videogames

Lighten Up! These Smart Games Can Help Motivate Your Assignees

Would you believe more creative-driven offices are actually encouraging their staff to play video games to spur their artistic and design juices? The age-old practice of prohibiting employees from whacking virtual monsters or exploring the underworld in video games is turning on its head. Human resource recruitment and employee motivation are recognizing how these cutting-edge video games and other forms of recreation can be adapted on a global level. This is to encourage them to push their boundaries or think out of the box.

As this article in BOSS Magazine states: managers will allow employees to take this kind of creative break and de-stress in a separate “break room,” not their individual, work-related smart devices. Instead of hobnobbing in the water cooler or taking a smoke outside the premises, staff can actually spend their breaks discovering the latest version of “The Legend of Zelda.”

Another report by the Society for Human Resource Management says that the more innovative recruiters are taking gamification to the next level. Companies are customizing virtual role-playing to assess dozens of applicants’ skill levels, character strengths and weaknesses, and if they  are a right fit in the organization. For example, Marriott Hotel’s game lets the recruit interact with digital guests, run the operations of a hotel, and boost promotion to increase revenues. The Hungarian office of PricewaterhouseCooper (Pwc) built its own gaming platform on Facebook to test an applicant’s online behavior in  a simulated environment that resembles their actual workplace. The PwC game subtly tests his ability to respond under pressure and come up with novel situations for difficult challenges.

Recruits play these games on an average of one hour. Their authentic responses to on-the-spot scenarios tell more about them — and their job suitability — than any question-and-answer test.

Games like these adapted to the global mobility field can save specialists time and resources in determining if the assignee is fit for the new job, or his new home.Other categories can be placed as criterion like flexibility, openness, and the ability to work with others.  For example, particulars can be programmed to show how well a Korean who is used to traditional authoritarian structures can adjust to the more free-wheeling sneakers-and-hood culture of Silicon Valley. An Indian sales engineer who is racking up sales in his native Bangalore can likewise be evaluated through a game that analyzes how his candid, grab-the-bull-by-the-horns strategies can work well in a more laid-back city that emphasizes the slow building of relationships.

These scenarios are not too far off. Technology is fast adapting to make foreign assignees feel more at home in their adopted country. California Corporate Housing’s additional offerings like Amazon Echo and Virtual Reality devices help them relax and throw off the day’s burdens for a good night’s sleep. In a few year’s time, they might be the ones asking the company tech guy to create a simulation that will do a test run on their next project. After all, many of them are millennials to whom gaming is a way of life.

And that’s another bonus for global mobility specialists: they might be able to pick the cream of the crop of this increasing workforce as they eagerly line up to play their part in a new whole world of online simulation.

 

Tags: