In 2004, Google came up with a game comprising a series of equations for people to solve. The thought process was that those who had the skills and motivation to complete the game would be ideal candidates. It was a win-win for both parties – people would enjoy the game and perhaps land a job, and Google would attract a pool of pre-screened, qualified applicants.
Today, several companies and IT recruiting agencies are experimenting with adding gamification to their hiring process, enabling candidates to prove their abilities in a unique and enjoyable way.
What Is Gamification In Recruitment?
Gamification in recruitment is the use of interactive gaming to recreate job-like experiences and scenarios in a virtual environment to engage and assess candidates. Users usually compete in the same or similar games, and those who perform best go through to the next hiring step. Of late, gamification in recruitment is being extensively used by talent acquisition agencies to attract suitable candidates and evaluate their knowledge and skills for a particular position.
What Are The Benefits Of Gamification In Recruitment?
The use of gaming in hiring is not just a trend but it has proven to have a positive impact on the company’s bottom line when it comes to attracting talent and improving employee engagement. Let’s take a look at some benefits of gamification in recruiting.
Reduced Time to Hire
The process of applying for a job can be time-consuming and tedious. Recruiting statistics show that 42 percent of job applicants were put off by the lengthy job application procedure. Gamification can help speed up this process.
Tests or assignments in the screening phase may take several days for applicants to complete, whereas a game takes much less time and provides instant results. Additionally, this could potentially lower the chances of candidates dropping out of the process, saving the company money, time, and resources. Recently a tech start-up reported a 40 percent shorter interview cycle and a 62 percent higher offer ratio after they replaced their traditional interview process with a coding game challenge.
More Objective Hiring
Eliminating bias from the hiring process is critical. When hiring decisions are influenced by personal bias, it leads to a high rate of mis-hires, which is accompanied by substantial financial losses. Gamification evaluates candidates objectively, making it a powerful tool for unbiased recruitment.
Since games pre-empt the interference of socially desirable behavior, they also negate the chances of cultural background influencing the assessment outcomes. Gamified assessments are based on extensive research in cognitive and behavioral neuroscience, enabling recruiters to hire based on science instead of bias. They evaluate each candidate’s cognitive abilities, personalities, and unconscious behavior equally, and provide an impartial and accurate assessment.
Better Candidate Assessment
Research shows that typical interview questions and traditional recruitment techniques are no longer effective when assessing an applicant’s true potential. Nowadays, candidates are aware of common templated interview questions, and it’s easy to fake answers or come prepared with planned responses.
Gamification is an innovative and effective way to screen applicants with higher accuracy. It is tough for candidates to fake expertise in a real-time, game-based assessment. Games also allow recruiters to test skills like time management, leadership qualities, soft skills, problem-solving abilities, and decision-making skills.
Enhanced Candidate Experience
Recruitment can be stressful for both the candidate and the recruiter. Incorporating gamification in your recruitment process can make the process more engaging and interactive. Since games usually involve fun, applicants will feel less stressed and more at ease to project their best selves, leading to a better candidate experience.
A positive candidate experience helps to ensure better talent and smooth onboarding and establishes a compelling employer brand. Gamifying your interview process enables you to introduce candidates to your organization’s vision and values and lets them know more about your company. It also helps project a fun company culture, which attracts more high-quality candidates.
Diversify Your Hires
In a recent survey, 78 percent of companies indicated they are prioritizing diversity in hiring. However, when it comes to recruiting diverse talent, hiring managers often play it by ear, glancing at a CV for a couple of minutes before narrowing down on options. These quick judgments could lead to reliable data being overlooked, and people end up being hired based on cultural fit.
Gamification enables a recruitment manager to gain unbiased and data-backed insights about applicants while increasing and diversifying their talent pool. Since games are the same for everybody and assess specific job-related skills, they can screen candidates more objectively than pre-employment tests which could disadvantage certain people, and whose ability to predict job performance is uncertain.
At Employvision, one of today’s foremost tech recruiting firms, we know that gamification is invaluable when it comes to providing a new dimension to the hiring process. With our latest cutting-edge tech tools in talent sourcing and recruitment, we help you to gain greater insight into the true abilities of a candidate while enhancing employee engagement and brand image.
Contact Employvision and get access to the best IT talent today!
