Gamification is already a big trend across a wide range of industries. Health and fitness apps use games and competitions to motivate people to reach their fitness goals. Plenty of consumer brands offer points-based rewards where consumers earn points or complete challenges to win bigger prizes – think McDonald’s Monopoly or Starbucks’ reward challenges. And the education industry has long used games as a way to make learning not only more fun but also more effective.
In the hiring world, you’d be hard-pressed to hear a job seeker describe job hunting as “fun,” but that doesn’t mean it can’t be. In fact, the job search is ripe for gamification. Here are three reasons why:
1. Job seekers are increasingly mobile
People are using mobile devices for more and more everyday tasks, from shopping and social media to managing finances and refilling prescriptions. The job search is no exception. One study found that 77% of job seekers use mobile job search apps, and 45% of job seekers said they use a mobile device to search for jobs at least once a day. This is especially true for younger job seekers just entering the workforce.
Mobile gamification is one way to find and attract candidates where they already are. And according to data from Apple, games are the most popular category in the app store. Gamification of the job search process merges two common mobile activities (games and job seeking) into one engaging activity.
2. Candidate experience is more important than ever
We’ve written on this topic before, but most recruiters agree we’re in a candidate-driven market where job seekers can be more choosy about who to work for, making candidate experience critical to attracting the best talent. Job seekers may get turned off by a tedious or overly-demanding hiring process, especially if they have other options.
Providing a positive candidate experience is a major component of employer branding. Companies that have good reputations as positive workplaces are more likely to attract top-tier candidates. Gamifying the hiring process is one way to demonstrate to job seekers that your company not only cares about candidate experience but also that your company is a fun, innovative place to work.
3. Companies are increasingly seeking data-driven hiring methods
HR leaders are becoming more and more comfortable with incorporating data into the hiring process, in part because of the demonstrated predictive value that data can provide. As a pre-employment testing company, we can vouch for the predictive validity of testing and the impact it can have on tangible business outcomes, from higher productivity to lower turnover. What if there was a way to assess the key qualities associated with job performance through gamified assessments, reaching candidates where they are while at the same time providing a positive candidate experience?
In 2019, we released our first game-based pre-employment assessment, GAME, or the General Aptitude Mobile Evaluation. The GAME is a mobile-first, game-based assessment of cognitive aptitude. The assessment evaluates many of the critical factors that contribute to on-the-job performance: critical thinking, problem solving ability, attention to detail, and the ability to learn and apply new information.
Game-based assessments are an exciting frontier in pre-employment testing because they combine the best of both worlds – a scientifically validated assessment delivered through a candidate-friendly experience.
Learn more about game-based assessments in our on-demand webinar: How Game-Based Assessments Can Enhance the Candidate Experience
