7 ideas for injecting a fun, competitive spirit into your So how can you foster good competition and avoid the bad? Make Sure You Regulate Competition CloselyNo employer ever wants to consider the possibility that their staff would ever act in any way other than completely ethically, but competition, when handled improperly, does have the potential to bring out questionable decision-making in people. For HR, a common struggle is getting employees to complete compliance training. Dont discourage people from working hard but do put safeguards in place to ensure things dont get out of hand. 2. For example, if youre a jewelry brand, you could team up with a fashion blogger and run a contest where followers win a piece of jewelry from your collection. Earn badges to share on LinkedIn and your resume. One way to gaugewhether or notcompetitionwill be successful is to gain an understanding of the personality traits of each of your employees. Mostorganizationsknow the importance of collaboration amongst employees and embrace it with open arms. Gamification provides a vehicle to deploy brief and interactive pulse surveys, allowing you to ask a few targeted questions, and increase the probability of receiving employee responses. How can we trust one another if we're competing in a dog-eat-dog culture? The slot machine is a well-known game and takes minimal effort on the part of your audience: All they have to do is Push the button and match the symbols when the slots stop spinning. Pros of a competitive classroom structure include: Children face the real-world challenge of competition. By setting benchmarks and challenging employees to meet them, youll help stimulate healthy competition with themselves which will ultimately lead to enhanced performance. Communicate with employees the benefits they and the organization can gain. And if you think you and your team could benefit from some formal training on this front, you might want to check outourProductive Feedback & Performance Reviewstraining programwhich can teach you to share feedback in a more positive and impactful way. 9. Examples of positive competition include incentives that wont create conflict. WebDue to severe competition, rapid changes, and high degree of complexity in the workplace, the contemporary business environment may be perceived as strongly stressful by employees at work. Talk to them. At Outback, we useDiSCassessments to get a deeper understanding of each of our team members personalities based on four main characteristics: Dominance, Influence, Conscientiousness, and Steadiness. know the importance of collaboration amongst employees and embrace it with open arms. Women tend to be conservative about their chances of winning in a competitive environment and avoid it. Organizations analyze data and information to develop effective and efficient market strategies. Then, offer some time for employees to unwind and return to a collaborative mentality before digging into the next competition. This is why cooperative competition works well. Compete Against Yourself. However, it isnt always easy to get employees to share company-related content on their personal social media feeds. document.getElementById("ak_js_5").setAttribute("value",(new Date()).getTime()); document.getElementById("ak_js_7").setAttribute("value",(new Date()).getTime()); Do you feel like youve run out of ideas to improve your teams productivity? Competition among employees is a much-discussed and debated element that can affect employee engagement, happiness at work, and performance. Business competition is the process of companies and individuals competing in the same industry or field. is embraced widely by Fortune 500 companies worldwide. The Limited. Heres the twist: For some managers, we highlighted positive consequences that could result (If you achieve a top ranking, you will receive a substantial bonus this month). All rights reserved. Enhancing productivity. Its imperative to outline benchmarks in clear and specific terms and then conduct check-ins to make sure everyones still on track. Scavenger hunts arent only for childrens birthday parties and make for great workplace competitions as well. Its missing important information about why the competition is being set and what business objectives it will achieve. Not a lot of companies have the systems to do this but it can be done old school with badges to put on name plates, for example. This doesnt mean everyone gets a participation trophy. A brief post-competition meeting to discuss lessons learned, personal achievements, and how employees felt about the competition can also be a time to recognize individual and team accomplishments. Celebrate Winners but Dont Bring Down Losers Previously in the article, we mentioned Harvard Business Reviews study on competition in the workplace which stated that competitions based on fear of losing something create anxiety and produce negative results. We also asked them to think about the behaviors they use to distinguish themselves from other employees. The way forward: Chinas priorities in 2023. Ultimately, its important to establish that co-workers are on the same team, and that the ability to work together is a core value. Open-ended competition can yield open-ended results. motivate employees, make them put in more effort, and achieve results, physiological and psychological activation. | Site Map | Privacy Policy. 