Video Games Can Help Screen Job Applicants

We all know how stressful and difficult job searching is for job seekers, and how hard finding the perfect candidate is for employers who are trying to make the most out of their resources for the benefit of their company. Applying for jobs and searching for candidates is another work-and-no-play situation; but, what if there was a way to bring play into work?

With the technology of games increasingly helping the field of medicine, the production of film, and our own psychology, Guy Halfteck, founder and chief executive of Knack, a technology start-up company, brings the ultimate experience for hiring potential candidates through games. Through Knack, job seekers become engaged with a game to discover their potential, talents and abilities. 

How Hiring Is Made Easy

At an Economist event last year, Halfteck discussed how video games can be used to predict worker’s performance. Through Knack games, Halfteck believes we can receive insight into an individual’s behavior and with that data, companies will be able to easily see which candidate will be the best for each position. 

Knack games offer a deeper insight outside of the typical paper resume. Halfteck explains how people like Steve Jobs, who were college drop-outs, weren’t given the time of day, but then managed to become successful on their own. Halfteck believes that games will allow us to find many “Steve Jobs” who are talented, but may not have their gifts showcased on paper. 

For all Ages

Knack games help people of all ages see which skills they may have early on. Halfteck asks to imagine a world where we have the ability to find our skills at an early age, so that we could focus on those from the start to reach our highest potential. He believes that through Knack, this is possible. 

What does this mean for Companies?

Companies will define potential in a new way. Through these games, companies can easily match candidates with jobs they will be most successful in. Now the question is, how do these games obtain this data from the player?

Wasabi Waiter

Wasabi Waiter is one of the games Knack currently has. As the waiter, players have to read the emotions of the customers that come into the restaurant and serve them a dish that corresponds with these emotions or visual expressions. In the game you are required to not only multitask, but also figure out what to do next. For instance, as the waiter, you have to figure out which customers to serve first and who to ignore and not serve at all.  Through the many decisions in the gameplay, there are data points that Knack technology collects as the player plays the game.

Thoughts

Although Halfteck claims that these games are able to measure and differentiate many specific dimensions of an individual’s personality, do you think that a game can truly do all of this? I remember reading several articles that discuss how tests can’t measure particular skills and traits and it makes me wonder if this can be the same case for Knack games. Granted, tests and games are very different; however, I still wonder how well it measures and differentiates someone’s personality. What are your thoughts?