Imagine walking into a workplace that feels more like playing a game than doing “just another job”. That’s the vision behind the GamificationSummit Xendit Work initiative: using the power of gamification to reshape how we engage, perform, and grow at work. This article explores how Xendit is bringing game mechanics into everyday work, what it means for employees and organisations, and how you can apply the same principles in your own context.
Why Gamification in the Workplace Makes Sense
Let’s start with an anecdote. A few years ago, one employee at Xendit (let’s call her Maya) told a simple story: she used to dread the weekly status meeting. It felt repetitive, uninspiring, and when the meeting ended she barely remembered what she needed to do. Then the company introduced a “quest‐based” system: complete your tasks, earn points, level up, unlock badges—and the meeting suddenly mattered because you could see your progress.
That small change is actually the heart of workplace gamification. The basic idea: apply game design elements—like points, badges, leaderboards, levels—to non‐game contexts (in this case: work) to increase motivation, engagement, and behaviour change. Many studies and case stories show that gamification can lead to higher productivity, improved learning outcomes, and stronger team collaboration. For example, Xendit reported reductions in onboarding time and improved retention when they used gamified internal systems.
With that in mind, the GamificationSummit × Xendit initiative takes these ideas out of the lab and into real workplaces.
What is the GamificationSummit × Xendit Work Initiative?
In short: it’s a three‐day event and ongoing framework that brings together professionals, designers, behavioural scientists, HR leads and technologists to explore how gamification can be embedded in the world of work.
At the summit, you’ll find:
- Keynote talks about the psychology of motivation and game mechanics.
- Hands‑on workshops where you map your own organisation’s goals to game mechanics (for example, task completion, learning modules, teamwork challenges).
- Real‐world case studies from Xendit and other companies who have adopted gamified work practices.
- Networking opportunities to swap ideas, share mistakes, and co‑create gamified prototypes.
In other words: it’s not just talk—it’s doing.
Why Xendit Chose to Make Work Feel More Like a Game
Here’s another anecdote: when the COVID‑19 pandemic hit and many companies shifted to remote or hybrid work, Xendit’s leadership noticed something: the usual motivators (face‑to‑face meetings, visible supervision, in‑office culture) were losing power. Teams felt disconnected, onboarding became slower, and the usual “we’re all together” energy was fading.
So they asked: how do we keep people motivated when they’re remote? How do we make each person’s contribution visible? How do we build culture and engagement when the physical office is no longer the hub?
Their answer: apply gamification at work. Introduce visible progress charts, reward systems for collaboration, levels for skill development, and weekly “quests” that encourage cross‑team interaction. According to sources, they saw measurable improvements: faster onboarding, higher employee satisfaction, and more peer‑to‑peer recognition.
In short, it wasn’t about pretending to be a video game company—it was about using the mechanics of games because they tap into human motivation: mastery, autonomy, connection, and purpose.
Key Themes of the Summit
Let’s break down the main themes you’ll encounter in the GamificationSummit × Xendit Work experience:
- Understanding the foundations of gamification
Why do game mechanics motivate people? What’s the difference between intrinsic (doing something because it matters to you) vs extrinsic (doing something because you’ll get a reward) motivation? What role do feedback loops, progress bars, and visible achievements play? - Designing for work
How do you map a business goal (say, “reduce time to resolution for customer support tickets”) to a game mechanic (a challenge, a badge, a team leaderboard)? How do you build reward systems that align with your values (not just “who hits the most tickets” but “who helps the most customers”). Workshops in the summit cover these practicalities. - Technology and implementation
What tools, dashboards, APIs are needed to drive gamified systems? How do you integrate with existing workflows, track metrics, and give meaningful feedback in real time? Xendit’s example shows how they built modular systems to support gamification. - Ethics, inclusion & future trends
Gamification isn’t just fun and games—there are pitfalls. The summit addresses ethical concerns: avoiding toxic competition, ensuring participation is voluntary, balancing reward systems so they don’t create burnout. Also the future direction: AI‑powered personalization, AR/VR gamified training, and inclusive design.
