Gamification is revolutionising candidate attraction and assessments

How can you garner interest in job openings and understand candidates’ potential future job performance? Gamification might be the answer. This trend has spread to many industries, including recruitment. It’s a great way to convert a traditional experience into something more interactive and engaging, and gain better insights into your candidates’ skills.

In recruitment, the traditional interview process has its flaws. Candidates typically prepare answers to common interview questions in advance, and it can be difficult to assess a broad range of skills. This is where gamification can give you an edge in attraction, providing a positive candidate experience, and gaining useful insights into your candidate pool to make informed hiring decisions.  

Gamification is the concept of using game theory, mechanics, and designs to digitally engage and motivate people to achieve goals.

Jenny Darmody reporting for Silicon Republic explores how gamification is becoming more popular.

“With the advancements in the HR tech space, gamification is becoming a bigger part of the tools at HR and recruitment professionals’ disposal. While gamification can and has already often been used as a talent attraction tool in order to get professionals to engage with a particular company, the use of game-based and gamified assessments is becoming more prevalent.”

Recruiterbox explains how gamification is used to foster engagement.

“Gamification can be integrated in the recruitment process [through] quizzes around industry challenges, company related quests, and behavioural quizzes. Gamification personalises and adds a fun element to the whole boring recruitment process. It encourages the candidate to engage with your company by providing a simulated work environment and recruiters also check candidates’ aptitude, creative thinking, and problem-solving capabilities.”

While research into gamification is still quite new, there have been promising developments that indicate that gamification can be engaging, fair and provide valid results.

Darmody cites a report by global professional services firm Aon, uncovering the advantages and disadvantages of gamification in candidate assessments.  

“[A]nything that felt too much like an actual game was deemed to be inappropriate and unprofessional. The report also said that even if HR professionals want to make the recruitment or assessment process fun, this simply cannot be the case for a high-stakes recruitment situation. ‘Parties are fun but if you threw a party for a group of candidates and told them their behaviour would be assessed, the fun would soon disappear!’”

It’s not just about making your recruitment process more entertaining!

If your organisation is interested in utilising gamification, have a clear purpose and ensure every aspect is relevant. Remember, it’s an assessment, not an actual game. Avoid components that will frustrate or distract your participants.

How to make gamification a part of your strategy

There are many solutions and companies available to assist you in implementing gamification in your recruitment process.

1. Determine what you want to gain from the process. What skills and abilities do you want to test for? What will good results look like? For certain skills, gamification may not be appropriate or the best strategy. It can be a great tool, but you can’t implement it without understanding what you want to measure.
2. Ensure what you are measuring is appropriate for the role you are assessing for. “Before diving into a game-based assessment, you need to be sure that said assessment can really measure what it claims to. What are the underpinning psychometric properties, for example? Detailed, validated evidence will be critical for this.”
3. Ensure your process is fair. “Candidates should not be automatically put at a disadvantage if they lack colour vision or manual dexterity to perform well, unless these aspects are relevant to the job.”
4. Communicate clearly with candidates. “Explain to your candidates what you are assessing and how their performance data will be used… You may want to provide a feedback report for each candidate, showing their results.”

Examples of gamification in recruitment

Grad Leaders provides great examples of gamification in the recruitment process. The Marriott Hotel designed a game enabling candidates to run a virtual hotel restaurant and operations, gaining points for satisfied customers; a playful way to screen potential new hires!

Treehouse, an online technology school, provides a virtual training academy for people to learn code and app development. Students learn, have defined outcomes, and display their achievements to potential employers. (“The more points you earn, the higher your potential salary!”)

Business2Community shares how Dominoes builds brand awareness through a game that allows users to create, name, and market personalised pizzas.

“It’s helped the company build a brand awareness that appeals to young people who’re looking for an exciting team to be a part of… It highlights Dominos as an innovative, fun, creative, and open-to-ideas kind of workplace. Just what new recruits are looking for in their company.”

Data company Umbel created “Umbelmania”, allowing coders from all skill ranges to play against opponents, using their coding skills to earn points. The more points they gain, the further in the interview process they progress.

It’s no surprise that one of the world’s most attractive employers, Google, was one of the early companies to use gamification in their recruitment process. Their “Code Jam” competitions attract the best talent, with winners receiving big cash prizes.

Depending on your recruitment goals, (if done right!) gamification can attract great candidates and give them a memorable experience. It can demonstrate the innovation and creativity of your organisation to attract potential candidates, improve engagement, and give you valuable insights that resumes and interviews can’t.

Sources

How gamification can improve employee assessments

Jenny Darmody

Silicon Republic

6 Gamification Examples: A Real Game-Changer for Recruitment and Career Services

Catie Ewen

Grad Learner

5 Companies That Are Using Gamification To Get Recruitment Right

Paul Keijzer

Business2Community