PRESS RELEASE: NICE announced that HSN is successfully using NICE Performance Management with Gamification. HSN is a leading entertainment and lifestyle retailer reaching approximately 94 million households with most of its 1,700 sales and service agents working from home. With such a widely dispersed workforce, HSN had limited options to rally and encourage employees using the conventional tactics that build healthy competitive spirit and camaraderie in group settings.

In order to boost employee engagement, HSN implemented NICE Performance Management with its gamification module. Gamification is now part of HSN’s agent culture from the first day on the job and throughout the agent’s tenure. In order to streamline the onboarding process for new employees, HSN has created a virtual passport, which introduces the gamification concept with easily-attained goals such as a first upsell, before introducing more challenging targets.

Using insights provided by detailed tracking and reporting of all agents, HSN enables agents to earn badges of increasing difficulty, from achievements possible the first day on the job through awards for sustained year-long excellence. Enhanced insights have also allowed HSN to roll out a balanced score rating for each agent, with consistent, team- and role-based goals. This gives agents an at-a-glance understanding of how they are performing, and what tangible changes are needed to move them up into an “exceeds expectations” ranking.

Julia Schmitz, Manager of Customer Care Operations, HSN: “We are very committed to employee engagement and gamification, through NICE Performance Management, which fits perfectly into the ideas we want to reinforce with our agents. Gamification has made it easier for us to communicate our company values and engage with all of our agents, even those who are sitting at home in their pajamas.”

Yaron Hertz, President, NICE Americas: “NICE Performance Management gives HSN the tools it needs to reinforce a coaching culture dedicated to helping agents improve rapidly, and adapt quickly to changing requirements. Real-time performance insights and constant feedback have successfully engaged HSN’s far-flung agent workforce with common, transparent gamification-backed goals.”