For companies wanting to tackle “quiet quitting” and reignite employee engagement, especially for Gen Z, learning opportunities may be one of the most effective but overlooked solutions. According to a Glint report, the No. 1 driver of strong company culture is the opportunity to learn and grow at work. A Gallup survey found similar sentiments among Gen Z employees, with 66% of employees ages 18 to 24 ranking “learning new skills” in their top three most valued benefits when looking for a new job, only following health insurance and disability benefits.

However, the days of getting away with dry training sessions are well and truly over, especially when designing for a new generation of digital natives. To meet both the learning and engagement needs of employees in the new world of work, the experience needs to be interactive, dynamic and compelling, and one of the most powerful ways of achieving this is through friendly competition.

How Does Friendly Competition Boost Learning and Engagement?

Approaches like game-based learning that invite friendly competition harness people’s natural curiosity and competitive instincts to spark genuine motivation and engagement in learning. It can break down barriers and bring people together, fostering teamwork and a sense of belonging. It’s also a great way to introduce more employee recognition. This is key especially for Gen Z, as a recent Gallup survey found that 78% of Gen Z employees want their managers to recognize their work more often.

Friendly competition also happens to be Gen Z workers’ top choice to help them feel more engaged in virtual/hybrid training, meetings and presentations, with 59% saying it would make them feel more engaged, according to a Kahoot! report.

However, when introducing friendly competition in the workplace, there are several key points to consider to get the most out of the experience for both employee engagement and learning outcomes. Let’s take a look.

1. Take Advantage of Technology

Technology has become a must in corporate learning, especially in this era of hybrid and remote work. While most companies now have years of experience with virtual learning and work, Kahoot!’s report shows that many organizations are not wowing employees virtually, with workers naming online employee training as the No. 1 place where they disengage, followed by virtual team meetings and presentations.

For many teams, the next step is to explore the many digital solutions that can take learning to the next level, such as game-based learning. Start by experimenting with the tech you’re interested in, inviting a small group to test it out and give feedback. There are many tools and platforms out there, but quality tech solutions should make workplace learning more dynamic, engaging different senses and inviting participants to interact with the content and each other in meaningful ways.

2. Don’t Stop at “Game Over”

When introducing a bit of friendly competition in your learning, it’s easy to simply enjoy seeing your team engaged in the moment and leave it at that. However, these experiences can offer powerful data and insights into your team that can help you optimize not only future learning sessions, but also day-to-day workflows. Uncover hidden talents and unshared information, skills gaps, new ideas and more. As you explore technology solutions, look for data analysis and other reporting features to help you gather this information and make sense of it.

3. Empower All Employees To Share Their Knowledge

Learning experiences — especially those powered by friendly competition — don’t need to come only from the learning and development (L&D) team. Anyone can create one and share what they know. And while many employees would be intimidated by the thought of training their coworkers, challenging coworkers to a game is exciting.

The power of peer learning is key especially in light of the emerging trend of quiet quitting. The same Kahoot! report found that 58% of employees — and 77% of Gen Z employees — say they’re holding in knowledge that could benefit their coworkers instead of sharing it. Employees cite various reasons for this, including not being asked or given a space to share and feeling that their talent and self-expression is stifled at work. Interestingly, 77% of employees also say they would highly value an engaging way to share their knowledge with coworkers, showing that they want to be team players, but they just need the resources and support to do it.

Start by inviting subject matter experts (SMEs) to share their knowledge with the team, and connect them with your game-based learning platform or other solutions. This can make knowledge transfer easier, enabling SMEs to get creative and feel confident that their training will be engaging (few people want to send their learners to sleep with a dry presentation).

4. Make it a Part of Your Company Culture

Once you have spent some time experimenting with different technologies, styles and formats, and have found strategies that work for your team, it’s time to scale it up across your company. With friendly competition, you can create a culture of learning that keeps employees motivated through interactivity, connection and recognition by both leaders and peers. It may start with formal training sessions, but these strategies can be integrated throughout the workday, from meetings to presentations to events and beyond, until engaging and interactive learning becomes a way of life for your team.

In this kind of company culture, employees not only enjoy coming to work more, but they also can see their company is investing in their growth and development. At the same time, the company benefits from their employees becoming better problem solvers, innovators and collaborators. It may be a competition, but the end result is truly a win-win.