People love video games; it is an over $260 billion a year industry and is thought by many to be the number one time waster in the world. For this reason, not many people consider video games or any visual interactive media to have any practical applications for a business. Today, we will try to disprove this theory by outlining some ways in which video games can help your business.
Before we start, we should state that most video games are not going to help your business. We recognize that most of the time, they are to be used for leisure and don’t necessarily have a place inside the modern business. Chances are a lot of your people do actively play video games, however, and if you can leverage them in the following three ways, you may be able to incorporate them into your productivity strategy.
Employee Training and Development
What is a video game? It is an interactive construct created to test a user. Most businesses nowadays need some type of interface or strategy to train their employees on the software they use, and cybersecurity strategies are imperative as more attacks are targeted at end users. While it isn’t Call of Duty, the use of video games to train and test your employees provides business a great strategy because it not only gives users a fairly straightforward and fun option in which to complete their mandatory training, it also gives a business the opportunity to track user progress.
Businesses can gamify the process of getting through cybersecurity training by giving users a score at the end and displaying leaderboards.
Team Building and Collaboration
Video games cover a lot of ground, but one thing that can be accomplished through the use of video games is a better understanding of the people that you work with. A lot of businesses have difficulty getting their employees to interact with their contemporaries, especially if large sections of the workforce work remotely. By using video games as team-building tools, businesses can help their employees break the ice that can hinder collaborative efforts.
Innovation and Problem Solving
Having people on your staff who are great problem solvers can help you stay above a lot of the problems that business can bring your way. Video games often involve solving complex problems and puzzles, which can stimulate creative thinking and problem-solving skills in employees.
Stress Relief and Wellness
Finally, the best reason to incorporate video game time at your company is to provide employees with access to casual games or relaxation apps to help reduce workplace stress and improve overall well-being. People love playing video games, and if it is offered at the end of a grueling work week or after hours, it can go a long way toward helping employees enjoy their jobs more.
Video games may never really fit into the paradigm of a productive office, but they can be useful tools that bring with them several benefits. If you would like to talk to one of our knowledgeable IT consultants about how to integrate recreational technology into your business without losing large swaths of productivity, give us a call today at (760) 466-1200.
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