Recruitment 3.0 was a shift away from traditional techniques (for example, job postings) to searching for the best talent, preferably the best passive talent. 3.0 was a shift to engaging passive talent, creating talent communities, and the importance of employer brand. From here we are now moving forward to Recruitment 4.0, the “future” of recruitment. The future of recruitment will see the complete leveraging of 3.0 techniques with the addition of mobile and gamification. Google’s recent statistic of 88% of job searches involve mobile at some stage in the process shows the importance of mobile to recruitment Gamification is defined as “the application of typical elements of game playing to other areas of activity, typically as an online marketing technique to encourage engagement with a product or service. Gamification is exciting because it promises to make the hard stuff in life fun”.
Gamification can be used in different ways in the recruiting and on-boarding process. Marriott is running a Sims-type game in which players act as hotel managers, using this tool for attraction. L’Oréal’s Brandstorm game is used to find the top marketing talent by conducting a product launch in game format. Post-recruitment, the current hot tip for future tech is the use of games in the on-boarding process. Games can help new people understand the organization, its culture, the brand, etc.
Gamification is still in its nascent stages for recruitment but can be used for attraction, assessment, and on-boarding. We look forward to seeing more companies be pioneers in using this tool.