Unlocking Productivity in Large Workforces Through Gamified Learning

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Riha Jaishi: Hello, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Vantage HR Influencers podcast. I'm your host, Riha. And today we are talking about a powerful lever for large organizations, unlocking productivity through gamified learning. In large workforces, learning often competes with daily deadlines. Even well-designed programs can feel optional, hard to complete, or disconnected from the work employees are expected to deliver. Gamified learning takes a different approach. It turns development into a more structured experience with momentum, clear goals, tracked progress, timely reinforcement, and a sense of achievement that keeps people moving forward. Now, when done right, it shifts learning from a calendar event to a more operating rhythm that supports capability building at scale. And to help us unpack what effective gamified learning looks like in practice, I'm joined by Dr. Ujjal Sengupta, Deputy General Manager, Human Resources at Jio. Welcome to the show, Ujjal. It's a pleasure to have you with us today.

Dr. Ujjal Sengupta: Yeah, thank you so much, Riha. Good morning. That's a really lovely start. And gamification is the need of the hour to make an impact to business. That's obviously the introduction you give. It is the need of the hour in order to make the business KPIs move, increase the productivity, right? So we have been practicing this for quite a long time, and we have got results, right? Because traditionally, if you see, Riha, when you come to L&D, it is like giving a lecture with a PPT, but in a gamified approach, when it comes to adult learning, it is like learning on the go, learning at work. So in a traditional learning, the retention is hardly 30% as per research. Once you come out of the classroom, you tend to retain just 30%, and 70% goes off if you don't practice, right? So in a gamified approach, what we have launched over the days is a lot of engagement activities in terms of L&D, like Happiness League, because ultimately we are driving employee happiness. Happiness League, then Jio Udaan League, boxing championship, and all these are in the lines of a tournament, like IPL. And believe me, there is a big competition which happens between the teams, right? And ultimately, it is a learning for everyone. And the most, what the owners seek, is the impact. What is the ROI? So the ROI, when it comes to the impact on business, it is immense. So, I hope I have explained what's the difference between the traditional approach and the current, more evolved approach, what the coming days it is going to look like.

Riha Jaishi: That's such an interesting take. It sounded so exciting. Okay, so I'm really looking forward to the conversation ahead.

Dr. Ujjal Sengupta: But believe me, it has to get linked with rewards. Until unless you have rewards, no reward points, leaderboards, right? Time to time, flashing who is at what point, like in IPL, whatever happens. Until and unless we give teasers, the momentum doesn't build, that this person is standing at this level, this person is standing at this level. So that creates that competition in order to achieve the KPIs.

Riha Jaishi: Yes, absolutely. Well said. Okay, so Ujjal, now just to start off, can you briefly take us through your professional journey? To begin with, we are really eager to learn about your journey.

Dr. Ujjal Sengupta: Yeah, so I carry with myself a total of around 27 years of work, with varied industries in terms of hotels, construction, telecom. And my recent achievement in terms of academics, I have always believed that academics and industry has to go collaborative. A recent achievement is the doctorate degree, which I got last month only, from JBIMS, Jamnalal Bajaj, under Mumbai University. So my research topic was the impact of diversity and inclusion on employee performance. And it has been a wonderful journey so far. I'm a core HR person, and I believe that whatever we do needs to have an impact on business. That's the ultimate goal. It should lead to employee happiness. And second is the ESAT, employee satisfaction score. And it should have an impact on the business KPIs. That's the ultimate objective, what we believe in.

Riha Jaishi: Yes, that's such an enriching experience, Ujjal, and thank you for sharing your experience. Okay, so now moving ahead. So since you have given us a gist, since you have already discussed the difference between the current and the traditional gamification approach to learning, Ujjal, how do you ensure that gamified learning isn't just entertaining, but it also contributes to improving productivity?

Dr. Ujjal Sengupta: So as I said, it has to get linked with the KPIs, that is first and foremost. If it is not linked with the KPIs, it doesn't make any difference. Not entertainment, but it has to link with some rewards. Until unless we give incentive to people, it will never work. And it is not that in a traditional approach, we take these people to a classroom. Here what is happening, it is on the job. People are working on the job and trying to learn from peers also, and achieve the result, achieve the target. So that's very scalable in the long run also. It can involve large workforces also. To give you an example, I managed a contact center where we have a total of 10,000 workforce advisors. So the entire workforce is engaged at the same time, achieving the same goal. So that's very important. It is not that it is just, I go to a classroom and learn something and I go off. It is not like that. It is entirely every day, people have to thrive to get the results. That is very important.

