Aan de slag: Game-based assessments in recruitment

I’m sure you have heard the word gamification plenty of times. And in fact, gamification in recruitment is getting more and more popular, as it has slowly proven its business case. However, that doesn’t always mean that everyone knows what it entails, what are the benefits of it and how to implement this within an organisation. Which is entirely understandable. As with most things that are new, us humans, we tend to at first resist change. Because change can sometimes be scary at first. Especially when it comes to recruitment where the main focus has been on hiring in traditional ways – based on resumes and motivation letters. That’s why in this blog, I’d like to share with you:

• The difference between traditional and game-based psychometric assessments
• The benefits of game based assessments
• How to get started with using gamification in recruitment

What’s the difference between traditional and game-based psychometric assessments

Traditional psychometric assessments

I’m sure you’ve heard about psychometric assessments – psychological tools that are developed and validated according to and based on science. These assessments measure a candidate’s cognitive abilities, personality and aptitude. Personality questionnaire is one of the most well-known and traditional psychometric tests. 

Being aware of these aspects of a candidate is absolutely crucial as it can be the determining factor for whether the person is a fit with the organization in terms of attitude, general work style and overall personality. No wonder they have been a very popular method in HR processes – whether it be when analyzing current employees or measuring a candidate’s suitability for a job role.

Reading tip: If you’re curious to find out more about psychometric assessments and what kind of traits they measure – check out our playbook!

Gamified psychometric assessments

The first psychometric assessments were developed around 200 years ago. Thus, it comes without a surprise that there are some differences not only when it comes to what tests measure, but also in what format they measure these traits. A more innovative format of psychometric test is a game based assessment. What do I mean by “game-based”? 

When we talk about gamification, we mean the application of game based elements in non-game related contexts. Game-based assessments allow the candidates to show their natural, unconscious behaviour and abilities. 

Gamified assessments can be used throughout the initial stages of the hiring process, as well as to ensure better employee onboarding and future development.

Why you should be using game based assessments

The answer is quite simple, yet scientifically backed. Making sure you never either wrongfully hire a non-fitting candidate, or reject a high-fitting candidate, can only be done by predicting their future performance. Luckily, this has been a subject of scientific research for a long time. I’d like to share the most important outcomes with you.

Good and bad predictors of future performance

So, basically, if you want to be as sure as you can about someone’s future performance, you need to use at least one of the above, with GCA being the strongest predictor of performance. Peer ratings add no predictive power when combined with GCA, but structured interviews are a great partner for GCA. 

They are however costly and time-consuming and should be used at a later stage of the hiring process. And that’s exactly why assessments are so powerful. They can provide us with the most crucial insights we need, in a scalable manner.

Benefits of gamified assessments

Social desirability, or more simply, manipulation of the answers, is a big issue with traditional tests – especially with personality questionnaires. In contrast, game-based assessments place focus on excluding bias and social desirability from the hiring process, while simultaneously providing insights about candidates that are objective and data-backed. Do you know which 10 types of unconscious bias cause unfair screening? Take a look at a blog we wrote in which we discuss the 10 most painful types of hiring biases.

Not only do game based assessments allow you to leverage behavioural science and gather insights about candidates that are not otherwise easily perceived, gamification also creates an outstanding & engaging candidate experience. Additionally, improving the overall perception of your employer brand.

To summarize, these are the 4 main advantages of game based assessments:

1. Data-backed and objective insights that’ll allow you to start hiring for potential
2. Make your job efficient & improve candidate experience
3. Remove bias from the hiring process at the very start of the funnel
4. Diversify your talent pool by focusing on soft skills, potential and ambitions of candidates

Read more about it here!

Getting started: implementing gamification to remove bias

As I mentioned above, assessments are a great method to debias your hiring decisions, ensure equal opportunities and improve diversity. To achieve this, it’s important to integrate gamification in the earliest possible stage of your hiring process.

Introducing game based assessments at the start of the hiring funnel will help you create a solid, unbiased first impression of candidates and help you base your hiring decisions on insights that actually determine someone’s success within your company. This will enable an equal playing field and eventually translate into a diversity-booster! And who wouldn’t want that?

Curious to find out how we can help you get started with gamification in recruitment? We’d love to tell you more! 

Cheers, Anete