task?’,” Dignan said.
If you have a brain, you can’t help but be compelled by some of the factors that are in a good game. People are effectively hardwired to learn through storytelling, whether that’s a tale by a campfire or an animated graphic novel playing on a mobile phone. The narrative component also brings a first-person element that allows people to relate to the experience, which gives them an emotional connection.
Games can be tailored to match the look and feel of an organisation as well as its policies, which helps with the cultural nuances. So, for example, in Japan they might want all the characters dressed in dark formal suits and ties whereas if we were adapting it for a company in Silicon Valley they might be wearing jeans and hoodies.
Online games-based training allows businesses to monitor who has completed tasks and how they have performed. The apps also allow a more subtle analysis of responses, including how long they took to answer particular questions and whether certain teams or offices were more likely to react in a particular way. Companies can use this to identify potential problem areas.
For instance, we can develop an insider-trading application for a bank. It could be a narrative-based game where you make decisions in certain scenarios, say an analyst and a trader in a bar or chatting at a party, a natural interaction but also a grey area, so you can then see how people react to the simulation. You can see every decision they make, every time they swipe the screen, and how long it takes them to do it. If all the traders in a particular office showed they were a bit too willing to let their in-game character talk freely at a party, it could suggest that the corporate culture needs tightening up.
The games-based approach can also be used for recruitment, said Dignan. “I sat down with a guy in Shanghai the other day who is working on a game for traders and analysts at banks. He was making the environment as realistic as possible so that people would feel like they are trading, but [the bank] would be able to control the context. If you were in the recruiting team, you could find people who were the best at this. You could even watch how they played it throughout college and monitor how they performed on the leader boards.”
Businesses also need to be clear about who will use the game and what its purpose is, he added. “For example, if it is for a group of sales people, you might have a leader board and a very competitive set-up, whereas if it is to be used by a team of physicians where everyone has to work together, you might not want to create a game where the laggards are left behind but one where everyone works together to succeed.”
Unedited Sunday Times Article available here
- Anti-Money Laundering
- Workplace Discrimination Prevention
- Diversity & Inclusion
- Anti-Bribery & Corruption
- Information & Data Security
And we're releasing new apps all the time about issues critical to your organisation (available on iPad or PC).
You can call us on 0121 222 5599 to book a demonstration of the value that this training can offer you and your business.
Wright Solutions is a specialist HR Consultancy.
We attract, place and develop the highest calibre candidates in
Executive, HR and Learning & Development roles.
Our service is more than recruitment with our training solutions that
give Leadership and Management teams the competitive advantage for today
and tomorrow.
