What's the return of wellbeing?
Gamified wellbeing works differently because…..
Most wellbeing programs only measure how people say they feel. Surveys, "how was the webinar," app downloads. Leaders my word is to you: don't trust these numbers. Employees tend to give the answer they think leadership wants to hear. Not because they're lying, but because a survey asking "did this help you?" makes people want to say yes.
Gamified wellbeing works differently. When engagement happens through play, actual decisions made inside a game, choices, completions, replay behavior that you can't fake that data. A player either finishes the challenge or doesn't. That's a real behavioral signal, not a feeling reported after the fact.
The research proves this: gamified learning experiences see completion rates around 90%, compared to roughly 25% for non-gamified formats, and TalentLMS research found 83% of employees find gamified formats more motivating than traditional ones. That gap between "reported engagement" and "actual completion" is exactly the credibility problem HR has been fighting and exactly what game-based data solves.
3 Numbers That Prove Wellbeing ROI
1.Cost of turnover
Replacing an employee typically costs 50–200% of their salary in recruiting, onboarding, and lost productivity. Disengagement-driven turnover compounds this. Gallup-linked research estimates disengaged employees cost roughly 18–34% of their annual salary in lost value. Gamified engagement programs have been linked to meaningfully lower attrition, one industry analysis found 87% of workers reported being less likely to leave a job when gamification elements were present at work.
(Nordaurai angle: because our games surface real usage data: session frequency, completion, return-play HR can track whether engagement is actually rising before turnover numbers move, instead of finding out too late.)
2.Cost of absenteeism / presenteeism
Absenteeism linked to disengagement runs an estimated $2,650+ per employee per year once you include productivity loss and healthcare costs. Presenteeism showing up burned out and unproductive is harder to measure but arguably costlier, since it hides inside "normal" attendance.
(Nordaurai angle: because the games are built on the PERMA model, they target the early, invisible stage of burnout before it turns into sick days giving HR a leading indicator instead of a lagging one.)
3.Cost of disengagement / lost productivity
Gallup's 2025 State of the Global Workplace put global losses from disengagement at $438 billion in lost productivity, with disengaged employees showing roughly 18% lower productivity and 15% lower profitability at the team level.
(Nordaurai angle: gamified programs report engagement lifts in the 40–60% range in comparative studies and because it's tied to actual play data, it's a number HR can defend in a boardroom, not a number they have to caveat.)
Wellbeing doesn't have to be a soft cost anymore. When engagement and ROI are measured through real behavior instead of self-reported feelings, wellbeing becomes something you can actually defend in a budget meeting, to a board, to a CFO asking hard questions.
Curious what this could look like inside your organization?
