November 13, 2020

7 Reasons Why We Launched The Shop

Dana Bernardino

This week, 1Huddle rolled out our biggest product release yet: the shop. So, what is the shop exactly? Well, the shop is 1Huddle’s new on-demand game marketplace with over 250 games across 16 workforce skill areas. We have transformed best-selling nonfiction books, seminars, and workshops from elite partners in every industry into quick-burst games that any team can play in minutes. Put simply, this is any topic, in a game, on-demand. Here are seven reasons why 1Huddle decided to launch it:

1. To make life easier for managers

Managers are busy. The pandemic has made managers’ jobs more stressful and complex. But with the shop, finding the right tools to train, upskill, and fire up your workers is as easy and convenient as scrolling through Netflix to find the next series you’re going to binge. Let’s say a manager needs to conduct leadership training for an employee who’s recently been promoted. All the manager needs to do is click on our “Leadership & Management” game category where they will be able to see all of 1Huddle’s games on leadership such as “Conflict Management,” “Effective Coaching,” and “Creative Thinking.” Every game in our marketplace is fully stocked with images, a preview screen, and trophies so all you have to do is press the + button to add it to your library. And that’s it! Once a manager adds the games they want to their library, everyone within the organization will have access to them and can start playing right away.

2. PEOPLE WANT MORE

Players on 1Huddle have been asking us for more games for years, so we decided it was time to listen and give our players what they’ve been asking for. Since we know that every worker has their own unique set of skills and interests they want to improve upon, we created the shop as a way to democratize our game library. Now, workers are no longer limited to certain types of games and content. For example, an entry-level worker starting their first day at a new job will have access to the same leadership training and content as their organization’s CEO. Because once a manager adds a game to their personalized library from our new marketplace, it becomes available to all of their workers. By democratizing game access this way, the shop also helps workplaces in every industry become more equitable. We’ve already had some inspiring success stories where players working in one role were able to be promoted to a new position after upskilling and reskilling with 1Huddle’s games. One of our favorite stories is from a former security guard at Loews Hotels who played our bartending games and realized he had a passion for bartending. He went on to make an internal move to become a bartender at Loews Hotels, and reached out to 1Huddle to let us know he’s more content and fulfilled in his career than ever before. So whether players are looking to improve upon the skills they already have or harness new ones, the shop is the perfect avenue for giving workers the tools to take the next step toward success.

3. To make employees more well rounded

As technology continues to disrupt our workplaces and jobs, 1Huddle’s marketplace gives workers access to the skills they want so that every worker, regardless of industry or seniority level, will have a full arsenal of skills they can use both inside and outside of the workplace. That’s why the shop is equipped with 16 unique workforce skill areas:

Books & Entertainment
Business & Markets
Communication & Social Skills
Company Trivia
Customer Service
Diversity & Inclusion
Health & Wellness
Hospitality
Human Resources
IT
Leadership & Management
Personal Development
Policy & Compliance
Sales
Society & Culture
Workplace Safety

By rolling out games that cover a diverse range of topics, we are giving workers the opportunity to become more well rounded. This has become especially important for success in today’s workforce, as nearly three-quarters of business leaders say the top quality they look for when hiring new employees is someone who is well-rounded with a range of abilities. Since every job and workplace comes with its own unique set of challenges that requires workers to have a broad range of cross-cutting skills, we created the shop so that every worker can harness skills that can be applied to any problem or situation they encounter throughout their career.

4. WORK IS CHANGING

The workforce is changing faster than ever, and we are giving employees across every vertical a way to adapt to the shifting nature of jobs so that workers worldwide are prepared for the future of work. The World Economic Forum found that the half-life of professional skills is only five years, yet the average worker only spends 4.2 years at any given job. That means that the skills a worker is gaining in their current job will likely become obsolete by the time they start their next one. Research also shows that more than 35% of the skills workers need to be successful in the workplace—regardless of industry—have changed within the past five years. We created the shop as a way to bridge the skills gap and solve this worsening problem. Every game in our marketplace is continuously updated to ensure that all of our content is progressing as quickly as the workforce itself, because we know that old training manuals and flashcards aren’t getting the job done.

5. Learning Management Systems are too slow

Let’s be honest: Learning Management Systems (LMS) are failing. It’s crazy that in 2020 it takes 106 hours to develop an eLearning course. Then, after all that time and energy is expended making the course, most workers don’t even read or watch the course material. We’re living in a time when nearly 25% of employees in America are working from home, so delivering training and content that’s quick and up-to-date has become more essential than ever. Before the pandemic began, only 8% of workers across the U.S. were telecommuting, so ensuring that employees can win from anywhere was less of a priority for most employers than it is today. But that was 2019. It’s 2020, and the future of work is now. If your LMS is still stuck in 2019 (or in the ‘90s when most eLearning was created) then you’re already behind. The new normal has arrived, and our solutions for leveling up and firing up our workers has to arrive with it. That’s why we created the shop to be on-demand, up to date, and equipped with hundreds of games workers actually enjoy playing.

6. We need to keep our workers connected

Remote work is here to stay. And when employees feel connected to their teams and their company, they can be some of your most productive and happy employees. However, when employees working remotely start to feel isolated and disconnected, that quickly changes. According to Gallup, only 15% of the global workforce is engaged. Or at least, only 15% of workers were engaged at work pre-pandemic. COVID has exacerbated this problem. Now, more employees feel disconnected from both their colleagues and company culture. This not only hurts employees’ mental health and productivity levels, it also hurts your company as a whole. Because whether your staff is fully remote, back in-office, or in a hybrid combination of the two, having disconnected employees means having workers who are less engaged at work. We created the shop to give employees a way to engage in friendly competition and camaraderie with their teammates that so many of us have been missing out on since the pandemic began. Even before the pandemic started, research found that a healthy sense of competition between employees increases a team’s connectedness and makes workers sharper, more engaged, and more excited. We might not be able to take a mid-morning break to chat with our colleagues over coffee like we used to, but we can still challenge them to a game on 1Huddle and connect with one another through a fun, virtual shared experience between coworkers.

7. Workers care about social impact

People today are more politically active. They are aware of equity, diversity, and inclusion issues that shape our workplaces and our society and then care about actively working to break down barriers. Every game in the shop was put there on purpose. The 1Huddle team handpicked each one to make sure the shop did not consist solely of run of the mill, boring HR content that no employees want to engage with. We injected awesome content from partners including the ACLU and the Obama Foundation to make sure we give workers access to skill topics that don’t just impact their work—but impact their community, their families, and their livelihood. Our Diversity & Inclusion skill area also helps companies live up to their mission by making D&I training a continuous tool that workers will retain and utilize year-round. Because if your D&I training and content isn’t year-round, it isn’t effective. the shop gives workers a fun way to continuously improve their knowledge of D&I issues and actively work to mitigate personal biases. These are just seven of the key reasons why 1Huddle released the shop. If you’re a gamechanger who’s ready to access the shop now, head over to our website to learn more about leveling up your game library. Or, if you’re interested in finding out how you can connect with leading brands by transforming your content into quick-burst games that can be added to our on-demand game marketplace, check out the 1Huddle Partner Program.