Prediction markets are only effective if a lot of people participate. What are the best ways to encourage more traders and trading within internal company prediction markets?

In order to boost participation in prediction markets, management must support the use of the markets and promote the use of the markets and the outcomes within the company. Many employees may not see the benefit in the markets. Not only does playing the game take up time spent doing actual work, but the results are neither guaranteed to be accurate nor provide any new insights on a project that cannot already be explored by the project team. As a result, if the company really wants to utilize the markets to influence business and provide another way of looking at future occurrences, management must align the activities and goals of the company and project teams to include the use of the markets. This doesn’t necessarily force employees to use the markets, but incorporates the use of the markets into the company culture. Once ingrained, the culture can build around the use of the markets and will eventually become accepted by most in the company.

Another way to increase participation is to include additional social activities into the market. Instead of solely being a place to buy and trade, the markets should include areas where employees can chat, blog, or post messages about the topics. This provides a place for people to share knowledge and offer contrasting viewpoints, and ultimately increases the group think aspect by establishing an environment for brainstorming with a wide range of employees with different backgrounds and expertise that might not exist at a traditional business meeting where everything present has similar focus.

Many employees are motivated by things other than money. While money is always a nice prize, many times employees would rather receive other perks. Managers must be aware that not all employees are motivated by the same things and that often times a prize other than money is more motivational. As was realized with the GPM, the receipt of a t-shirt and bragging rights was more important to the winners than the cash prize. Some additional perks to motivate participation and to encourage maximum activity are: paid leave, change to win paid vacation trips, publication of winner’s articles or pictures in a company newsletter, winner’s picture on wall or in a hall of fame, reserved parking spots, or tickets to an event. These rewards could increase motivation to participate and allow participants to boost reputations.