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Technological solutions in the field of recruitment save businesses time and money. Understanding how companies use digital games in job interviews
About the Author: Andrey Krylov, founder of the automated recruitment service Skillaz.
According to Gartner analysts, 90% of HR leaders plan to maintain or increase investment in HR technology. Traditionally, companies have used systems for testing professional knowledge, honesty, cognitive perception, personality traits, emotional intelligence, skill assessment, and physical ability. For example, the Big Four companies – KPMG, Deloitte, PwC, EY – use a complex of numerical, verbal, accounting tasks, tests in English and logic.
Candidate screening processes are changing: companies are paying attention not only to professional skills, but also to soft skills, such as critical thinking and creativity. Soft skills have taken on a key role during the pandemic, when teams have been forced to find a way out of situations in the face of uncertainty. In a study of HR, Deloitte notes that companies that give employees autonomy and choice create more value than organizations with an overly regimented approach.
Electronic platforms for the realization of professional opportunities or the selection of personnel help the freedom of choice of employees. These can be platforms that inform employees about opportunities for professional development, training, mentoring, participation in projects, career advancement, and much more.
New recruiting solutions
Companies around the world are already using artificial intelligence technologies, big data, augmented reality to solve HR issues, and 69% of executives from different industries believe that AI will transform the workforce for the better. When interviewing online, when there is no opportunity to personally communicate with the applicant, companies use creative techniques. Unlike traditional testing, games allow you to assess the knowledge of candidates in a dynamic way.
Online Games
Companies started using gamification in recruiting many years ago. For example, Google launched a math game to search for candidates back in 2004. Interactive methodologies can use scenarios that vary from company needs. For example, McKinsey uses Digital Assessment, an online game where each candidate gets their own script so they can’t get clues to bypass the system. If a specialist scores the required number of points in the game, he is invited for an interview. With the help of this approach, HRs find personnel who have both systemic and creative thinking.
Immersive Games
Other scenarios use an AR avatar that simulates working moments. For example, the system can evaluate how a future employee will behave with a dissatisfied client or submit reports. Avatar testing reveals the skills required for a particular position, as well as determines the cognitive abilities and the level of emotional intelligence. Offline, such games are held in the format of quest rooms, when several candidates participate at once.
creative method
A creative method when conducting interviews often helps to bring candidates to clean water. For example, the Brian Tracy system is a creative method that 2 out of 10 candidates successfully endure. The selection takes place in several stages: each interview is conducted by different interviewers and applicants are offered participation in games. In particular, the method helps companies in the selection of sales department specialists: an HR manager sees if the sales manager knows how to listen to the client and ask leading questions.
How to pass the selection stages with gamification
Since game scenarios are unpredictable, it will not work to prepare for them, as for traditional testing. To begin with, it is recommended to study the definition of skills that are tested during online games: critical thinking (critical thinking), decision making (decision making), thinking about processes (meta-cognition) and systems thinking (systems thinking).
The candidate should learn from open sources what skills the future employer expects to see. If the requirements of the company are close to him, you just need to get enough sleep before the interview and start testing with a fresh head. Regardless of the result, you can enjoy the game using innovative technologies. Companies, as a rule, value feedback from candidates, so it will not be superfluous to write to HR about your impressions.
Which games to choose for companies
Gamification is suitable for finding candidates in areas where a traditional resume does not always help. For example, when companies are looking for novice sales managers who have just graduated from high school and have no experience. For example, the Hungarian telecommunications company Magyar Telekom stopped asking for resumes and began evaluating sales using game-based methods that showed the problem-solving skills and performance of candidates.
Companies can customize game elements depending on the skills they want to test. When the American agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners was looking for an executive assistant, they developed a website with games and tasks to decipher complex calls. The company received more than 15 thousand applications and, with the help of a corporate psychologist who analyzed all the answers, chose the ideal candidate.
If you need to check the behavior and communication style of the applicant in the team, you can choose immersive interview options: VR interviews or quest rooms. The latter are organized in groups of 6-8 people, the candidates must solve problems in a limited period of time, working in a team. The method helps to assess leadership skills, cooperation skills and lateral thinking. According to surveys of recruiting companies, in the US, more than 80% of millennial respondents are happy to have an interview in a quest room instead of a traditional interview.
Recruitment games reduce the stress level of the applicant and make the assessment of skills deeper and more objective. Online games are well-received by millennials, so they help to attract employees from this age group (25-40 years old). More than half of those who passed the gamified selection are interested in staying in the company.