Article: Gamification in Recruitment: Raising the bar of hiring, one level up

Recruitment

Gamification in Recruitment: Raising the bar of hiring, one level up

Factors like younger demographics, Business 4.0 transformation, and increased adoption of technologies like artificial intelligence, automation are creating a huge demand for skills availability and are inducing the need for rapid upskilling, rooted in open, innovative learning.
Gamification in Recruitment: Raising the bar of hiring, one level up

We are in an era where digitization is paramount, gamification has gradually emerged as a popular trend amongst the HR leaders, spearheading intelligent, automated, agile, and on the cloud enterprises. Factors like younger demographics, Business 4.0 transformation, and increased adoption of technologies like artificial intelligence, automation are creating a huge demand for skills availability and are inducing the need for rapid upskilling, rooted in open, innovative learning.  

More so, it’s a potent tool to train digital natives, who are expected to be 75 percent of the workforce by 2025. Born in the digital era, millennials are curious multi-taskers, who crave for variety even in the media they consume. They are always game to take up challenges as well as challenge the status quo and traditional ways of learning. As they are intuitively wired for gaming, they love learning through fun mechanisms/techniques/activities.

This is where gamification fits with HR, as it helps in not only driving superior employee experience but also fostering a culture of fun, empowerment, performance, and productivity. At gamification' core lies the design dynamics of ‘games’ which motivate, engage and inspire the workforce to meet the key goals, as well as infuse a sense of purpose, confidence, trust, and efficiency.

As new way of working, this simulated ‘engagification’ spurs transformational changes. Be it acquiring or retaining talent - gamification, with its attributes like goals, challenges, instant feedback, affirmation, and creativity, stimulates fun-engagement, turning tedious learning into memorable, hyper-personalized experiences that drive strategic business outcomes.

Gamification, when applied to recruitment, may cover quizzes around industry challenges, company related quests, and behavioral quizzes blended with the fun elements, besides others. Best practices adopted by companies to recruit talent through gamification include:

‘Cool’ contests

Creating a cool contest is a great way to attract the best and brightest talent. Many global firms host programming contests to identify top engineering talent. The competition consists of a set of algorithmic challenges which must be solved in a fixed time. Competitors may use any programming language and development environment to discover their solutions.

Leveraging technologies like AR and VR

Many firms are leveraging technologies such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) to attract more diverse talent and develop an inclusive hiring process. 

Such immersive online assessments are used to assess candidates’ cognitive skills, agile working competency and their ability to collaborate – free from human bias. 

Exploring social media platforms 

Many companies have taken Facebook as a platform in using gamification to select the most adequate and skilled individuals. The game allows candidates to play in a virtual reality work environment where they receive missions, attend training and negotiate with hypothetical clients to solve business problems. Points earned in the simulation helps them earn points toward getting hired.

Online aptitude tests and quizzes

Online aptitude tests and quizzes are a great way to screen out under-qualified candidates. By asking questions that accurately test for skills and competencies, gamification can automate the initial screening and add game elements to the application experience.

Gamified hiring through referral programs

Gamification can be very helpful with getting better results from the company’s referral program. The success of any individual referral campaign depends on the level of employee participation, this makes gamification a natural companion for this candidate source. Adding a theme and the element of competition to your referral campaign is a fun way to engage with employees and to induce some great referrals. 

Gamification can drive candidate and employee engagement, but only if the game elements are well… engaging. If the elements aren’t accurately targeting the talent, then it is not going to yield the desired results. However, as long as the game elements promote healthy competition and offer a rewarding, and engaging experience, gamification can be positively leveraged in the hiring process.

Gamification aids some important functions in the recruiting process:

  • Stimulates innate motivation in users through the challenge, curiosity, and competition 
  • Streamlines the tedious process of a job application and frame it in a fun and engaging activity
  • Identifies the most capable and well- suited applicants by creating real-life work simulation
  • Ignites collaboration for alternative career paths that might be a good fit for the millennials
  • Fosters sustained skill development, learning and cultivating skills through real action and failing
  • Research indicates that engaged teams grow profits three times faster than disengaged ones
  • Highly engaged employees aid the retention rate of an organization
  • Helps in tapping the millennial brain by triggering innate reward systems with game mechanics as it’s an apt mechanism for millennials and post-millennials who crave instant gratification
  • Reward-motivated behavior increases employee motivation and productivity

As the war for talent intensifies, gamification plays a key role in deciding how a firm nurtures its millennial talent pool and thrives in this era. Indeed, it is vital to create an interactive, targeted–learning infused culture that nurtures and builds a future-ready talent pool which is an imperative step to build a progressive enterprise.

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Topics: Recruitment, #GuestArticle, #Gamification

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