feature | GAMIFICATION
GAMIFICATION of thrones game
Many have misinterpreted gamification as video gaming, and so its potential has been somewhat underestimated. But it has serious neuroscientific clout, and a huge amount of constantly-evolving science behind it. Perhaps counter-intuitively, it’s particularly useful
for talent management, for determining what people are naturally good at and where they might develop well. It can also identify suitable candidates for roles and internal promotion, supporting the development of future leaders.
ARTICLE BY DR BORIS ALTEMEYER, CHIEF SCIENTIFIC OFFICER - COGNISESS
The misinterpretation derives from the notion of recruiting and promoting people based on their high scores in Sonic the Hedgehog. For sure, it’s a leap of faith - the idea of candidates and employees playing games to assess their abilities. But pick any organisation, and the ones that are pulling away from the pack are the forward-thinking, and already using gamification to recruit, develop, retain and manage. Indeed, the game mechanics make recruitment, learning and talent development more immersive, objective, accurate and more enjoyable than human assessment. Gamification uses paradigms - abstracted models of some task or problem to solve - that mimic the way the brain works, to do a particular task, or job. By building game paradigms, we can model an
information processing stream - what the brain has to do - and a behavioural actions stream, or how this is turned into action - that is very similar to a task that needs to be carried out in day-to-day work, without actually mimicking the work to be carried out. For example, in assessment centres, organisations often use ‘in-tray’ exercises, where candidates have to multitask and prioritise as they might have to do in the job they’re applying for. The problem with this is that other factors of human psychology come into play and skew the results. But if we can gamify the assessment of multitasking and prioritisation, removing candidate anxiety and making it more enjoyable - plus provide immediate feedback - we can accrue better data.
When people say ‘I don’t test well’, they’re not just admitting to being nervous, or expressing frustration, they’re expressing a fundamental truth of human psychology, performance suffers when we’re stressed. The unfortunate truth is that job interviews, assessment centres, and face-to-face testing exercises are very stressful. It’s not something we should look upon as something to ‘face’ or ‘just get over’. It’s far more fundamental to our nature than that, and it’s mostly completely beyond our individual control. Gamifying assessments to make them objective and stress- free presents a more accurate indication of how people can perform day-to-day. A game takes the attention away from the fact that an assessment is underway, and prevents
20 | thehrdirector | MAY 2019
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