Supporting Employee Engagement and Knowledge Transfer via Gamification in the Context of Sheltered Workplaces: A Literature Review and Interview Study

Gamification describes the use of game design elements in non-game contexts. It is used in various domains to motivate users to exhibit a desired behavior. Gamification is applied in industrial settings, to motivate employees and improve quality. However, gamification with the aim of fostering knowledge sharing and in user groups with disabilities is underexplored and limited to case studies in specific use cases. This paper investigates the applications of gamification in sheltered workplaces for people with disabilities and identifies research directions. It reports a literature review and a qualitative interview study to identify motivations of employees and suggest matching gamification mechanics. Our findings indicate that gamification mechanics for these environments should avoid performance pressure and focus on motivations such as social relatedness and emphasize the achievement of teams. The paper presents and motivates prototypes of these mechanics.