Training Today’s People: Better Employees Through Gaming

Employee training might be the best business expense, at least in terms of pure return on investment. According to the latest research, returns on training range from 7% to 50% per dollar spent, and more detailed case studies report even higher numbers, with returns of 100% to 200% on investment.¹ With results like these, it is not surprising that spending on corporate training exceeded $46 billion in 2006 in the U.S. alone.² However, a remarkably small percentage of that sum was spent on games and training—something on the order of $150 million.³

We suspect that this amount is so small because many educational and training games have developed a deservedly poor reputation. The problem with educational games started in the early days of the video ...