Empowered Communications: Remote Workplace Gamification with Microsoft Teams

By Sudipto Ghosh On May 14, 2020

Centrical Brings its Employee Engagement, Learning, and Performance Management Capabilities to Microsoft’s Collaboration Hub

In a major tech integration to boost employee engagement during the ongoing global lockdown, HR Tech platform Centrical has announced a key partnership with Microsoft Teams. Centrical, a leading provider of holistic employee engagement and real-time performance management solutions, will now sync with Microsoft’s unified communications and collaboration hub- Teams. Employees who use Teams will now be able to leverage Centrical to motivate, train, and help employees set and pursue performance goals directly from the Microsoft platform.

The Centrical for Teams integration is Microsoft-approved.

Recently, Microsoft launched its Family Safety Apps in a preview version for iOS and Android devices.

Centrical + Teams Brings Analytics-Driven Workforce Management

The Centrical for Teams integration provides companies with a proven-effective way to create a routine for employees’ new workstyle but with familiar elements they will find reassuring. Leaderboards, challenges, and missions are all there as is the ability to recognize and reward stellar performance.

At the time of this announcement, Gal Rimon, Centrical’s Founder and CEO said,

“A major operational challenge the COVID-19 pandemic has created for large businesses is being able to manage the experience and performance of the great number of employees now working from home. The integration of Centrical with Microsoft Teams helps solves that, easily and effectively.”

Gal added, “Centrical for Teams helps to create a ‘new normal’ for connecting employees with their managers, to each other, aligning on goals as well as having the drive to perform.”

Performance Management on Teams Built on Conversations and Learning

Centrical’s structured and closed-loop communications capability makes conversations between managers and employees highly productive, even if they’re miles apart. Along with that, it lets organizations rapidly reskill or upskill employees to handle shifting roles and responsibilities by way of quickly deployed remote learning programs.

“The Centrical integration adds a layer of employee performance management capabilities that makes Microsoft Teams even more beneficial for organizations,” said Mike Ammerlaan, director, Microsoft 365 Ecosystem at Microsoft Corp.

Mike added, “Centrical on Teams keeps remote employees focused on their goals, maintain their skills, or develop new ones and allows for peer recognition, a valuable way to keep employees connected to each other.”

Learn on ‘Teams ‘ with Centrical Bot

A compelling aspect of the Centrical for Teams integration is the Centrical Bot.

It allows for automated push notifications with user interactivity for things like daily updates on scores or KPI results, and reminders to complete learning activities. It also lets polling be conducted so businesses can quickly grasp the mindset of employees – either company-wide, at the unit level or individually. In addition, users can share badges they’ve earned in their Teams channels to earn recognition for their efforts from peers and managers.

The Centrical Bot can also act as a focal point for gamified performance challenges and microlearning. The data from those and other activities using game mechanics can be pushed to the Centrical platform where it can be used to assign points for achieving KPIs, completing learning activities or correctly answering quizzes – creating a helpful, fun competition that encourages participation.

Remote Workplace Gamification: An Improved Employee Experience

This integration brings to Teams the powerful blend of real-time performance management and personalized microlearning with advanced gamification, uniquely offered by the Centrical platform. It enhances the employee experience on Teams in terms of engagement, learning, and performance through these features and functions that are part of the integration.

*Performanc*e	*Learning*	*Engagement*
Leaderboards	Personalized microlearning	Personalized competitions
Group challenges	Quizzes	Badges
Levels	Simulations	Virtual store
KPI tracker	Puzzles	Instant messaging
Manager evaluations	Content in a variety of formats	Community board
Personalized training		Kudos

Each integration is supported by a dedicated Centrical expert on the company’s Customer Success team to ensure an effortless and error-free deployment and utilization.

Currently, Centrical employee engagement and performance management solutions help companies motivate employees to exceed their own KPIs. It does this by blending advanced gamification with personalized microlearning and real-time employee performance management.

Centrical’s platform produces improvements like +12% employee productivity, +20% average deal values, +30% faster onboarding, and +12% customer satisfaction KPI for multinational enterprises like Microsoft, Novartis, Synchrony Financial, Teleperformance, and Unilever among others.