AmBank Gamified HR Townhall Download

To supplement their initiative in digitalising the customer experience, AmBank sought to explore similar ways of improving internal processes. One of the first ideas was to increase communication within the Group HR department. People Psyence^® undertook a project to gamify the organisation’s upcoming HR Townhall and saw a qualitative increase in participation and engagement

Banking on social interactions for a successful digital journey

The Goal

AmBank, one of the largest banking groups in Malaysia, embarked on their Digital Journey for customers, starting in 2017 with the launch of AmOnline, their digital banking service.
As part of a restructuring exercise, AmBank’s work system needed a revamp. Following an engagement survey, Group HR worked out an action plan that included skip level meetings as well as World Café, allowing them to discover the following issues that needed to be addressed:

1) In a working environment that was too process-driven, HR personnel were still working in silos despite being able to socialise well with each other.
2) HR personnel wanted to have a better idea of what other colleagues are doing in order to develop better appreciation for each other’s roles.
3) To create high performance teams and better collaboration, HR personnel wanted to bring their interactions with each other to another level Initially, the usual Townhall was planned get everyone in Group HR aligned on the department’s restructured functions but AmBank’s project team knew that the existing Townhall format would not yield the expected results because it was always a challenge to get non-management employees to contribute opinions and feedback in a public setting.

In order to get input at grassroots level and create cross border interaction where people can start building on each other’s ideas, the project team decided to adopt an unique and customised solution to encourage others to share their opinions and feedback.
So, for the upcoming Townhall, the project team required the following elements:

(1) Equal and inclusive engagement. All employees to actively contribute, and not just those in management roles – employee participation is paramount.
(2) Holistic communication. A method to encourage a more well-rounded form of communication that comes from all levels
rather than top-down.
(3) Purposefully-driven. A digital element in the Townhall so that they have data science to support the work they are doing; via measurement of participation, engagement, etc.

Our gamification approach involves achieving objectives via
customised interactive challenges, flashcards, and topics.

The Tools

People Psyence^® co-facilitated an internal project team with a HR lead across only five (5) half-days on how the objectives can be achieved via a gamification approach. From deciding on an overall theme to crafting 21 specific challenges, our years of experience in gamification paired with our knowledge transfer methodology enabled the team to grasp the concept effectively and successfully deliver within a short period of time.

Together with People Psyence^®, a 4-day journey culminating in a Townhall on the last day was planned. The Townhall day included on-ground challenges such as reporting for duty (clocking in attendance via a QR code) and teaming up with different HR personnel by taking a group photo. For the challenges, in conjunction with the current trends that most people can relate to, an overarching theme of superheroes was conceptualised. Aside from standard knowledge tests and quizzes on general HR topics, we curated activities that were group-focused with a common goal such as completing challenges together during lunch, teaming up against a “betrayer”, taking photos with leaders to activate game elements, and so on.

Our Values

Creating relevant content. We delivered an experiential Townhall that was relatable and resulted in a kind of engagement that had not been seen before in the organisation. Understanding what makes people tick, we created an experience that was not just encouraging interactions for the sake of socialising, but also had elements of teamwork and challenges that required people to band together.

The Results

With a gamification platform acting as an intermediary between the participants and HR leaders, the Townhall saw more questions than average being asked, and there were also discussions around topics such as staff benefits and salaries. Overall, there was an increased understanding and awareness of roles and people within group HR beyond the processes, which will help facilitate future work.

Client Quote

When embarking on this project, we were looking at a partnership rather than the typical client-vendor arrangement. Digitalisation is not new to us, but in areas such as gamification, we wanted to tap on People Psyence^®’s expertise. Together, our goal was to create an experience – not to get another task done. Thanks to everyone’s commitment, we pulled this off successfully within a short period of time, with the results that we wanted to see.