Operation KickStart, A Forward March Program, uses the latest technology, gaming concepts and the human touch to connect Guardsmen with civilian employment.

The Florida National Guard, in collaboration with long-time partner Paxen Learning, has launched a new job-seeker program designed to better assist Guardsmen find meaningful civilian employment. Initially operated as a pilot program, Operation KickStart, a Forward March program, combines the latest online job-search technology, gaming strategies and hands-on coaching to help Guardsmen find the right job to meet their military skill set, and keep them encouraged during the job-search process.

Operation KickStart features the LifeVille Social Game Platform.  The players earn points in the game by taking job search actions like researching opportunities, sending resumes and making follow up calls.  Then as they share about what they are doing they can engage support from their friends and family by using the “Share on Facebook” feature.

According to Coach Dave Buck, LifeVille CEO, Facebook integration is essential to success: ” A lot of times folks who struggle to find a job go into isolation from their friends and family.  But this is the exact opposite of what they should do!  The game encourages them to get into action and share everything they are doing with their team mates in the game and with everyone they know on Facebook.  The game system makes this VERY easy and ultimately this is where many job opportunities come from.   And having a Certified Coach to help them with their career search game plan and improving their interview skills really helps too!”.

This is a unique strategy that speaks directly to a generation that has grown up with, and enjoys, video and online games and relies on social networks for connections.

Operation KickStart also features the US Military Pipeline™ (www.usmilitarypipeline.com), an innovative online career-matching tool and talent platform from Futures Inc., the leader in talent management technology, that allows Guardsmen to accurately determine which civilian jobs best link up with their military experience/skills. The tool also allows job seekers to pinpoint employment opportunities that meet their specific location, align their MOS to civilian jobs and satisfy their pay requirements. The listing of available jobs is aggregated from all national job postings and refreshed daily.

To help keep Guardsmen motivated and proactive during the job-search process, Paxen also has teamed up with CoachVille, a premier coach training and certification company. Each Guardsman also is teamed up with an Operation KickStart “coach” from Paxen who provides hands-on support by way of resume help, interview preparation, and skills development training needed to not only find and maintain employment, but increase success at their civilian career choice.

During the next few months, Operation KickStart representatives will be at various Florida National Guard locations to introduce the program, provide information, answer questions and register interested Guardsmen. Of note, members of the Florida National Guard not able to attend one of these sessions can still register and take part in the program.

For more information and to register for Operation KickStart, contact Roy Clark, Paxen Learning Corporation, 850-491-5146 or rclark@paxen.com.

9 Reasons to Gamify with LifeVille!

Welcome Game Creator!

If you are an author, speaker, program creator, business leader, thought leader, community leader or organizational leader then I have VERY exciting news for you.

You can now transform ANYTHING into a LifeVille game for your people to play.  (aka GAMIFY!)

1) TOTAL ENGAGEMENT!

As a leader, your most cherished gift is when people engage with your ideas and make them an active part of their lives AND bring them into their world.  When you gamify with LifeVille your players earn points in the game by applying what they are learning or what you are suggesting in their REAL lives.

The Leader Board creates a dynamic public visibility and accountability that really energizes players to get into the game and get some points on the board!

2) CREATE COMMUNITY

When you Gamify with Lifeville your players become a community as they play the game together.  There are several game dynamics such as: You Inspire Me Points that encourage them to share and support each other.

The Game Board feature is like a FaceBook update page for the players of the game where it is easy to track all of the game action as people play.

3) DEFINE-ABLE ROI

See it. Track it. Measure it. How awesome is that!  As a leader you probably often wonder: is anything really happening out there?  Other than an odd success story you hear along the way it is usually a mystery.  NO MORE.  When you gamify you will know EXACTLY what is going on with EVERYONE participating with you.

And you will see it in a numeric score.  So you can precisely track what is happening AND what is NOT happening with the players of your game.  This will help you know immediately what is clicking with them and where you may need to provide more support, encouragement or additional training.

4) IT’S EASY!

It really is.  You simply identify the exercises, actions and results to play for that you want your players to do to earn points.  You probably already have a lot of this in your book or program documentation so you can just copy and paste it into the game card.

Then you turn on the Social Game features that you want with a click of the mouse: like Spontaneous Play, You Inspire Me, Coaches Challenge, Game Board, Facebook Integration, Hoopla and Sound Effects.

Next add any media that you want to spice up your game card: graphics, video, audio, pdf.  Again, you probably already have a lot of this created.  If not, you can use this as your motivation to get creative!

Finally, select a start and end date for the game and decide if you want to host regular conference calls – aka team meetings! – to gather your players together to talk about the game.

DONE!  GAME ON!

5) IT’S FUN – and nobody get’s left behind!

Super fun actually!  Watch your game come to life as you put the ideas and the media together. When you put it all together the game system makes it look really inviting to get involved.  It is a highly creative process to transform what you want people to do in the world with your ideas into something they can play and share about.

Then as you watch your players score points and share what they are doing and learning.  You can get involved by reading and making comments on players game cards.  You can use the “Coaches Challenge” feature to challenge them to expand what they have done.

It is also really fun to be able to acknowledge the leaders in the game AND at the same time support those who are not scoring many points.  Often in a program we only see the leaders, but when you gamify you have a feedback mechanism to make sure that nobody is left behind!

6) GO VIRAL!

In the Inspiration Economy Sharing is the new Advertising.

As a leader you want more and more people to know about what you and your players are accomplishing in the world and if so inspired, to join in the game!  When you gamify on LifeVille this happens automagically!

The LifeVille social game is totally integrated with Facebook.  So as your players share in the game system, they can click a button to tranfser their accomplishments onto their personal Facebook page. AND they also post on the Facebook fan page that you create for your game.

Each post includes relevant details such as text and pictures from the game element.  AND the name of YOUR Game and a link to your players LifeVille profile where they can recommend your game to others.

7) Your Game is Coach-ABLE

Once your program is organized as a play-able, win-able game then it is VERY easy to see how coaching can help your participants play the game better!

Create a Long Tail Revenue Stream

9) Makes your initiative attractive to people under 30.