London-based firm introduces gamification to improve graduate recruitment process

A London-based IT services company has introduced gamification to help make its recruitment process more enjoyable for graduates.

FDM is looking to increase candidate diversity and make its graduate testing process more engaging with the introduction of Yellow Hook Reef, an assessment game by global game technology provider Arctic Shores.

Fun

FDM has now introduced the game at its assessment centres across the UK after the company decided to use gamification to help reduce the stress of its assessment days and make the process more fun for graduates.

According to FDM UK&I Recruitment Manager Jeff Lovejoy, the company’s biggest struggle during its graduate recruitment process was finding candidates that were able to communicate well in a business environment.

FDM has now gamified some of its processes, using verbal tests, maths tests, IT aptitude tests and set notation theory to enable the company to select the best candidates. The processes enable the company to search for graduates with key strengths such as growth, drive, resilience, social adaptability, strategic awareness, a logical mindset, collaboration and flexibility.

Engaging

Commenting on the use of gamification, Arctic Shores Managing Director and Co-Founder Robert Newry said: “We use game technology because it is more engaging to capture people’s real preferences and behaviours.”

He said that by using game technology in an assessment, you get real behaviours – you make real decisions and real choices in a task for an assessment. He added that a game now enables you to measure real behaviour – all of these things are important in the workplace but were not assessed previously.