Gamification in Recruitment: Game-Changer from CleverStaff

We have got some cool news! Gamification of recruitment has appeared at CleverStaff. What it is and what it is needed for – we will tell you in stages.

We have been developing CleverStaff functionality for 8 years, giving recruiters more and better tools to work with. The whole recruiting software industry is doing the same thing, and that is great.

But the problem is that the performance coefficient decreases over time. When the most sought-after features are implemented, simplifying recruiting by at least another 10% is a very difficult task, most likely years of persistent intellectual work. And herewith, the recruiting process contains a significant part of routine that is performed by the recruiter partially by means of software, and it does not grow less, but even more, because the flow of data and the size of the databases keep growing.

We decided to make that rare, challenging and promising move for software – to deal with the emotional part of recruiting. Gamification at CleverStaff is designed to celebrate the success, the achievements of recruiters that are usually not taken a notice of, because it is difficult to count them. We aim to change the very attitude towards work for the better, to make it fun.

What is our gamification?

We believe many would agree that the ultimate goal of a recruiter’s work is to hire people and fill vacations. But this is preceded by a huge chunk of monotonous operational activity – describing the vacancy, discussing requirements, finding a candidate, communicating with them, making and breaking phone calls, etc. And it feels like a routine. After all, how it happens: you do it for a long, long time, take many actions, and essentially a moment of joy is when your candidate accepts the offer and starts to work. You see him, nod happily, show him the workplace and colleagues. Rays of goodness, vibes, endorphins, and other positivity are being sprinkled – these are truly joyful human moments. And that’s it – it is time to go back to routine until the next “up-and-comer” for the position.

Not all recruiters love this routine. As a consequence, they lose focus, get distracted, force themselves, and then procrastinate, burn out to the point that even vacations do not help them recover.

Gamification at CleverStaff is designed to change attitudes towards the many small but numerous activities that make up the recruiting. And it is bound to do that, because it contains a certain story element, a plot, some cool visualization, and a lot to see and try in person. Here, for example, at the start we are greeted with an encouraging smile of the ancient Artemis, the goddess of the hunt. Due to her professional “profile” now for the first time in the world mythology she is officially and partially the patroness of recruiters ☺

What does our gamification consist of?

The first and most important thing is achievements. We celebrate them, both big and small. We have a special tab where everything is recorded.

Here we show levels, stones, successes for the month/quarter/year, etc. If a recruiter is inspired by the competition, he/she can always get involved in this “sport”, make a push – catch up and take a prize.

For his/her achievements, he/she gets gems (from rubies to emeralds) that are collected in the “My Collection” tab. In fact, this tab is the recruiter’s digitized successes, and the gems are his/her earned currency.

The second is that we digitize all achievements.

We tally the experience gained, keep its scale with stones, and congratulate them on their new level of achievement.

Stones of different levels help us with this. The very small ones are exchanged for the big ones by a ratio of 1:10. For example, a level 2 stone requires 10 small stones, while a level 5 stone requires 10,000 small stones. This is not done very fast, because it takes some work to get the big stones.

To make the path to achievement exciting, the recruiter goes from level to level, the avatars change. For example, at level 1 we see a humble pathfinder who does not have any weapons yet. As you progress, the situation changes, and pathfinders become powerful and heavily armed hunters.

There are hints in the “My Rewards” tab to help you move forward. To get a new reward, for example, you need to make a call or schedule an interview. You do it, and you get new rewards. Oh, do you have an achievement? The notification about it is seen by you, by the team. This also may encourage someone to think “wow, I want it too!” And if “even Katia did it, I can definitely do it!” 😉

The third is a competition between the recruiters. Since our experience and achievements are digitalized, it means that we can calculate who has achieved more. This may not be a motivator for all teams, but it is only one of our key mechanics. The user can choose what drives him most and concentrate on it. For example, “My rewards” will brighten up the routine, because you are unlikely to notice the “anniversary” number of something, but the system “notices” and will certainly inform you in a colorful way!

The fourth is summing up. In the process of work, personal results for the month/quarter/year are summed up, it is possible to compare your result for the current period with the previous one and reach for new records. And, of course, there will be plenty of them, because experience and professionalism grows over time, and this is qualitatively reflected in the results.

We sum up the results objectively.

For example, if you simply count the filled vacancies, this is not entirely fair. Easy, medium, and hard require a different amount of effort, so they receive a different number of rewards. Thus, we are able to digitalize the success of any combination of filled vacancies.

Bringing everything to a common denominator in terms of the number of stones, we are able to compare these results and notice the progress.

The fifth, we celebrate the “milestone events”. For example, filling 10, 50 and 100 vacancies, adding the same number of candidates, sending letters, reviewing reports, etc. After all, a person’s accomplishments at work are an objective reality. It is fun to know about them, to enjoy them, to appreciate them. But often, in the great pace of work, everything is being disregarded. The recruiter is happy to see a new employee starting to work or accept an offer, but that is not much of a triumph in a multi-day or multi-week work. So why not let (colleagues, supervisor) know that for the first time in your entire career, you filled 10 challenging vacancies in a quarter? That is awesome!

Important! Gamification at CleverStaff does not encourage you to do things that are not work related. Everything is “sharpened” to actively add candidates, create vacancies, write comments, emails, offers, and conduct interviews. Thus, gamification essentially encourages exactly what a person does anyway, immersing him or her in the work, rather than distracting from it.

And what about… the executive?

By and large, it is the executive’s work to celebrate the achievements of his employees. But in reality, it is unrealistic to digitize count, and summarize everything in time even for the most motivated boss. The recruiter also finds it difficult, troublesome, and reluctant to do so. Even if a good recruiting system with good reporting is implemented. All these achievements of recruiters that we encourage are real. But without a programmatic approach, it is very difficult to track them, especially when there are several recruiters working in-house.

And finally

So it turns out that gamification is not a game at all, but an interactive presentation of real achievements, successes and results. Digitalization allows you to understand how much you have to do before the top position, before a personal record, before a new level.

There are a few companies that have implemented gamification. In software, even less.

In turn, CleverStaff’s gamification is designed to impact not the recruiter’s toolbox, but the emotional component; to make the views towards the same work engaging and positive. And it is a very special move that has made our project not only unique technically, but also culturally. There are no solutions with such background neither in the Ukrainian nor in foreign segment. We have checked this. ☺ It is a kind of a game-changer.

While we are telling you about it, some of our customers are already trying the new equipment of advanced “hunters” and counting stones. We will write about their impressions very soon ☺