Maintaining high-quality metadata CAN be interesting!
Anyone who runs a DAM system will know how hard it can be to motivate employees to add high quality metadata to assets they upload. However, with the ascent of gamification into the workplace, mundane tasks such as keeping data up to date no longer needs to be an administrative task. It is the buzzword on everyone’s lips, but what exactly is gamification and does it really have a future in the world of work? Wikipedia describes it as follows:
“Gamification is the use of game design techniques, game thinking and game mechanics to enhance non-game contexts.”
Put simply it means putting a bit of fun and competition into the day-to-day tasks to encourage employees to work more efficiently.
Consumer facing brands have been using gamification to engage with their customers for a long time. However, taking gamification into the workplace and applying the principles to encourage productivity are ideas still in their infancy. HR managers globally are constantly looking for new ways to engage employees to make them more efficient and motivated and gamification might well be the next big thing.
Gamification of DAM systems
What role, if any, does gamification have to play in a DAM system? This is a question we are exploring here at Asset Bank. We know how successful gamification techniques can be – just look at stackoverflow, a Q&A site for software developers. Post a well-structured programming question to stackoverflow and within minutes some of the most expert developers in the world will be busy working (for free!) on your problem.
The first thing a DAM system would need, if it doesn’t already have it, is a profile page for each user, showing their recent activity (e.g. uploads and downloads), favourite images, comments and, most importantly, their reputation.
Reputation points could be awarded to users when they perform a variety of useful tasks, for example when they add or improve metadata (to make an asset more findable), approve uploads or downloads, flag assets as needing attention or recommend images for certain uses.
More than 50% of companies will gamify processes by 2015
A report undertaken by information technology research specialist, Gartner predicted that by 2015 more than 50% of organisations that manage innovation processes will gamify those processes. There is no doubt that making your workforces’ jobs more fun will ultimately result in happier members of staff. Empowering employees to work with you to enhance the company’s systems is canny and cost effective.
However, gamification in the workforce needs to ensure it has its benefits, both commercially and from a personnel point of view. Those who embrace gamification and implement it successfully will benefit from a resulting employee sense of inclusion, corporate responsibility and engagement. This will make working as a team child’s play.
If you already use a DAM system and have ideas around how gamification could work, please add a comment below, we are keen to hear your views.
If you have questions then please get in touch: feedback@bright-interactive.co.uk.
