Make the hiring process less tense through gamification

The human brain has two distinct sides and the cognitive characteristics that come with each. Similarly, there are two ways recruitment processes can happen. The logical side and the ingenious (creative) side!

We have come past the days when candidates had to iron their white/cream formal shirts and carry a file of a hundred documents to sit with 20 other perspiring job seekers under a single fan in a corridor outside the interview cabin. Moving from formals to semi-formals, and interview rooms to computer screens to gamified experiences, we have come a long way from intense in-person interviews to their virtual counterparts. 

Gamification: Make hiring fun

Gamification—once associated with children and teens—is the talk of the town with regards to defining a workplace culture, fun activities in professional settings, and now, hiring processes.

Yes, it is new to the hiring world, but its potential to enhance the future of hiring is phenomenal. It will be the most sought-after implementation idea for tech hiring platforms, owing to its light-hearted and enthusiasm-inducing nature and providing great insights into a candidate’s logical and cognitive reasoning. 

Now, where to infuse gamification into the hiring process? As the name suggests, gamification incorporates game mechanics and elements into environments. During interviews, one expects tests based on skills and personality in the tech hiring process. These tests are one of the many aspects of an interview that causes anxiety in candidates even before they get to that part of the interview.

The stress compromises the performances of even the genuinely potent candidates, eventually leading them to lose points and time trying to get their minds back to attentiveness.

The incorporation of a points system and simple animations make the process interactive. A candidate constantly communicates with elements like points, rewards, pop-up windows, and dialogue boxes with animation transitions.

After passing every stage successfully, candidates can earn exclusive badges, along with an animated progress bar indicating how many levels the candidate reached and in what amount of time.

According to an article in legaljobs.com, by 2025, 75% of the global workforce will comprise Gen-Z and Millennials, who have grown up with games of different sorts and could engage and interact readily.

Data also suggests that 73% of job seekers are already stressed. And gamification would relieve them to stay calm and take their time to gel in with the interview process and the interviewer.

Closing thoughts

Although there may be challenges like resource constraints, technological barriers, and resistance to change in some cases, the benefits outweigh them.

Moreover, gamification in hiring is not an entirely new concept. It was used by Domino's Pizza back in 2015 for recruitment and upskilling processes. It was named Pizza Hero, where users could create their pizzas with their desired toppings sauce. In the end, along with the pizza being delivered, they also received a legit job offer on the app, which they had used to play the game.

The most uncommon usage of gamification is in the United States Army Forces' recruitment, where candidates are tested to see if they can enter such a high-impact sector. Thus, gamification as a modern solution need not necessarily be subjected only to tech hiring but can always be utilised by any sector to improve talent attraction levels, workplace culture, and workforce retention.

Over the past decade, the tech world has seen tremendous advancements, and artificial intelligence (AI) and Generative AI are a testament to it, positioned as the most promising development. With these advanced technologies, there is further scope to enhance gamification and open roads to newer and potent possibilities to revolutionise the HR tech landscape.

Aditya Malik is the Founder and CEO of ValueMatrix.ai