Riha Jaishi: So, Ujjal, you mentioned a very key point here, that how the gamified learning should be linked with the KPIs and the rewards as well. So I guess that's a major point here to be taken into consideration, right?

Dr. Ujjal Sengupta: Absolutely, absolutely.

Riha Jaishi: Okay, so now moving ahead, Ujjal, when you scale gamified learning across a large workforce, what are some of the biggest challenges you face, and how do you try to overcome them?

Dr. Ujjal Sengupta: Okay, very good question, Riha. In fact, when it comes to gamification, it has to be role driven. It cannot be a one-size-fits-all approach. It has to be role driven. Say, for example, for an agent level, it has to be a different set of KPIs. For a team leader level, it has to be a different set of KPIs. We cannot make the same KPIs for everyone. It has to be customized as per the different people. Second, in a gamified approach, it has to be seasonal. Otherwise, people, it becomes boring at times. Like, taking the example of IPL, if we did it every month, people would lose interest. It has to be a seasonal thing, that this is going to come in this quarter. So gamification is not a monthly activity that we do. Gamification we do in a quarter, and it goes for the entire month. It's a long-run driven activity. So these are the challenges. Technological challenge is also there, because our workforce is totally work from home. They log in from their home. So to ensure that they achieve the productivity, they have to be given the required tools, the laptops, the mobile devices. So the device factor plays a big role in order that they achieve the results. That's very important. So these are the major challenges that we can expect in a gamified learning methodology. But otherwise, believe me, from the traditional approach to gamification, it makes a huge impact.

Riha Jaishi: Absolutely. Ujjal, I really liked how you talked about gamified learning being more role driven, and not the one-size-fits-all aspect. People are really moving away from that, right? One size fits all does not really work these days. So customization and personalization is the need of the hour, like you said. And the very important, crucial point you have given here, that gamification should be seasonal. So I guess that's a very important point to be taken into consideration for other HR leaders out there who are not really much aware about gamification. So they should keep this in mind, that it should be more seasonal and not on a monthly basis.

Dr. Ujjal Sengupta: Absolutely, absolutely, correct.

Riha Jaishi: Okay, so now moving ahead. So in a gamified learning environment, how do you balance competition with collaboration? And can both coexist effectively in large workplaces? What do you think, Ujjal?

Dr. Ujjal Sengupta: Well, competition and collaboration, both must coexist. At the same time, in a training, there is something called pull and push. So at times, the organization pushes people to the training room, "go, go, go to the training room," right? And at times, employees are self-motivated to come to the training room, that's called pull. So when it comes to collaboration, it is very important. I would rather take this as 70% should be collaboration, and 30% should be competition. Without collaboration, a gamification, engagement, learning activity cannot be successful. I'll give you an example. We reward the support functions also, not only the workforce gets rewarded, we reward the support functions also, who keep on motivating, who keep on charging up this workforce. Like, for example, HR gets rewarded, the quality team gets rewarded, the training team gets rewarded, the team lead gets rewarded, the team manager gets rewarded. So ultimately, it's a team approach, that no one is left behind. It's a collaborative approach of learning that everyone gets. So the leadership skills of the team leader get improved. HR is motivated in order to publish results that motivate the team. So there's a healthy competition which happens in a gamified approach. So I would believe that without teamwork, without collaboration, nothing will be successful.

Riha Jaishi: Absolutely, that's a big point you said, without collaboration, and the coexistence of both is necessary. And like you said, 70% collaboration and 30% competition, that should balance.

Dr. Ujjal Sengupta: Yes, yes, certainly, certainly. There should be a balance between that.

Riha Jaishi: Yes, great. Okay, then, moving ahead. So what metrics or KPIs do you use to measure the success of gamified learning programs? And how do you really tie these programs to that increased productivity level?