Step‑by‑Step Guide: How to Adopt a Gamified Work System (Inspired by Xendit)
If you’re inspired by what you’ve learned about the GamificationSummit × Xendit model and you’d like to bring similar concepts into your organisation, here’s a step‑by‑step guide:
Step 1: Define clear business goals
Before adding badges and points, ask: what are we trying to achieve? For example:
- Improve onboarding completion rate by say 30%.
- Reduce customer support ticket resolution time.
- Increase employee participation in cross‐team initiatives.
Having clear goals lets you measure success.
Step 2: Map each goal to game mechanics
Take each goal and translate it into a mechanic. For example:
- Onboarding: new hires complete training modules → earn “Explorer” badge → 100 XP.
- Support tickets: resolve within 24 hours → points for each ticket → move up levels (Bronze → Silver → Gold).
- Cross‐team initiatives: join a “team quest” to brainstorm improvements → leaderboard tracks contributions.
The summit emphasises this kind of mapping.
Step 3: Choose what to reward
Decide what the “currency” is (points, badges, tokens). Decide how people progress (levels, unlocks). Decide how you recognise performance (leaderboards, public shout‑outs). But make sure rewards align with your values: don’t reward just speed if quality suffers. Xendit emphasised rewarding collaboration and learning as much as output.
Step 4: Build the system and integrate
This will often involve:
- Dashboards or tools to show progress.
- Integration with existing systems (task management, HR systems, CRM).
- Real‐time feedback (so the game feels alive).
- Launching the system and training users.
Xendit’s case shows that a robust tech setup helps scale gamified work across functions.
Step 5: Pilot, measure, iterate
Start small. Maybe pilot one department (like customer support or onboarding). Monitor metrics (e.g., participation rates, completion times, feedback). Collect qualitative input from employees: did they feel more engaged? What felt unnatural or forced? Adjust the mechanics, rewards, and progression. The summit emphasises iteration and learning.
Step 6: Expand and sustain
Once you’ve refined the pilot, scale across departments. Make sure you keep the system fresh: rotate challenges, introduce seasonal quests, upgrade badges. Maintain fairness (so no one feels left out). And most importantly: keep the system optional and transparent—people should feel empowered, not coerced. The ethical theme at the summit reminds us of this.
Step 7: Celebrate progress and share stories
Highlight success stories: show how someone leveled up, how a team celebrated a badge, how collaboration improved because of a challenge. These anecdotes and stories build culture and keep momentum going. Xendit found that peer recognition mattered as much as formal KPIs.
Real‑World Outcomes: What Has Been Achieved
Because this isn’t just theory. Xendit’s work with gamification has produced measurable benefits:
- They reported faster onboarding times when using gamified modules (e.g., new hires completing required training in fewer days).
- Employee retention improved in departments where gamified recognition and progress tracking were adopted.
- Engagement improved among teams working remotely or in hybrid mode; the gamified system helped create visible progress and peer recognition, which bridged the remote gap.
- For customer‑facing systems (fintech applications), gamified onboarding and loyalty mechanics helped boost user engagement, transaction frequency, and customer retention.
Those results make a strong case: gamification isn’t just nice to have—it can drive business and human outcomes.
Anecdotes That Make the Point
Let me share a couple of short stories from Xendit’s gamified journey:
Anecdote 1: The Quest That Sparked Collaboration
In one Xendit team, an internal “quest” was created: “Find a process improvement and submit it by Friday”. Points were given for submissions, bonus points if you collaborated across teams, and a badge for “Innovation Champion”. A backend engineer and a support staffer teamed up, submitted an idea, and got acknowledged publicly at their weekly meeting. The result: their idea was implemented, and team morale jumped. It turned a regular request for “process improvements” into a fun, collaborative game.
Anecdote 2: Level Up Your Onboarding
A new hire at Xendit told how the onboarding felt like playing a game: “I finished my training modules, got a badge, then unlocked a mentoring session. I could track my XP progress bar and even saw my profile level go from Rookie to Associate”. She felt more confident, more connected, and by the time her first 90 days were over she already felt like part of the team. According to internal stats, this kind of onboarding cut ramp‑up time and improved early retention.
Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
Because just like any strategy, gamification has its pitfalls. At the summit, they emphasised a few common mistakes—and how to steer clear:
- Mistake: Focusing only on extrinsic rewards
If you just give points for everything, people will chase points—not real value. You need to link game mechanics to meaningful work. - Mistake: Competitive leaderboards that demotivate
If you put everyone on one leaderboard and only the top 5 feel visible, you may demotivate the rest. Better to have multiple levels, team boards, or collaboration‑based metrics. - Mistake: Over‑gamifying or making it feel forced
If people feel like it’s a gimmick, they’ll disengage. It must feel natural, aligned with purpose, and optional. - Mistake: Neglecting fairness, transparency or ethics
If tracking feels like surveillance, or rewards feel cliquey, you risk backlash. The summit emphasised consent, opt‑in systems, and clear fairness.
Why This Matters for Fintech and Beyond
One of the compelling parts of the GamificationSummit × Xendit narrative is how it bridges two worlds: human motivation (via gamification) and the high‑tech world of fintech. Here’s why that matters:
- In fintech, where transactions are often invisible and the user journey can feel dry, adding game elements makes adoption easier, retention stronger, and usage more frequent.
- For workplace culture in fast‑moving companies (especially remote or hybrid ones), gamification offers a way to keep engagement high, build culture remotely, and make progress visible.
- Because Xendit is in Southeast Asia’s fintech ecosystem, their case shows how gamification works across cultures, geographies, and disciplines—not just in US or European startups.
- The lessons apply broadly: whether you work in manufacturing, education, e‑commerce or fintech, the same mechanics (progress, recognition, feedback, collaboration) can be adapted.
What’s Coming Next: The Future of Gamified Work (and Fintech)
At the summit, speakers and participants looked ahead to some exciting trends in gamification and work:
- AI‑Driven Personalisation
Gamification will become smarter: the system will tailor challenges, rewards and feedback based on individual behaviour, role, and preferences. - Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) Experiences
Particularly for training and onboarding, immersive gamified experiences could transform how people learn and engage. - Gamification for Well‑Being and Sustainability
It’s not all about output; future gamified systems will reward wellness, collaboration, community, sustainability efforts (e.g., “You took 10,000 steps this week—unlock wellness badge”). - Gamification as a Service (GaaS)
Companies like Xendit may offer frameworks or APIs that other firms plug into—making gamification more accessible across industries. - Ethical and Inclusive Gamification
Ensuring game mechanics don’t penalise or exclude; ensuring everyone sees progress and feels valued.
Why You Should Care—and What You Can Do Now
If you’re reading this, you might be an HR leader, a manager, a startup founder, or someone interested in workplace innovation. Here’s what you should take away:
- Gamification is more than a buzzword. When designed thoughtfully, it influences behaviour, builds culture, and drives results.
- The GamificationSummit × Xendit model shows how gamification works in a real company—not just a demo. Their results matter.
- You don’t have to wait for a big budget. Start with one department, one goal, one “quest”.
- Bring people on board early. Get buy‑in from employees by involving them in designing the game mechanics—they’ll feel more ownership.
- Measure early, iterate often. Keep what works, drop what doesn’t.
- Think bigger than points. Think about collaboration, meaning, progress. Gamification isn’t just reward—it’s about re‑thinking how work gets done and how people feel doing it.
Final Thoughts
The world of work is changing fast. Remote, hybrid, global teams. Busy lives. Constant disruption. In that world, the traditional levers of motivation (the monthly appraisal, the annual bonus) may no longer cut it. That’s where the GamificationSummit × Xendit approach comes in: by using design, psychology and technology to make work more engaging, meaningful and visible.
Xendit’s experience shows that this is not just theory—it’s practice. From onboarding to performance tracking, from cross‐team challenges to customer‐facing gamified journeys, they have shown what’s possible. If you’re willing to rethink how you work, how you motivate, how you recognise, then gamified work might just be the next frontier.
So maybe it’s time to ask: what would it look like if your workplace felt more like a game you wanted to play—and less like a list of tasks you have to do?
