Recruitment is often a long and complex activity. It requires time, energy and even money.  This investment of resources can affects the future of a company. In fact, hiring the wrong person lead to negative performances of the whole team. On the contrary, finding the right employee means improving the results of the entire company.

But head hunting is not just a matter of finding people with the best CV. The human side, the mindset, the ability of team-working are as important as expertise and work experiences. Unfortunately it is difficult to discover the most authentic personality traits through the traditional job interviews.

So how can a company improve its recruitment process? Gamification can offer new tools. Let’s find out what L’Oreal chose to do.

Usually recruiting is based on one or more face-to-face interviews. Sometimes companies choose group interviews to test the interaction and communication between individuals. In this case the selectors can use role play that reflect real work situations. However, a personal interview is always required.

THE LIMITS OF THE TRADITIONAL SELECTION PROCESS

Dr. Allen from the Bradley University studied this selection process and found out that it doesn’t work.
The typical questions asked during a job interviews are not suitable for highlighting the authentic personality of candidates, nor do they give the right information to evaluate them.
The reason is that questions like “Why should we choose you?” push the candidate to provide untruthful answers. The anxiety of being evaluate and the innate ability to give the expected answers prevents an honest communication.

GAMIFICATION AND RECRUTAINMENT

Is there any alternative? Yes, a recruiting process based on gamification, especially on video games.
Video games are engaging and fun. While playing candidates feel more relaxed and become unable to fake their behavior. This lets recruiters discover their true personality and skills.
Video games can simulate real work situations, but also imaginary ones perfect to test psychological or behavioral aspects that go beyond the professional side.

This new method that mixes entertainment and recruiting is called Recruitainment.

THE CASE OF L’OREAL

Back in 2010 L’Oreal already used recrutainment, creating REVEAL, a gaming system aimed to find new talents around the world.
Candidates playing on REVEAL were challenged to launch a new product. They had to manage all the different aspects related to similar projects, from finance and marketing to the interaction with the involved company departments. This simulation helped recruiters to evaluate both operational and personal skills.
Candidates collected points based on their actions and the final result determined who was worthy of an interview at the company headquarters.

L’Oreal said that they were able to recruit 20% of executives though this method.
This proves how much gamification can improve the recruitment activity.