Gamification in HR engineering: designing a structural talent architecture to enhance

Purpose – This paper develops a conceptual framework for a gamified professional development system entitled «Career Quest», designed to counteract employee disengagement and voluntary turnover by transforming ambiguous career trajectories into transparent, relational psychological contracts. Design/methodology/approach – Drawing upon Psychological Contract Theory and the Job Characteristics Model, the study applies a conceptual-analytical approach. It synthesizes interdisciplinary HRM literature, corporate gamification benchmarks (e.g., SAP, Deloitte, Cisco), and behavioral mechanics into an integrated talent-engineering architecture. Findings – The proposed «Career Quest» model demonstrates that replacing fragmented, superficial reward mechanics (pointsification) with an objective competency hierarchy—incorporating experience points (XP), diverse developmental quests, peer recognition, and transparent progression criteria—satisfies core psychological needs. This structural transparency reinforces perceived organizational support, mitigates workplace monotony, and actively fosters affective organizational commitment. Practical implications – The paper delivers an actionable deployment roadmap and an architectural integration matrix for HR executives and line managers, enabling organizations to operationalize gamified pathways across enterprise systems (e.g., Workday, SAP) or lightweight digital architectures without prohibitive implementation costs. Originality/value – Moving beyond trivial workplace game design, this research conceptualizes gamification as a structural governance mechanism that repairs and strengthens the relational psychological contract in digital and hybrid work environments.