Gamification and Resource Pooling for Improving Operational Efficiency and Effective Management of Human Resources: A Case Study with an Ecommerce Company

The authors of this article attempted combining the two methodologies of gamification and resource pooling with a view to derive the maximum productivity from the organization drawing certain significant commonalities. Another biggest motive behind the authors for combining these two techniques is the fact that eCommerce is a business vertical or a market place where people from all walks of life participate in online purchases. eCommerce is not a market place where it is restricted to one particular community, region, age, colour etc., So to interact, involve and conduct the business operations with an inclusive mindset, the authors thought that it would be appropriate to gamify and pooling the resources such that there would be a perfect blend of resources with utmost motivation to serve all the stakeholders, irrespective of their age, gender, community, region, economic status, in ecommerce. It turned out to be a practical solution as it proved to be promoting an atmosphere that fosters friendship and loyalty, and these close-knit relationships motivate employees; align them to work much harder, cooperate and be supportive to each other. This is possible because every individual possesses diverse talents, weaknesses, communication skills, strengths, habits, and hence it is optimally balanced out. Gamification is a method to enhance employee engagement, behavioral change and motivation. Application of gamification is not limited to eCommerce business models, but can be applied to various other business models in the sectors like education, research, healthcare etc. So also, the human resource pooling is building and grouping of human resources for best use to improve the operational efficiency and reduce the costs. The human resource pooling can happen during fine tuning of a cultural fit, organization mergers, change in organization structure, technological changes and on acquiring new technology. In this study we have considered a group of 120 employees who were further divided to 6 functional groups, having 20 employees in each functional group. In this paper we report the outcome of application of gamification and resource pooling techniques and benefits in an eCommerce industry.