Enterprises always seek more efficient and effective ways to train their employees. Over time, the traditional classroom training methods have been replaced with digital learning technologies.

Now, it is time to find a more exciting way to educate, train, and inform Gen Y and Gen Z employees using entertainment principles, creativity, and technology.

Serious games are one of the most effective learning methods for corporate training. This innovative game-based learning method can make the training sessions more engaging.

In this process, you impart the concepts and skills you want to your learners through online games instead of face-to-face classes or reading materials. This unique training method can be fun and practical at the same time.

Table of Contents:

What are Serious Games for Corporate Training?

Serious games are specially designed games whose primary objective is not entertainment or fun but learning or practicing a skill. As they are engaging, entertaining, and immersive, serious games have become popular training tools in defense, healthcare, aeronautics, science, and other industries.

Serious games in industrial training are designed to teach employees specific problem-solving skills in an engaging manner. These games involve challenges and rewards to keep employees excited enough to complete the game and the training program.

A well-designed game uses entertainment and engagement components to help the learners grasp complex concepts and develop new skills.

Also Read: 8 Challenges and Solutions in Localizing Training Programs for a Diverse Workforce

What are the Benefits of Using Serious Games in Employee Training?

Serious games have already shown great results as effective learning tools in different industries. Here are the key benefits of using serious games for corporate training.

1. Stimulates the Learners’ Thinking Abilities

Game-based learning offers physiological benefits. It can stimulate brain activity and thinking capacity. Serious games help in practicing decision-making, improving cognitive skills, and applying the knowledge learned in real-life scenarios.

2. Teaches Employees to Deal with Real-World Situations

Well-designed serious games for training enable learners to pick up new skills and concepts. Here, the learners not only get knowledge and skill training in an interactive environment, but they also get the chance to implement their knowledge in virtual life-like situations.

Serious games enable employees to practice their skills and compete in a gaming environment, making the learning process engaging and effective for them.

3. Game-based Training Aids Learners to Master Tasks

Like any other video game, serious games for corporate training are also designed with multiple levels and objectives. These elements encourage learners to play the game over and over to achieve higher levels and keep them motivated to get better at a task or skill.

There are several proofs that when employers implement serious games as a training tool, trainees endeavor harder to master those skills or tasks. With game-based training programs, learners get multiple chances for trial and error and to learn from their mistakes.

4. Provides Immediate Feedback

In the case of game-based learning platforms, learners get immediate feedback on their performance. They can instantly know whether they are making progress towards the goal or falling behind. This constant monitoring system helps learners to stay focused on their goals and also drives them to learn about the concept or task in depth to achieve mastery.

5. Promotes Multi-tasking

Most training games are specially designed, where players have to juggle multiple inputs at once to move forward. This feature of the games makes the players more alert and attentive to handle various tasks at a time.

Multitasking is one of the most crucial aspects of corporate positions in today’s world, especially with companies focusing on an agile work culture.

And serious games for corporate training are one of the vital tools to promote multitasking; when carefully designed, they mimic contemporary workplaces and allow trainees to gather multitasking experience through a pseudo-real-life scenario. These games can upskill learners with multitasking in a highly engaging and interactive environment.

6. Interactive Nature

Games are interactive in nature – different gaming elements like levels, rankings, achievements, rewards, competition, etc., make them all the more engaging for the players. When games are used as a training method, every trainee must participate actively in the training program. The interactive nature of games keeps learners engaged as the playful elements of serious games make learning effective and entertaining. Interactive games also contribute to improving communication and coordination, which facilitates better collaboration.

7. Promotes Innovative Thinking

A well-designed serious game can put trainees in adverse situations similar to real-life crises, where the learners have to deal with multiple variables to respond according to the situation’s demand. Creating such scenarios in a game encourages players to think ‘out of the box’ and find a solution. Serious games thus help learners sharpen their innovative thinking and problem-solving skills.

8. Promotes Engagement and Motivation

When you use games for corporate training, you ensure company employees are involved in high-engagement and motivation activities. Unlike the monotony of traditional training methods, games provide an immersive experience.

Gamification features such as points, levels, and rewards motivate employees and build a healthy competitive environment for pushing beyond limits. Using serious games for onboarding process also allows your new hires to display more enthusiasm in their roles from the start.

9. Promotes Ongoing Learning and Skill Enhancement

Serious games are extremely useful in cultivating a culture of ongoing education in your organization. These games enable your employees to regularly practice new skills and knowledge regularly, transforming learning into a continuous journey rather than a stagnating event.

By providing multiple levels and increasingly difficult tasks, serious games designed for your employee’s corporate training establish a structured progression for learners to improve at their speed.

This is especially advantageous in skill-heavy industries, where workers must stay in touch with evolving technologies, procedures, or regulations. Continuous education through serious games helps keep employees informed, minimizes skill gaps, and guarantees that they remain proficient and adaptable to emerging challenges.

10. Drives Analytics and Measurable Outcomes

Tracking progress and measuring training effectiveness is important in corporate training programs, and serious games for onboarding and employee development offer detailed analytics.

Through game-based training, organizations can gather data on each employee’s performance, strengths, and areas that need improvement. This data-driven insight helps managers tailor follow-up training to address skill gaps and provide targeted support.

By setting clear objectives within the game, employers can assess whether employees are meeting desired competencies. This not only improves the overall quality of your training program but also enhances employee development, as specific areas of growth are identified and addressed transparently.

11. Appeals to the Younger Workforce

With the rise of a younger, tech-savvy workforce, serious games are appropriate for modern corporate training. Younger employees, especially millennials and Gen Z, often respond well to interactive and digital forms of learning, making serious games an ideal method of connecting with them.

These games incorporate digital elements and gamification that align with the expectations of younger employees, who are familiar with digital interfaces and quick, interactive content.

Also Read: Course Development to Equip a Tech-Savvy Workforce with AI Readiness

In Conclusion

Serious gaming for industrial training allows learners to interact with the subject matter, face real-world challenges, implement their innovative thinking capacity to resolve problems, and master the necessary skills by playing the games over and over.

Game-based training programs are becoming increasingly popular as soft skills (communication skills, critical thinking, leadership, decision-making, people management, etc.) are in high demand in multiple industries.

Serious games for corporate training are the most suitable way to practice problem-solving skills in a virtual environment without any real danger. Therefore, corporate enterprises should consider serious games to train their employees and improve their skills.

Get help from our team to level up your team’s skills through engaging, game-based learning solutions.