29 Sep Assessment is No Game…Or is it?

Long-awaited by the HR community, gamified assessments have finally arrived! Analysing the results of the administration of a gamified assessment by a leading Australian professional services firm to over 12K graduates indicates that this new form of assessment provides a more positive and engaging experience than traditional assessments. At the same time, response data shows that gamified assessments are capable of delivering valid and reliable measures of cognitive ability, plus are especially well-suited for measuring learning agility.

Gaming is big and getting bigger

Gamification has been a hot topic within business circles for years. The rapid emergence of the digital gaming industry – expected to hit $100 billion in worldwide revenue this year – is a testament to the human appetite for interactive tests of skill and/or knowledge, as well as instant feedback via a reward system of points or digital prizes.

Business is getting on the gaming bandwagon

Gamification has already been harnessed for motivating desired behaviours in customer loyalty, employee motivation, and other programs. In fact, gamification has consistently topped the list of upcoming tech trends in HR for the last several years. Now, that promise appears to be coming to life with the recent introduction of game-based talent assessments.

Game-based assessments moves from concept to reality

There now exists a small number of assessments that employ a game interface for the purpose of measuring a candidate’s abilities. Their key defining characteristic is that they are interactive. The test-taker (or game-player) performs certain actions in pursuit of a given goal, and gets instant feedback on the impact of those actions, which in turn could inform their subsequent actions. In other words, through playing, one can learn to ‘master’ the game.

Assessing gamified assessments

It is believed that the combination of interactivity, entertainment value and novelty could provide greater attraction and engagement for new entrants to the workforce who grew up within a digital/online landscape and have thus come to expect more interactive experiences.

If you would like to know more about gamified assessment and how your business could utilise this innovative testing format, have a look at our Gamification whitepaper coming soon!