Can Gamification Work in a Small Business? (And Is It Worth the Effort?)

By Paulette McCormack · Fresh HR Insights

Short version: yes, it can — but probably not in the way you’re picturing. When most people hear “gamification”, they think points, badges and a leaderboard stuck on the office wall. That’s the version that fizzles out by week three. The version that actually sticks is quieter, cheaper, and (I’d argue) better suited to a small team than a big corporation. I’ve been reading some recent research on this — a 2023 review out of Ca’ Foscari University in Venice —, and it lines up neatly with what I see on the ground with small business clients. Here’s the practical take.

First, what gamification actually means

Gamification is just using game-style elements — a bit of challenge, friendly competition, progress you can see, quick feedback — in places that aren’t games. Your workplace, in other words. The research traces the modern idea back to around 2011, and the textbook definition is the use of game design elements in non-game settings. It is not about turning work into a video game. It’s about borrowing the bits of games that make people want to keep going.

The mistake almost everyone makes

Here’s the big one, and it’s the bit that shifted how I think about this. The researchers draw a clear line between gamification IN the workplace and gamification OF the workplace.

Gamification IN the workplace is the bolt-on version — points and badges slapped on top of existing tasks. It gives you a lovely spike in engagement… that wears off fast. The research calls it the “novelty effect,” and it’s brutal. Even Marriott, the world’s biggest hotel chain, quietly shut down its gamification program after the early buzz faded. If a global giant couldn’t make the badge approach last, a small business won’t either.

Gamification OF the workplace is a different beast. Instead of you (the owner) handing down a points system, you give your people simple tools and let them build little learning challenges, quizzes or how-to’s for each other. They’re not just playing — they’re teaching, sharing what they know, and improving how the whole team works. That’s the version that lasts, because it becomes part of how people learn from one another rather than a gimmick that runs out of steam.

What this could look like in a small team

You don’t need software or a budget for this. A few low-key ideas:

• Let the team member who’s brilliant at something run a 15-minute “show us how you do it” session for everyone else.
• Turn onboarding into a friendly scavenger hunt instead of a folder of PDFs.
• Run a monthly “swap a skill” session where two people teach each other something, and the rest vote on the best tip.
• Use a quick quiz on a new policy or procedure, with a small prize, so people actually read it.
• Rotate who designs the next challenge, so it’s never always coming from the top.

Notice none of these are about surveillance or ranking people. That matters. The research is clear that the moment it feels forced — or like you’re monitoring people — it backfires. If you want the friendly-competition side without it tipping into pressure, a few of these creative recognition ideas pair really well with this.

Why it helps with learning (the real payoff)

Most learning at work isn’t the formal stuff — the courses and the training days. It’s the informal learning: someone showing you a shortcut, a quick chat over coffee, figuring something out together. The research is emphatic that this informal learning is where people pick up most of their day-to-day competence. Done the OF-the-workplace way, gamification turns that casual knowledge-sharing into something people lean into, rather than something that only happens by accident.

There’s a nice old proverb the researchers borrow: “I hear and I forget; I see and I remember; I do and I understand.” They add one line — “I teach and I share.” That’s the whole idea. When your people teach each other, the knowledge sticks for everyone, not just the person who went on the course.

It opens up opportunities you didn’t have

When this becomes a normal part of how the team works, you create learning moments that simply wouldn’t exist otherwise. A quieter team member gets to be the expert for once. People start having conversations across roles they’d normally never have. You build what the researchers call a “community of practice” — a fancy term for a team that genuinely learns from each other instead of working in silos.

There’s a bonus I love for small teams: games are fair. Everyone plays by the same rules. The research points out this can quietly dissolve some of the seniority and “who’s the boss” tension that gets in the way of learning. Your newest casual and your longest-serving staffer can be on a level playing field for half an hour, and both walk away having taught and learned something.

It works across different learning styles — and different generations

People learn differently. Some learn by doing, some by watching, some by talking it out, some by teaching. A good gamified activity has room for all of those at once, which is hard to pull off with a one-size-fits-all training session.

And while the research doesn’t dwell on age, this is where I’ll add my two cents from working with mixed teams: your younger staff tend to have grown up with games and digital tools and will dive straight in. Your more experienced people often hold the deep, hard-won knowledge that’s hardest to write down. Gamified knowledge-sharing gets those two groups swapping what they’ve each got — digital confidence going one way, hard-won wisdom the other. For a small business juggling a few generations under one roof, that’s gold.

A reality check before you dive in

I’d be doing you a disservice if I oversold this. The research is honest about the limits, and so am I. The bolt-on, badge-heavy version doesn’t last. It needs to be voluntary — push it on people and you’ll kill the goodwill. And the full corporate “transform the whole workplace” version takes real time and resources most small businesses don’t have. So start small. Try one thing. See whether your team takes to it before you build anything bigger.

Where to start

You don’t need to gamify everything. Pick one bit of learning that always feels like a chore — onboarding, a new policy, a fiddly process — and make it a little more playful and a lot more shared. If you’d like a hand thinking it through for your team, that’s exactly the sort of thing we work on together. Have a look at our Small Business HR Support, or if you’ve got a quick question and just want a straight answer, book an Ask Paulette 20-minute HR Power Call. And if turning all this into clearer expectations and goals is on your mind, our performance management support is a natural next step.

Paulette McCormack is the founder of Fresh HR Insights, a Gold Coast HR consultancy supporting small and medium businesses across South East Queensland. With 20+ years in HR and industrial relations — and a stint lecturing in the field — she helps owners handle the people side of business without the cost of an in-house HR manager.