Did you know that Gen Zs will make up around 30% of the workforce by 2025? [1] Needless to say, keeping up with their needs and behavior to strategize around engaging with them is somewhat important to organizations and recruiters out there. But here’s the thing, it might not be easy to do so, as hiring managers reported that 39% of Gen Z talent do not communicate well enough for their expectations, while 33% of them don’t seem to be interested or engaged. [2] Since Gen Zs value technology and interactive experiences in their job search process, gamification rises as a way to attract, engage, and effectively assess young talent as well as other demographics of candidates. In this article, we will explore gamification in recruitment, how you can use it, best practices to follow when implementing gamification, and more. If you’re ready, shall we play a game?
What Is Gamification In Recruitment?
Gamification in recruitment is the process of incorporating game elements and mechanics into the hiring process to engage, motivate, and assess job candidates. Using game-like features such as quizzes, challenges, simulations, and leaderboards, allows you to make the recruitment process more interactive and enjoyable for the applicants.
Here are the key benefits of gamification in recruitment:
- Increased engagement: Gamification in recruitment can grab the attention of job seekers and keep them actively involved in the hiring process. This can lead to more applications from qualified candidates who are excited about the opportunity to showcase their skills in a fun and interactive way.
- Improved candidate experience: By adding gamified elements to the recruitment process, you can craft a positive candidate experience that sets your company apart from competitors. Candidates are more likely to remember and recommend companies that provide a unique and engaging recruitment experience.
- Skills assessment: Gamification helps you assess candidates' skills in a more dynamic and hands-on manner. Through challenges, simulations, and puzzles, you can evaluate candidates' problem-solving abilities, communication skills, and creativity in real-time.
- Enhanced branding: A creative and interactive recruitment process showcases a company's innovative and forward-thinking culture, attracting top talent who are looking for a dynamic work environment. So, incorporating gamification into your recruitment strategy can enhance your employer’s brand and reputation.
- Data-driven decisions: As mentioned, gamification in recruitment gives you valuable data and insights into candidates' performance, engagement levels, and skill sets. You can use this data to make more informed hiring decisions and select the best-fit candidates.
How to Use Gamification In Recruitment?
Create Interactive Assessments
Instead of traditional question-and-answer assessments, consider creating interactive games or simulations that test candidates' skills and knowledge. This not only makes the assessment process more fun for candidates but also provides a more accurate reflection of their abilities.
Incorporate Gamified Interviews
Instead of traditional interviews, consider using gamified interview techniques such as role-playing scenarios, case studies, or behavioral games. This way, you’ll be able to assess candidates' critical thinking skills, communication traits, and cultural fit more engagingly.
Offer Gamified Training and Onboarding
After selecting candidates, you can continue the gamification process by providing interactive training modules and gamified onboarding experiences. This can help new hires quickly adapt to their roles, learn company policies, and feel more engaged from day one.
Streamline Your Gamified Recruitment With the Best ATS on the Market
Manatal’s ATS allows you to build your recruitment pipeline, keep candidates and hiring managers updated, and share notes and activities with all stakeholders. Additionally, Manatal comes with a wealth of integrations that you can use to enhance your processes and recruitment performance. For example, Manatal’s integration with Codility allows you to seamlessly assess your candidates’ technical acumen in an engaging way.
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6 Tips For Implementing Gamification in the Recruitment Process
1. Define Clear Objectives
Before implementing gamification in the recruitment process, it is important for the recruitment team to clearly define objectives. Whether it is to increase candidate engagement, assess specific skills, or improve the overall candidate experience, having clear goals helps guide the design and implementation of gamified elements.
2. Choose Relevant Game Mechanics
When incorporating gamification, choose game mechanics that are relevant to the hiring process. This could include challenges, missions, rewards, leaderboards, or progression systems that align with the skills and qualities that the organization is looking for in candidates.
3. Incorporate Feedback and Assessment
Gamification in the recruitment process can provide valuable insights into candidates' capabilities and potential fit within the organization. This is why feedback loops and assessments within the game can help your recruitment team evaluate candidates based on their performance, problem-solving skills, teamwork, and other key competencies.
4. Make it Fun and Engaging
The main purpose of gamification is to make the recruitment process more fun and engaging for candidates. So, it’s a good idea to focus on creating interactive and entertaining game elements that motivate candidates to participate and showcase their abilities better.
5. Ensure Transparency and Fairness
While gamification can add a playful element to the recruitment process, don't forget to ensure that the games and challenges are fair and transparent. Candidates should understand the rules, objectives, and criteria for evaluation. You should also maintain fairness throughout the gamified hiring process.
6. Measure and Analyze Results
Measure and analyze the results to evaluate the effectiveness of gamification in the recruitment process. This could include assessing candidate engagement levels, completion rates, time spent on games, as well as the quality of candidates hired through the gamified process. With data analysis, you can make informed decisions on how to optimize and improve gamification in your next recruitment campaigns.
The Future of Gamification
The value of the global gamification market was standing at over $6.8 billion back in 2018. It was expected to expand and reach $40 billion by this year [2024.] The fact that gamification in recruitment allows employers to have a clear visibility of candidates’ skills and traits. The reason that gamification a widely incorporated in the recruitment process of many companies today is that it boosts employee engagement. Bumping up only 34% of engaged workplaces to a much higher rate. [3] Over 68% of recruiters revealed that investing in new hiring technologies is the best way to increase performance. [4] Let’s look at examples of companies that have successfully implemented gamification into their recruitment process.
Google is a good example of a company that successfully implemented gamification into its recruitment process. The world-famous search engine organizes ‘Google Code Jam,’ its software-writing contest, offering challenges and allowing it to attract and spotlight fresh talent who potentially fit the company. The contest welcomes eager developers and engineers to compete and win up to $50,000.
Formaposte
A postal service hailing from France is another good example. Fomaposte was facing a high turnover, and the company decided to combat the situation and retain its workforce through ‘Jeu Facteur Academy’ an interactive game that allows players to experience a week in the life of a new hire for a postal company. Players will be put in situations where they get to learn about postal work. As a result, Formaposte was able to drop its turnover rate from 25% to only 8%.
Conclusion
As candidates' behavior continues to evolve, incorporating gamification into recruitment strategies has proven to be an effective way to attract and retain young talent. By adding elements of game-playing to the hiring process, you can create a more engaging and interactive experience for candidates, ultimately leading to better recruitment outcomes. However, before diving into gamification, it is important to first carefully consider the goals and objectives of your recruitment process, identify the specific skills and traits you are looking for in candidates, and ensure that the gamified activities align with your employer brand. Also, don’t forget to test and iterate the gamification elements to make sure that it is enjoyable for candidates and effectively assess their qualities at the same time.
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Citations:
1. Forbes
2. Forbes
3. Forbes
4. byvi.co
5. LinkedIn
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