High Five

Problem:

Seven out of ten employees are disengaged in their workplace. The cost to U.S. businesses in lost productivity is estimated at $450 to $550 billion annually.  

Solution:

High Five was built specifically for credit unions--marrying an employee well-being strategy with the principles of gamification.

To quickly put the solution to the test, High Five was prototyped using Visual Studio C# and Microsoft SQL Server. The fully functional web-based application was published to the Microsoft Azure cloud at http://high5.azurewebsites.net/. 

Test Results:

To test High Five, the team formed small pilot groups at four credit unions for a one-month test period. During the pilot, employees were welcomed to register for High Five and encouraged to earn badges.

From the four pilot credit unions, 47 individuals registered to participate. There were 36 total badges available for distribution and 13 reward options. The following represent the pilot results:

• 181 badges were awarded by program administrators.
• Employees earned an average of 3-5 badges.
• 98 applauses were awarded by users.
• 1 redemption request was submitted by a user.

The team tested two different methods for engaging staff. The first was to introduce the program and then do minimal follow-up. The results were in line with the team’s assumption; a few employees would engage but most would not. The second test included frequent encouragement from the program administrator. As expected, staff engagement and participation increased.

To conclude the testing period, a survey was administered to the four pilot credit unions with the following results:

• 93% of High Five users would enjoy this program as part of the recognition offerings at their credit union.
• The majority of users stated their favorite part of High Five was peer recognition with earning badges and completing challenges a distant second and third.
• Staff reported lack of time as the reason for receiving two or less badges.
• Of staff that earned more than five badges, the majority did so because they liked the competition.