Linking Motivation and Employee Engagement through Gamification in Remote Working

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, numerous organizations have shifted to remote work, telework, or work from home (WFH) for the employees’ safety. However, remote work reduces motivation, especially if employees have no choice on where to work. Apart from the motivation of employees, the levels of engagement are also decreasing.  With the emergence of telework, numerous challenges are also identified. This research identifies, enumerates, and establishes the need for gamification, a trending concept that uses game elements (or motivational affordances which include points, leaderboards, badges, etc.) to non-game context (marketing/commerce, education, work, etc.) in remote work, to increase the levels of engagement and motivation, as well as to overcome the challenges employees encounter in the new set-up. With the lack of in-depth literature on gamification together with the emergence of work-from-home in the new normal, the researcher used a qualitative design to explore the concept and interviewed 10 employees from the Philippines who were forced to work remotely. The participants for the interview were chosen using the purposive sampling method and were asked about their perceptions on motivation, employee engagement, and games, as well as their perception towards implementing gamification in their new workplace. The interviews were done through online interviews (conference call). This research shows a positive response and potential effect on leveraging both motivation and employee engagement through gamification. With the perceptions of the participants toward gamification, this paper could help develop concepts or theories for potential quantitative research, as well as encourage organizations to implement gamification in the workplace to avoid potential problems.