Could an approach to 'emotional value' contribute to employee retention and improved performance!?

SEGA XD, Inc. (Headquarters: Shinjuku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Hidetaka Tani; hereinafter 'SEGA XD'), a company engaged in the gamification business, has conducted the '2025 Gamification Awareness Survey' targeting 1,000 business professionals (men and women in their 20s to 50s nationwide, including 179 individuals involved in employee engagement and organizational culture development). In this release, we present the results regarding the correlation between employee engagement and emotional value as the 'Employee Engagement Edition.'

※Results regarding the awareness and utilization of gamification will be published in the 'Gamification Edition.'

'Gamification' refers to applying game mechanics to non-game fields to increase user motivation and influence behavior. As there have been few opportunities to discuss its effectiveness and actual status in business publicly, our company began tracking this area last year. Gamification is characterized by its ability to move people's hearts and enhance 'emotional value.' Therefore, in addition to 'awareness and utilization of gamification,' we focused on 'Employee Engagement (EE),' a critical issue for many companies and organizations, ahead of the new fiscal year when many people start working in new environments, to investigate the 'correlation between EE and emotional value.'

First, when we compared turnover intention and personal goal achievement rates among 1,000 business professionals based on their level of affinity for their company, it became clear that those with 'higher affinity' consistently outperformed others. This suggests that a high level of affinity for the company is highly likely to influence improved employee retention and performance.

Additionally, in a survey of 179 individuals involved in employee engagement and organizational culture development, while about 70% responded that they 'implement EE improvement measures,' only 36.3% of those in charge felt that their company had 'many employees with high engagement'—only about half of those implementing such measures. This highlights that while many companies implement measures, the number of companies seeing results is limited. Furthermore, it was found that 'companies with particularly high EE' implement initiatives that appeal to 'emotional value,' such as creating a culture where employees can challenge themselves without fear of failure, in addition to 'functional value' such as infrastructure improvement.

■ Survey Overview

Name: 2025 Gamification Awareness Survey

Target: Extracted from a screening survey (3,604 people):

　　　・Business professionals (men and women in their 20s to 50s nationwide): 1,000 people

　　　・EE personnel (individuals involved in employee engagement & organizational culture development): 179 people

　　　　※EE personnel are included in the 1,000 business professionals.

Period: January 29–30, 2026

Method: Internet survey

※EE personnel were asked to provide a breakdown of their company's EE into 'high,' 'middle,' and 'low' tiers, with the entire company/organization representing 100%...