Caixa Econômica Federal Case Study: Generating About US$1.06 Billion through Sales Gamification
From 10% Engagement to Market Leadership: The Science of Billion-Dollar Motivation
CAIXA Econômica Federal employs about 83,000 people in 4,500 branches across Brazil. When the bank set its target of raising net income from R$8.6 billion to R$9 billion, participation stood at about 10% of employees. The program we designed with CAIXA, Tamo Junto 9Bi+ (“Together We Reach 9 Billion+”), reached 92% voluntary participation. During the program, the bank reported net income of R$12.7 billion.
This case study explains how the program was designed, why it suited a sales force spread over thousands of branches, and what leaders of large banks and sales organizations can take from it.
A finance target far from the branch counter
A net income figure of R$9 billion is a boardroom number. In a network of 4,500 branches, a target of that size can be hard to connect to a day of work at the counter, and one person’s contribution is hard to see inside it. This is a general design problem for any large organization that sets its goals at company level.
CAIXA had been communicating targets the usual way, through KPIs, spreadsheets and directives from the top. It had also tried generic gamification platforms, and those had fallen short. With participation at about 10%, the bank wanted a different approach: an experience its sales force would join by choice, built on an understanding of what motivated them.
The analysis: metrics, motivational profiles, Desired Actions
We used the Octalysis Framework to structure the work, starting with analysis.
Business metrics. The team first reviewed the bank’s business metrics. The headline objective was the net income target, which set the direction for the rest of the design.
Motivational profiles. The team then studied the motivational profiles of the sales force and identified different Player Types. In a workforce of about 83,000, people in the same role can respond to different motivators, and the design needed to account for that. The same consideration applies when you design leaderboards that motivate everyone.
Desired Actions. Finally, the team identified the Desired Actions: of everything an employee could do in a working day, the specific actions that would move the bank toward its annual sales objectives. Individual goals were then defined around these actions, so that rewards in the program were tied to work the sales objectives depended on.
The design: Tamo Junto 9Bi+
Ideation sessions produced a combination of Octalysis game techniques: Collection Sets, Virtual Goods, Group Quests and Milestone Unlocks. The sections below describe the loop at the center of the experience: individual goals, collectible pieces and trading between colleagues.
A collective goal in the name
The program was named after the target, phrased as something employees would reach together. The name emphasized unity and cooperation.
The shared goal gave employees a team to identify with and a result that colleagues would reach together. The program then gave that identification a practical form through the trading of pieces, described below.
Individual goals that pay out immediately
Each employee had individual goals. Reaching one produced either a small instant reward or a collectible piece. This closed the distance between the finance target and the individual: the feedback for a completed goal arrived at once, in a form the employee could see and keep (Core Drive 2, Development & Accomplishment).
A reached goal could return a reward to enjoy now or a piece to build with. That element of unpredictability added curiosity to the moment (Core Drive 7, Unpredictability & Curiosity).
Pieces that combine into larger rewards
The collectible pieces were virtual goods that formed sets, and a completed set unlocked a larger reward. Every piece therefore had two values: it marked a goal achieved, and it moved its owner closer to something much bigger. An employee holding part of a set had a visible reason to pursue the next individual goal.
This is Core Drive 4 (Ownership & Possession), and it is an extrinsic motivator. The pieces mattered because of what they led to. They could also be exchanged, which is where the social side of the design begins.
Trading between colleagues
Employees had the opportunity to trade pieces with colleagues to complete sets. An employee could hold a piece, or offer it to someone who needed it. A piece of little use to one person could be the piece a colleague was missing, so a trade helped both of them.
This is where the program name became concrete. Trading gave people a reason to find out what colleagues were working toward and to help them get there. That is Core Drive 5 (Social Influence & Relatedness), an intrinsic drive: the contact with colleagues has its own appeal, separate from the prize.
Rewards for different preferences
Rewards ranged from immediate items such as headphones to grand prizes such as trips and cars. The selection was curated for the different motivational preferences found in the analysis, since employees value different things. The range also covered two scales of reward. Small rewards made individual goals worth pursuing in the present, and the grand prizes gave employees something larger to work toward.
Rollout
The program was rolled out to four departments in three months.
Results
| Measure | Before | Reported |
|---|---|---|
| Participation | About 10% | 92% voluntary, of about 83,000 employees |
| Platform visits | n/a | 7 million |
| Net income | R$8.6 billion | R$12.7 billion |
Participation in the program was not mandatory, and reported participation reached 92%. Reported net income rose by R$4.1 billion during the program, an increase of 48%.
What bank and sales leaders can take from this
The first lesson concerns the distance between a corporate goal and an employee’s daily experience. CAIXA’s target was expressed in billions of reais of net income, and the design translated it in steps. Net income led to the Desired Actions behind the annual sales objectives, those actions led to individual goals, and each goal reached returned an instant reward or a collectible piece. Leaders can apply the same test to their own targets by asking what an employee sees and receives on the day they do what the plan needs. Where the answer is very little, that gap is a good place to start the design work.
The second lesson concerns cooperation. The name Tamo Junto 9Bi+ promised a shared effort, and the trading of pieces gave employees a way to act on it. A piece one employee did not need could complete a colleague’s set, so helping someone else had a practical use inside the program and benefited both people. Leaders who want more collaboration in a sales force can ask what one employee is able to do for another within the incentive system, and what each of them gains when it happens.
We design programs like this one for banks, sales organizations and other large enterprises. If your organization has a company-level target that branch or field teams find hard to connect to their daily work, we can help you define the Desired Actions behind it and design the experience around them. You can read about how we work on our services page, or contact us to discuss your own sales force and targets.