1. Some ideas for team-building activities include: Scavenger hunt (of course, this has to be on top of the list!) While the rewards offered must have real value to employees, they dont have to be financial ones. According to Itrate, you should consider creating shorter-term competitions withclearend dates and outcomes, such as quarterly sales competitions or a six-month innovation contest. WebDue to severe competition, rapid changes, and high degree of complexity in the workplace, the contemporary business environment may be perceived as strongly Jane Engs. From school-day sack races to the Olympics, research shows that people seem to be hardwired to compete against their peers. Since high-contact sports, such as football, could lead to injuries, its best to avoid these. While some teams may benefit from them, others may suffer. 2023 DeltaQuest Media Limited. The kicker? This approach unifies employees around a common goal and helps eliminate the risk of creating a negative environment where people focus on individually winning. Consider taking legal action. An incompetent manager can ruin the atmosphere in the team, decrease productivity, or even increase employee turnover. A few examples: Ultimately, these and other gamified competitions aim to foster team building and allow people to have fun as they get to knowand appreciateone another. Great feedback should be specific and timely, direct, unbiased, and goal-oriented and actionable (for deeper insights into providing effective feedback, read our blog post:6 Impactful Tips for Mastering the Art of Managing People). Its generally viewed as a positive thing, pushing athletes to higher levels of motivation and performance. All-inclusive HCM service and technology to streamline your processes and procedures. WebFor example, between 2005 and 2014 European companies had 14% women in their boards and this percentage rose to 24% since 2014. This is a BETA experience. But the more anxious managers felt in response to the scenarios, the more likely they would engage in unethical behaviors (even after controlling for their excitement). Positive Competition Vs. competition from a new PRO (which poaches some of the legacy PROs most valuable catalog) and from a burgeoning music Before moving to Las Vegas and becoming a distinguished photographer, Jane Engs, M.Photog., was a Nashville mom with an artistic eye. The organization treated their managers as team owners who then drafted sales reps onto five fantasy teams. Problems with workplace competitiveness arise when it becomes toxic. Abe Turner, performance consultantKingwood, Texas. All rights reserved. 1. The brain strongly desires these feel-good chemicals, and so the team is intrinsically motivated.. Competition in the workplace: Striking a healthy balance with employee engagement Ian Edwards January 4, 2021 Humans compete over just about anything. Done poorly and it destroys morale and team work. Using gamification for compliance training, such as incorporating interactive videos, quizzes, etc., provides a different approach that can bring in some fun and help to apply the training concepts to employees work day. Those rewards, in turn, incite employees to work harder to achieve the same. Managers read the scenarios and then had to decide how to respond. AtOutback, for instance,we useKlipfolioto automateour sales teams call volume, sales numbers, and closing percentage in real time on a screen located in our sales office. Employees need to know any competition with their peers is grounded in trust and productivity, not fear and despondency. In turn, this can be a catalyst for innovation and improvement. 4 Real-Life Examples of Effective Communication in the Workplace Buffers Company-Wide Email Credit Karmas Open-Door Policy Bridgewater Associates Meeting Records HubSpots Question-Friendly Environment 1. This result is one of the most significant benefits that gamification offers. While scavenger hunts typically take more effort and creativity to organize than other competitions, they can be worth it. High productivity can be a sign of a competitive workplace, as workers who are trying to show that they can outdo each other work faster and more efficiently. Jane Engs. I created new hire orientation scavenger hunts. 6 things to keep in mind about workplace competition. Its best to create less frequent but more meaningful competitions that focus on achievable goals and building camaraderie. This organizational culture aims high and frequently achieves those heights, Adhocracy can ramp up competition in the workplace. When organized properly, workplace competitions are fun, and sharing fun activities with coworkers can promote team building. Some of our customers have added in real-life rewards for the winning team such as travel credits, cash, or high-valueprizing. Encourage open and more productive communication between employees and managers and among employees themselves. Set Finite Time Limits and Provide Prizing with Real Value Some competition is good, but too much competition can be suffocating. For example, for each step of the way toward a goal, reward people with a badge (think color-coded karate belts) that shows off their progress and commitment. 