In an era characterized by rapid technological advancements and shifting workforce dynamics, it is
necessary for organizations to upskill and reskill employees. As a result, a rapidly increasing number
of companies worldwide is investing in educational technologies such as gamified training. However,
despite the growing interest in gamified workplace training tools, the literature lacks empirical
research on their design principles, effectivity and long-term impact. This has caused gamified
trainings to fail and many resources to be lost. This research seeks to address these issues by
investigating how to ensure successful (i.e. ‘meaningful’) gamified training tools. We aim to provide
practical guidelines on how to design and implement meaningful gamification that has the potential
to increase training effectivity, while boosting employee engagement. Based on a mixed-methods
approach with both field experiments and interviews, the characteristics of meaningful gamified
training apps will be determined, as well as the effect on employee engagement and knowledge
retention. In addition, we aim to provide novel, actionable guidelines for increasing adoption of
gamified training apps through nudging. By contributing to the emerging stream of research on
gamified workplace training tools, this study aims to provide valuable insights for both practitioners
and researchers, ultimately enhancing employee engagement and knowledge retention in
knowledge-intensive industries.