Dr. Ujjal Sengupta: Okay, when it comes to measuring the KPIs, I'll give you a contact center example only. KPIs like the NPS score, KPIs like the AHT, average handling time, reduction, KPIs like productivity improvement, KPIs, most important, like engagement score, how many people are participating. That's a big yardstick, whether the people are liking such engagement activity or not. If the people are not participating, it doesn't make any point doing a gamification activity. But if the people are participating in such engagement activity, that is the ultimate success of that particular activity. Having said that, the skill development must happen, right? The capability, what you spoke about, there must be a capability development, and simultaneously outcome should happen, because I believe personally that whatever input you give, you get the output. So if we give the right inputs, the outcome is certainly going to happen in terms of increasing the productivity, increasing the scores of the organization. Attrition will come down, and we have experienced this. I'm not telling you anything from the book, it is my practical experience that I'm sharing with all of you, that it has really helped us to reduce the attrition. The employee happiness score has increased, the engagement, the ESAT has increased. So it really works in organizations, and you have to customize it. I'm just giving you an example of a contact center, say in sales, in outbound sales, your sales will increase. So we have to make it very customized as per the organization's needs. That's very important.

Riha Jaishi: Yes, that's such a strong set of measurement KPIs that you have given. It's more like moving beyond metrics like completion and focusing on these important KPIs, indicators that really signal real capability and performance, right?

Dr. Ujjal Sengupta: Because what I meant to say is that's the ultimate outcome, that is ROI. But the owners seek that. I have invested, say, 50,000 on a gamification activity. What is the outcome that you are giving me? So owners will obviously look for results. So until unless there is an impact, it doesn't make any sense to launch that activity.

Riha Jaishi: Absolutely, absolutely. Okay, now, before we wrap up our session, so now looking ahead, Ujjal, how do you see gamified learning evolving in the next couple of years, especially in the context of large workforces? And what are the emerging trends that organizations should keep an eye on? What do you have to say?

Dr. Ujjal Sengupta: Okay, we have a very good question because what is the future? Future is going to be very AI driven. Your skills may be different, my skills may be different. I'll give you a social media example. In social media, what happens is they will give you a challenge that you do this, this week you will get this much reward. And that challenge is different for everyone. It is not that the same challenge is given to a particular person. It differs based on the activity that you're doing on social media, and it is all AI driven. You get this many followers, you get this reward, you get this many content, you get this reward. So in the coming days, it is going to be entirely AI-driven targets as per the particular skills of the employee. And organizations are going to focus more on skill development rather than plain vanilla qualification improvement. So skills is the new currency that we need to develop for the employees. Second is another trend which I see, is the DNI aspect. Organizations are going to be more focused on the diversity and inclusion of employees, more inclusive employees, including employee participation in decision making, diverse workforce, different cultures of workforce are going to be engaged. We do a lot of analysis on these, like whether one group is a better performer or another, and based on that data, we take decisions on hiring, including hiring people with disabilities. So all this decision making is going to be entirely data driven. Data is going to play a big factor in the L&D space.

Riha Jaishi: These are some amazing pointers that you have talked about, Ujjal. First of all, the AI-driven future, that is a given, everyone is talking about that, and that is something that is currently dominating and it's the future, right? And another aspect is skill development, and I really liked how you called skill the new currency. So I guess that's a very catchy way of rephrasing what's in store for the future. And definitely the diversity and inclusion factor, that is also the need of the hour. And yes, data driven, so data-driven outcomes, or data driven anything related to work, that is what is dominating the workforce scenario, right?

Dr. Ujjal Sengupta: Absolutely, these are some amazing things to really look forward to in the future.

Riha Jaishi: Great. Okay, so Ujjal, we have finally come to the end of our podcast session. So thank you so much for joining us today and sharing your incredible insights. It's been more than a pleasure hearing your wonderful perspectives on the potential of gamified learning to unlock productivity in large workplaces. We really appreciate your time and expertise, and I'm sure everyone tuning into this session is inspired by your expertise and are walking away with a wealth of information to ponder.

Dr. Ujjal Sengupta: My pleasure. It was wonderful to have a conversation early in the morning today. Thank you so much.

Riha Jaishi: Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you once again, Ujjal. And to our listeners, thank you for tuning in. We hope you found today's conversation as enlightening as we did. So until next time, take care, and we'll see you soon.

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