The Tru Files GAMIFICATION

Transcription

1 and Martin Lee 3.5

2 / ,00010 We scoured presentations and conversations from the last twelve months of TRU events to bring you the best forwardlooking ideas in the field of recruiting. EVENTS ATTENDEES BIG IDEAS

3 /03 JUST AHEAD: USING GAMING TACTICS TO ATTRACT TOP TALENT. IT S NOT NEARLY AS CRAZY AS IT SOUNDS.

4 /04 LADDERING AND REWARDS DIGITAL CURRENCY RECOGNITION AND BADGES TRIBALISM

5 /05 Gamification in the recruiting industry isn t really about building gaming apps (though it s been done). Rather, more and more recruiters are interested in how they can borrow user experience tactics from gaming to create better incentives, entertainment and education. First a look at why gaming s so red-hot: Gaming is the most popular online activity. In 2012, consumers spent over $20 billion on gaming in the US alone. 1 A study by mega-publisher Random House found 56 percent of smartphone users spent over 30 minutes playing a phonebased game per day. 2 Contrary to popular opinion, women are also avid users, making up 45 percent of all gamers. 3 And far from being an anti-social activity, 62 percent of gamers say they play games with others, either in-person or online. All this matters to recruiters because it is shaping the way individuals expect to consume content online particularly the under-30 crowd, where gaming is much more prevalent. Let s review some of the gaming tactics businesses are using to make digital content more entertaining and memorable

6 /06 LADDERING AND REWARDS Knowing how difficult it is to acquire new customers, many digital content sites are using laddering a well-established gaming tactic to win customers attention and allegiance over time. For example, Glassdoor.com gives users a simple task to complete (e.g. download an ebook) to unlock the first level of content on its site. With each visit, a new step on the ladder will present itself, and at each step the customer unlocks a higher level of access or reward. The principle works because consumers are hesitant to give over too much personal information all at once, but are open to a more slow-to-unfold relationship. Using a methodical progression and rewarding users at each step digital content companies like Glassdoor.com build confidence and trust with customers. Laddering and rewards also work well to document stages in the recruitment and application process. Companies like CERN and Sodexo use a laddering process to signal back to applicants exactly where their application is in the hiring cycle. Given how frustrated job candidates feel when they hear only radio-silence after submitting an application, a clearly communicated application ladder, including visual cues to show exactly where in the process a particular application is, helps job candidates feel they ve not been forgotten. (And it cuts down on queries from applicants.)

7 /07 DIGITAL CURRENCY Want to create the ultimate reward? Consider whether your target market would be interested in some form of digital currency the ultimate reward for gamers. For example, three years ago a technology company realized it had to become much wilier to attract top-tier students from elite universities (i.e. the same students every company is vying to hire). Recruiters at this company realized students spent a lot of time on Facebook, and in particular, playing Facebook games like FarmVille, CityVille and Bejeweled. The company began by targeting these students with Facebook ads. They offered to give students a FarmVille cow in exchange for joining the company s talent community. The cow (for the uninitiated) had major social value because it let players sow the field with corn and earn more points. And the hiring company spent a fraction of the price on a digital cow than it would spend on a hokey giveaway like a stress ball or coffee mug. What s more, the click-through rate on the offer was extremely high because it was so unusual. In the next stage of the ladder, the company hired three interns to play online games with these students and get to know them more closely. By the time the company arrived on campus for a career event, they had an established, warm relationship with students.

8 /08 RECOGNITION & BADGES Hand-in-hand with laddering and rewards, companies should consider using some type of recognition methodology particularly for any site that includes a directory or community component. For example, under a user s profile you may show years of membership, number of connections, level achieved, and even a special color or symbol denoting a user s status on the site. It s a clear way to define the rules of the site, and show how users are successful using it. Badge icons are now used extensively by training and development organizations to offer a fast and easy visual verification of skills. One recognition tactic used pervasively in gaming is badges and the idea is quickly gaining acceptance in the recruiting space. Badge icons are now used extensively by training and development organizations to offer a fast and easy visual verification of skills. WONDERING HOW BADGES WORK? If you are interested in badges as a way to recognize skills and areas of expertise within your organization or beyond, Open Badges is fast-becoming a pace-setter in the field. Open Badges is a free program offered by Mozilla that relies on an open technical standard any organization can use to create, issue and verify digital badges. Dozens of organizations have joined Open Badges to date, including top-flight universities, professional associations and corporations.

9 /09 Still not sure how these work in enterprise? Consider how The Nerdery an interactive design and production company uses recognition and badges. Each employee profile includes a list of certification and achievements, days with the company, and projects completed. And while the presentation is intended to be humorous, it shows off each employee s skill base and background. The Nerdery s profiles of employees are partfun, part-informative. They use recognition points and badges to show off in a quick, highly visual format.