7. Conversely, when people interpret their arousal from a competition as excitement, they are more likely to select creative behaviors to solve problems, and less likely to be unethical. Encouraging your employees to be advocates for the company on social media is an effective way to increase brand visibility and attract customers. Its also important for organizations to offer prizes or incentives that have real value to employees. Even the Department of Health and Human Services adopted a competitive approach to the work of bureaucracy as they created a Shark Tank-esque competition to incentivize innovation amongst government employees. Gloria Sims, senior human resource specialistFort Worth, Texas. Therefore, when holding workplace competitions, always be sure to keep an eye on how your employees respond. Since eating is a universal experience, it can be a great It also promotes creativity and often leads to innovation. BeeLiked believes employee engagement can make a real difference in employee attitude, motivation, happiness, and productivity. Manipulation of human behavior B. When they feel anxious, theyre more likely to cut corners or sabotage one another. Here are 10 team strengths and weaknesses examples in the workplace: 1. If youre looking for a way to help your team to become stronger and more effective communicators,ourClear Communicationtraining and developmentprogramprovidestactics on how to enhance their holistic communications skills. For example, a report by Paul Moore, former head of Risk Management at HBOS, in which he interviewed 140 bank staff, found that one branch actually had a Cash or Cabbages Day where employees who exceeded sales targets were publicly rewarded with cash, while those who missed their bonuses were given literal cabbagesin front of the rest of the team. Thats because, by facilitating a light-heartedly competitive environment for your team where the outcomes are less serious than a real-world competition, you can gaugewhether or notyour team might be successful if you were to integrate a sense of competitiveness into the workplace. 3. A steps challenge can be done without any extra equipment costs, as most employees can track their steps with their smartphone app or wearable fitness tracker. In fact, according to research from Queens University of Charlotte, 75% of employers rate teamwork and collaboration as being very important a fact reinforced by Salesforce data that shows80% of businessesuse social collaborationtools liketeam buildingto enhance business processes. Managers had to select how they would deal with the client. You may opt-out by. It depends on how the competition makes employees feel. For instance, General Electric and Groupon have been known to cut the bottom 10 percent of their employees annually. One powerful example is for leaders to encourage employees to use their signature strengths in a way that benefits others as well as themselves. Want a game that wheelie works? Participating employees then bring in their homemade dish to enter in the competition. In addition, they promote Thats whyworkplacecompetition is embraced widely by Fortune 500 companies worldwide. Examples of Perfect For instance, Thompson Reuters created a catalyst fund an internal pool of money that internal innovation teams could use for doing rapid proof of concept on new ideas to stimulate and encourage outside-the-box thinking. After only a few weeks, 60 percent of the team was actively participating in the program and were truly engaged. Leaders can generateexcitement by highlighting the potential positive consequences of competition (e.g., the recognition and rewards that await outstanding performers) rather than creating anxiety by singling out and highlighting low performers. Mutual respect: A. Building a game around company information, from fun facts about the founding of the company to current 2. The feeling of being challenged often leads to greater performance. All employees can get the chance to taste the dishes and vote on a winner. 3. Once youve established the purpose, it will be easier to decide what type of competition is most suitable. New employees have to search their new workplace for various information and locations, such as common communication boards, departments, meeting rooms, cafeterias, etc. But the good news is that it can be done effectively, it doesnt have to be difficult, it can be done in tandem with and can even boost collaboration, and it presents opportunities for amazing outcomes. Employees received raffle tickets based upon the number of days they were safe. And for this reason, an employee advocacy contest is a great motivator. Healthy debate and open communication promote healthy conflict, which is key to encouraging employees to challenge and learn from one another. The idea is to be able to compare results to co-workers on a leader board. versus collaboration in the workplace is that, when executed improperly, it can bring challenging and negative implications. 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