3 April 2025

Gamification: how to motivate your team and let your planning run itself

Smooth staff planning and management? Here’s how gamification can help.

Planning is everything. You’re well-prepared, you know who’s available to work where, and everything’s under control. But then… your team doesn’t respond. Open shifts go unanswered, availabilities are forgotten, and clock-ins happen far too late.

And yes—no matter how flawless your planning is, without active participation from your team, things can quickly turn into a frustrating game of pushing, pulling, and constantly playing catch-up.

But what if you didn’t have to keep chasing that engagement? What if it could be activated automatically? Let us introduce you to the world of gamification—and how you can implement it right away using CrewPlanner.

What is gamification?

Gamification means adding game-like elements to everyday tasks. It makes “must-do” activities a little more fun, more engaging, and—most importantly—rewarding.
And no, you don’t need confetti or a trophy cabinet. Just smart triggers that drive your team to act, without adding extra work for you.

How gamification helps you plan more efficiently

In the CrewPlanner Employee App, employees earn points for actions you, as a manager, want to encourage:

Clocking in and out on time
Marking availability for shifts
Quickly responding to open shifts
Volunteering for extra shifts

All these behaviors directly contribute to smoother planning. And because employees earn points (and rewards) for doing them, they’ll do it faster—and more often.

From “have to” to “want to”

Without gamification, you’re constantly reminding your team: “Don’t forget to update your availability”, “Can you pick up this shift?”, “Why didn’t you clock out?”.

With gamification, the motivation comes from them. They want to earn points, climb the leaderboard, or save up for a reward—like:

A free lunch
A gift voucher
An early finish on Friday

The result? You spend less time chasing and get faster insights into availability and shift fulfillment.

Activate gamification in CrewPlanner in 5 easy steps

Go to Settings > Configuration
Set Gamification to "Yes"
Enable the appropriate user rights (Manage gamification)
Define your desired achievements and rewards
Set Gamification for employees to "Yes"

From that moment on, employees will see a trophy icon in their app, where they can track their points, ranking, and rewards.

As a manager, you’re in full control of which actions earn points, how many they’re worth, and what your team can redeem them for. All purchases are tracked in a clear Gamification Dashboard.

💡 Tip: Keep rewards small, specific, and close to the workplace. Think: “Clock in on time every day this week = free sandwich on Friday.”