10 /10 TRIBALISM Just as gamers identify with certain gaming cliques, so too your organization should try to find groups of potential job candidates that seem part of a tribe or defined social group. Hard Rock Café, for example, needed to hire staff for a new restaurant, and needed to do so quickly. The company realized that among their current workforce, most were die hard rock and roll fans and that most (90 percent) satisfied their passion for music with a Spotify account. Reviewing data from Spotify, Hard Rock could see current employees shared an ardent interest in a small group of artists. To drive up applications for their new location, Hard Rock featured ads with music from those bands and earned unprecedented click-through rates compared to earlier Hard Rock campaigns. And tribalism can come in even simpler forms. Starbucks realized potential job candidates enjoyed CityVille, so they placed a virtual store inside the game. (Inside jokes or a sly nod among tribe members earns extra points!)

11 : ACTIONABLE INSIGHTS /11 DO THIS. GET THAT. The real beauty of successful Don t be too strict about Design-in rewards programs Rewards are always better Study where your audience gamification, no matter how you apply gaming where you can. And rather when they include some hangs out online. The the tactic, is the immediate to your recruiting efforts. than offer big rewards sort of status or visual example of the company feedback loop. Do this. You re not actually aiming infrequently, consider badge. Users love getting using FarmVille cows as Get that. to turn what you do into a smaller rewards more often. stuff (e.g. the FarmVille cow), currency only worked If you re considering adopting gaming methodology in your recruiting process, remember the following: game, but rather offering opportunities for users to return and re-engage. Again, it s about drawing people back. but they adore bragging about it too. Give them a chance to show off some token or badge that proves they ve reached a new level. because the company understood their audience. Be sure you know which games and social networks your audience likes most, and how you can share their interests as part of the in crowd.

12 /12 THE #TRU STORY I first discovered the Unconference concept when I led a track at #RecruitFest in Toronto in I was taken aback by the way discussion flowed and how different the format was to a traditional conference. I led a track all day under a tree and learnt far more than I gave. Two months later and back in the UK, we ran the first #trulondon at Canary Wharf in November Today, we re running dozens of #tru events a year across Europe, North America, Africa and the Asia-Pacific. Thousands of recruiters, HR leaders and providers come together in an informal spirit of information sharing and networking. BILL BOORMAN #tru is based on the BarCamp principle, which means that everybody can be an active participant instead of listening to speakers and watching presentations all day. The emphasis is on communication and the free exchange of ideas and experiences where the participants fuel the conversations.

13 /13 POWERING A WORKPLACE REVOLUTION Gamification using gaming tactics to attract top talent may be a relatively new trend in the recruitment industry but, if done well, could power a workplace revolution. Put simply, gamification harnesses people s desire to play online games or be tested in a way which benefits them and their employer. But the power of gamification is that it s a fun way to enhance employer branding, improve employee engagement, recruit top-notch workers, and win customers attention. Recruiters are now interested in how they can borrow user experience tactics from gaming to create better incentives, entertainment, education and ways of attracting candidates. Gamification in practice revolves around the basics of laddering, rewards, badges, digital currency and tribalism. It could involve offering digital game rewards to attract new recruits, or turning an internal re-branding operation into a workplace trading card competition. It s also a more fun way to get workers input than an all-staff or a boring intranet page. One technology company used popular Facebook game Farmville, to recruit elite university students, offering students a Farmville cow if they joined the company s talent community a much better give away than a branded coffee cup.ultimately, successful gamification is all about offering users opportunities to return and engage and targeting where your audience hangs out online. But like any strategy, it has to be done well. To learn more about the future of recruiting download the TRU File e-book MARTIN LEE MARTIN LEE, Vice President (VP), Head of Sourcing and Research for EMEA and Asia-Pacific Martin is responsible for all sourcing activity within the EMEA & APAC regions, including sourcing strategy, process, implementation and ongoing enhancement. He also works with Kelly clients to advise them on the most innovative sourcing and recruitment solutions available for their business. His expertise spans the following areas: Advanced and Direct Sourcing Techniques, Boolean Searching and Search Engines, Data Mining, Competitor Analysis, Recruitment Research, Social Media, Talent Pooling, Sourcing from Social Media, Recruitment Software, Market Mapping and the Candidate Experience.

14 HEAT For more thought leadership go to talentproject.com 1 2 TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE FUTURE OF RECRUITING, DOWNLOAD THE FOLLOWING TRU FILES EBOOKS. CULTURE BRANDING CANDIDATE EXPERIENCE 2 ASSESSMENTS 3 VIDEO INTERVIEWING MOBILITY SOURCING TECHNOLOGY 6 NEW ROLE OF THE RECRUITER 7 TRU HIRE WORK, NOT WORKERS 8 GAMIFICATION 9 SOCIAL RECRUITING & PERSONALIZATION ABOUT KELLY SERVICES Kelly Services, Inc. (NASDAQ: KELYA, KELYB) is a leader in providing workforce solutions. Kelly offers a comprehensive array of outsourcing and consulting services as well as world-class staffing on a temporary, temporary-to-hire, and direct-hire basis. Serving clients around the globe, Kelly provided employment to approximately 540,000 employees in Revenue in 2013 was $5.4 billion. Visit kellyservices.com and connect with us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Download The Talent Project, a free ipad app by Kelly Services. This information may not be published, broadcast, sold, or otherwise distributed without prior written permission from the authorized party. All trademarks are property of their respective owners. An Equal Opportunity Employer Kelly Services, Inc. EXIT