3 Easy Steps to Implement Gamification in Recruitment

Introduction 

Waking up at sunrise needs a solid reason. If you don’t like your job, then your eyelids will feel heavier than a wrecking ball in the morning. If you’re working night shifts, you have no business. waking up in the morning. 

Organizations like yours have to hire people to carry out the company’s mission. The gamification of the recruitment process gives an edge to organizations that use it in different ways. 

• Read also: 5 Reasons Gamification in Recruitment Makes Your Business Attractive

In this post, I’ll talk to you about the different  stages of hiring, and how you can gamify them according to your goals.

But first things first, let’s look at what gamification in recruitment is.

What is gamification in recruitment?

Gamification in recruitment refers to the use of game-like elements hiring new employees. 

This practice has been proved to be effective for many years. Big names such as Google and Domino’s take advantage of all the benefits of gamifying their recruitment efforts. 

In doing so, their recruitment campaigns do not even feel like one, and that is the essence of gamifying your hiring process. It eliminates all the lengthy, tedious steps that recruiters and candidates have to go through. 

People generally send their applications on Linkedin without paying much attention – they probably even forgot they sent an application to your job offer. 

Receiving irrelevant applications wastes your time and increases the risk of making the wrong decision hiring someone who has amazing graphic design skills to grill burgers. So how can gamification in recruitment ensures you find your next hotshot recruit? 

Why gamification in recruitment is a good idea?

Your job as a recruiter is to bring the talents who will contribute to the growth of your organization. To do so, you’ll have to dig deeper in the candidate’s assets, experiences, and personality. 

And the hiring process can bring its share of frustrations because of: 

• Unqualified candidates.
• Disengagement with the job offer.
• Inability to make sure of a candidate’s skillset.

This results in making you waste time on candidates who are not cut for the job. 

These frustrations may arise in different stages of hiring new employees. This is why it is fundamental to know what stage of recruitment is causing you the most problems and to how fix it accordingly. 

Say you only want to receive candidates who are truly interested, then you might apply gamification to your application stage. Or if you want to receive as many as possible but want to only keep the best, then you can try gamifying the assessment phase of the hiring process. 

You will learn more about this in the next section. 

The different stages: when to apply gamification to recruitment

Let’s break down how each hiring stage can be gamified. 

1. Applications 

As mentioned earlier, if you’re struggling with receiving too many applications but the candidates do not seem very engaged, the problem may lie within the application process.

You’re not doing it wrong. If you’re receiving applications, then it’s working. But you might want to receive less quantity and more quality. 

The applications stage, depending on how you are doing it, can just offer an open door for a job hunter to send their application without caring too much about the consequences. After all, they’re not losing anything if send it. 

The U.K Government Communications Headquarters – the equivalent of the NSA in the US –  launched a platform for those who want to be the next James Bond (although Bond works with the MI6, but that’s not our problem). 

The potential new spies have to find a solution to break the code and enter the keyword. 

This outstanding recruitment stunt ensures the GCHQ to only receive the applications of those who were ready to go above and beyond to crack the code, leaving them with the most engaged candidates. 

2. Assessment 

Job hunters have their  answers ready to counter any question you will ask during the interview. 

An interview won’t allow you to properly assess the skill level of a candidate,  and whether they fit the job requirements. 

Don’t forget! The recruitment process is also a way for your candidates to assess you and to know whether they want to work for your organization. Keep that in mind. 

Gamifying your assessment phase will give you insights in your candidate’s skills and how they come to a solution to solve the challenge you gave them. The more data you produce the better your decisions will be.

Take this example.

Formapost, is a French mail delivery company that used to struggle with retaining their employees after hiring them. 25% of the new recruits left the company a short while after joining the team. 

Like running nose is a sign you might have the flu, one in four new employees leaving the company is a symptom of a deficient hiring process. 

In hindsight, the company realized candidates did not know what to expect at the job. Working in the postal service is quite different from your usual 9 to 5 job. 

Formapost then developed Jeu Facteur Academy, a game where candidates experienced what the job looked like. It involved waking up early and understanding the ethics of the profession. 

Without surprise, hiring people who came to work knowing what to expect cut the drop-out rate back to 8%. It is fair to say it was a success – your fish food will arrive on time.

3. Onboarding 

Attention spans are getting shorter, work is becoming constantly more fast-paced, and we are flirting with information overload every second of our day. 

Onboarding your new recruits should neither be a burden for you nor for them. Onboarding consists of having the new employees to:

• Get accustomed to their new team and mode of functioning.
• Learn the culture of the workplace. In other words, the do’s and don’ts. 
• Catching up with the projects and the tasks they need to work on.  

It is necessary to go through these steps – there is no other way around them. However,  you should acknowledge the fact that new people in new environments can face minor hindrances that can spoil their experience. Especially if your current employees do not make the efforts to make them feel welcomed.

Gamifying the process can do wonders by targeting these issues at their roots:

• Giving new employees incentives to go and talk to their colleagues. 
• Teaching your company’s values in a fun way. 

If you hire more than one employee, you can also: 

• Implement a friendly competition among them. 
• Leverage gamification dynamics by giving them an incentive to collaborate on challenges.

Creating a sense of we-ness and togetherness is crucial to make your employees engaged and looking forward to going to work when they wake up at 6am.

Conclusion 

Gamifying the recruitment process counts many benefits. Depending on your needs, targeting the right phase is crucial if you want to hit the home run.

Now that your new employee is in your team, you should start thinking about the next step –gamifying the workplace to take productivity and engagement to the next level. Learn more about it here.

Written by:
Majdi Hentati

About the author:
When he’s not writing, Majdi is either thinking about copywriting, reading or sleeping. He helps you to write compelling copies to reinforce your e-reputation. If you want to connect with him, he’ll be delighted to chat with you on his Linkedin.