Hello there,
Have you considered gamification in the recruitment process?
Here are a few points why we think you need to consider escape rooms as a great tool in recruitment.

Why Escape Rooms are an Amazing Tool for Recruitment Processes

Finding the right person for a particular job has never been easy. In fact, research shows that around 46% of new recruits will fail within an 18 month period. That represents a huge investment of both time and effort without any long-term returns. But you can't blame the candidates for this failure. One of the biggest problems in recruitment is that the methods used to weed out unsuitable candidates haven't kept up with the times.

Gen Y and Z  Are Looking For More

In case anyone has been living under a rock, it's the 21st century. But many companies are still using the same recruitment methods used a generation ago. Personal interviews and resumes will only take you so far. In some ways, today's generation of millennials and zoomers are more sophisticated than yesterday's boomers. Your average Generation Z has only ever known a time of internet and digital media. Today social media platforms are used for recruiting and the video resume is no longer just for music artists. Generation Y and Z are looking to show off their individuality and their uniqueness. They are not looking for the same job for life. If we want to recruit the best of these, then perhaps we need to think more about their requirements.

The Gamification Of Recruitment

Having said that, it's true that many larger corporations are now beginning to incorporate newer and more technologically driven hiring techniques into their recruitment programs. A good example of this is that many companies now ask the recruit to make a small video clip about themselves. In the same manner, more and more companies are offering psychometric examinations of applicants, normally using a form of "gamification." This involves using elements from game design, game mechanics, and gaming principles, but in a non-game context, like recruitment. It's a great means of tapping into an applicant's natural desire to be competitive. And it allows the recruiter the possibility of evaluating many more aspects than they might find in a regular face-to-face interview.

Candidates Play Escape Room Games

A prime example of this new way of thinking can be seen in the use of escape room games as a tool for recruitment. Over the last couple of decades, the escape room industry has grown at an exponential rate and games can be found in all the major cities around the world. The idea of being locked in a themed room and having to solve riddles and find clues in order to escape within a set time limit can be repurposed for the recruitment industry. Many of the qualities necessary to complete an escape room game are those needed by many businesses. This represents a perfect example of gamification. Using the escape room game as a means of demonstrating a candidate's abilities.

Soft Vs. Hard Skills

As technology does more of the heavy lifting in businesses, hard skills are giving way to a greater focus on soft skills. A hard skill is something learned and quantifiable. Like learning a language or operating a machine. Soft skills are really just another name for people skills and include things like leadership, motivation, teamwork, and time management. According to a LinkedIn survey, 92% of recruiters place more emphasis on soft skills and 80% of them said that soft skills are more important to a business. This brings us back to escape room games as a means of recruitment selection. We can list the following soft skills as being attributes that can be quantified whilst the games are being played:

Show logical reasoning and problem solving
Critical thinking skills
Capable of teamwork
Operating and remaining focused under pressure
Time management
Leadership and delegation

Let The Real Candidate Shine Through

Another factor that's equally important but often overlooked, simply because there's no metric to measure it, and that's the candidate's personality. Escape room games are fun. This reduction of pressure normally found in the traditional interview process will help see behind the corporate mask that many new recruits feel they have to wear. In other words, the game allows candidates to be themselves.

If we look at the escape games from the perspective of the recruit, then these following factors will be of importance:

Improved critical thinking
Increased capacity for collaboration
Strengthen communication skills
Enhanced creativity

Attract A Better Quality Of Candidate

Interestingly enough, offering this sort of recruiting process is more likely to attract a better quality of candidate. It shows a forward-thinking and innovative company, that's willing to embrace new techniques in its search for the best candidates. In a recent survey of 684 US employment companies and recruits, 70% expressed an interest in taking part in an escape room game as an assessment tool in the hiring process. That figure shot up to 82% when the same question was put to millennials. In short, this is the sort of thinking that's attractive for millennials and zoomers.

The Custom-Made Virtual Escape Room

Just to illustrate how fast the world is moving forwards, even escape room games for recruitment have made massive strides in improving the whole recruitment process over the last year. A great example is that companies like ExitTheRoom can create a custom-made virtual escape room from scratch. For example, Nokia required an escape room age with their own products used a part of the game-flow. Continental Tyres required their reception, locker room, and factory floor rendered as an escape room game. Diageo wanted a game mainly focused on recruitment, with PR elements and the ability for a deeper dive into the data after the game was completed.

A Game To Suit Your Business

These escape room games were tailor-made for a client's business and incorporated many of the attributes those businesses were looking for in a potential candidate. The puzzles and game-play can be tweaked so as to highlight the most important factors that apply to that particular company or industry. This gives the recruiter a huge amount of relevant data on which to make a better hiring decision. The Journal of Nursing Education reports on a game developed for the US nursing industry which was suffering from a chronic shortage of recruits. An escape room game was designed with four rooms incorporating the main nursing concepts, along with a variety of patient health conditions. Would-be recruits worked as teams solving health care puzzles, allowing them to progress through the game. Since it's inception, the game has branched out into other health care sectors and has proved a remarkable tool in both recruiting nurses, as well as attracting a new one. [LINK: https://www.healio.com/nursing/journals/jne/2018-3-57-3/%7Bfef803bd-6d43-406d-92e3-11ca3322e9a1%7D/escape-room-recruitment-event-description-and-lessons-learned].

Get Ready! The Future Is Coming.

Finally, we should speak of the elephant in the room...Covid 19. For many months doing anything face-to-face has not been an option. With many businesses having their workers forced to work from home, using the various conferencing apps has become almost second nature for many. Because escape room games are now also played remotely, using them as a recruitment tool, is a logical evolution of the traditional methods of the interview.
Are you interested?
Contact us: reka@exittheroom.com