Gamifying Benefits Programs or Top That!

Admit it. You probably like playing games. They may or may not be the same games that I like to play or that your neighbor likes to play, but you like playing games. And, one of the reasons that you like playing games is for the challenge of achievements.

You're part of the Facebook generations. Whether that means you are 14 years old and barely old enough without exaggerating your age to get a Facebook account or you're 40 years old and claim that you originally got on Facebook to watch what your kids were doing or you're 84 years old and you really like the idea of sharing pictures and tales of your grandchildren and great-grandchildren, there's a good chance that you spend more time on Facebook than you are willing to admit.

No, this is not an endorsement for Facebook. Some days I love it, some days I hate it. This is more of a look yourself in the mirror moment. When you first got on Facebook, it was probably either a curiosity or just a social thing. But, then you looked at your news feed and you saw that one of your friends had earned a new level in Farmville, or that another friend had passed three people in Candy Crush Saga,or that yet one more friend had played a 100 point word in Words With Friends, and you got that feeling in your brain -- hey, I can do that, too.

So, you started playing one game or another, and admit it, you became a little bit obsessed. Even though I know you won't admit it, you really want all of your friends to see it when your game of choice posts to your wall about your latest success. You puff up with pride and that wry little smile that says, "Top that!"

Before I move forward, I need to apologize to my readers. Many of you know that I would prefer that the English language remain sacrosanct and that we as writers and speakers should use actual words. Yesterday, I came across the words gamification and gamifying and I really doubted that they were words. So, I looked them up, and sure enough, much to my chagrin, they are words that can be found in English language dictionaries. Sad, but true. So, that explains my use of one of them in the title of this post and in other places within the post.

OK, welcome back to the real world.

Corporate HR struggles mightily with ways to make its benefits programs more effective. With large amounts of responsibility being placed on HR to make benefits programs both effective and cost-effective, it takes some creativity to move to the top of the classs.

Bring on gamification!

We're going to have to make participation in programs like this optional due to various privacy laws such as HIPAA (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, if you really want to know what HIPAA stands for), but I have a suspicion that because we all love games that many of your employees will, with no coercion at all, choose to share their game progress with friends, neighbors, co-workers, and even their dreaded second and third level connections. They'll get that sense of pride and be thinking, "Top that!"

Let's consider an example. Modern Cool Company (MCC) has been concerned about its employees' eventual ability to retire. MCC's Director of Benefits Oil Derrick Zoolander (he goes by Derrick) knows that most of MCC's employees don't save any money outside of their 401(k) plan and the data that Derrick gets from the plan's third party administrator (TrustWorthy) suggests that most are not saving much inside their 401(k). Derrick had no idea what to do, and frustrated, he hung out on Facebook.

Eureka, he found it. As he looked at his news feed, dozens of his friends were either posting or allowing their games to post about their accomplishments. Rachel Greene Slime killed her one-millionth enemy in Mafia Wars. Richie Cunningpork leveled up in Pet Saga. Chrissy Snow Flake passed her friend Jonas Grumpy (perhaps a more obscure reference, but Jonas Grumby was the Skipper on Gilligan's Island) and Greg Brainy was heard to be screaming "Marcia, Marcia, Marcia", after being passed by his sister in Vampire Wars.

Derrick went to his graphics people and had them start to develop 401(k) badges. When an employee of MCC named Don Draperies got a financial checkup through the TrustWorthy Adviser System (TWAS), he got a badge. He could toss it in the garbage (no self-respecting game player would ever do that), proudly display it in his cube, or bring it home to show his wife and kids (frankly his kids would be more impressed if he had a similar achievement in World at Warcraft), and perhaps more importantly for his ego, MCC's intranet allows him to collect his badge on there and post it to social media both internally and externally. Don was so excited that he posted it to his Facebook wall with the message, "Top that!"

Seeing the success and excitement of his first badge winner, Derrick went back to his graphics people and created more and more badges. There was the "Increased My Deferrals" badge, the "I Got My Full Match" badge, the "I Paid Off My Loan" badge, the "402(g) Limit" badge and the list goes on.

It only took a little over a year, but Derrick's 401(k) plan was the envy of his peer group, Levels of participation had gone from a measly 41% to 98% during 2014. Other than the one in the first week of January, the MCC 401(k) plan didn't have a single request for a hardship withdrawal the entire year, and Derrick learned right after Christmas that MCC had been named the winner of the Plan Sponsor of the Year Award for 2014 and that he would get to accept the award for the company. And, you know of course what he was going to do with that knowledge -- he posted it to Facebook with the status, "Top that!"

I know it sounds stupid and I know there may be legal hurdles and I know that you probably don't think gamification is a word, but consider it. Give it a try. Thank me later.

Rewardsball -- Where HR Meets Moneyball

I'm sure that many of you read Michael Lewis' excellent book Moneyball. Whether you have or not, it's the true story of the Oakland Athletics baseball team with a focus on their General Manager, Billy Beane and his focus on the value that players actually deliver. It's the story of how a smaller-market baseball team without a lot of money uses its money wisely to be competitive without a lineup full of superstars. It's a story that instructs that certain statistics are undervalued and that certain other statistics are overvalued. It's a story that tells us how to efficiently use our payroll budget to achieve the best results.

That seems like a really cool idea. It seems so simple, doesn't it? All we have to do is to develop a simple set of metrics and apply them to our company and we will use our payroll more efficiently than our competitors, generate more profits for our shareholders and pay all of our employees commensurate with their contributions to our profitability.

Wow, John, that is a fantastic idea. You should start a business, preach this to the masses, make millions of dollars implementing it, go on the banquet circuit and eat lots of really bad chicken.

Not so fast.

Baseball is a relatively ideal forum for the concept of Moneyball. There are 30 teams. Each team has the same rules. Each team's goal is to win as many games as possible of 162. Each team wins games by scoring more runs than its opponent. Each team scores a run when a player safely crosses home plate. So, a player who generates a lot of runs for one team is highly likely to generate a similarly large number of runs for another team (if he is traded).

Tell me two companies that play by the same set of rules. That's tougher, isn't it? In order to have the same set of rules, they need to have similar goals. Perhaps they need to offer similar products and services. We could argue that they need to have similar financial situations, but we know that the Oakland Athletics and New York Yankees do not have similar financial situations. Yet, the Athletics with a payroll often dwarfed by what the Yankees pay their starting infield currently sit five games ahead of the Yankees.

Even McDonald's and Burger King, though, have different jobs. They have different products. They have different locations. Presumably, they have different goals.

But, let's take a different approach that can be applied to any company. Suppose a company currently spends $1 million per year on its health care benefits for employees (and their families). Perhaps $800,000 is the minimum that they could spend. What is the value of that additional $200,000? Does the company get a good return on its investment for the additional $200,000? If not, should they cut benefits or enhance them.

This is actually what I am referring to as Rewardsball although I think I can come up with a better name. It's an interesting concept, isn't it?

Call me. Write me. +1 this post. Re-post it. Re-tweet it. Help me out please.