Running for just under a year, the the money UP program challenges participants to "learn more" and "earn more" by completing levels and missions that encompass important retirement and investment planning steps.

The programme, powered by gamification company Bunchball, breaks down retirement and savings information into a series of missions that are progressively challenging yet attainable.

Participants complete short quizzes to move on to new levels, and a leaderboard allows them to compete against colleagues and share completed missions through Twitter and Facebook.

Nadia Darwish , vice president of market development for Sun Life Financial's Group Retirement Services, says: "Gamification was the right choice for us because it combined learning and action. While increasing their financial literacy and learning about their workplace plan, the programme encourages employees to take steps to save for retirement. We could see that integrating game elements, like friendly competition, levels, missions and social sharing would provide employees with a fun, challenging way to experience content that can sometimes be complicated."

Since December 2013 , the game has attracted over 11,000 participants, who have complete more than 100,000 missions. In the first six months, 33% of employees who finished Level 1 increased their contributions and/or added a new product, says Darwish.

She says the game is proving particularly popular with millennials, who historically have been the most difficult segment of the population to reach.

"Millennials have not only been among the highest proportion of players in money UP, but also the most active - they make up 33% of all players and 44% of employees who increased contributions or added product."