The lowdown According to Gartner, gamification is the broad trend of applying game mechanics to non-game environments, such as recruitment, to motivate people or change behaviour. The analyst forecasts that it is positioned to become a “highly significant trend” over the next five years and that, by next year, more than 70% of global 2,000 organisations will have at least one gamified application. 

How it will impact the way 
you work? 

Gamification has the power to deliver significant efficiencies at the front end of the recruitment process both as an attraction and an engagement tool as well as a means to quickly identify people with the correct skills for a particular role. It can also be used to better connect, communicate and build relationships with candidates in the talent pool. There is a burgeoning market of gamification developers, such as ConnectCubed, which builds assessment games that could, for instance, be used on candidates in a talent pool, while Peoplefluent has an app to increase the engagement of managers in its talent management software.  “In its truest form, gamification is about driving engagement and many of these new and [innovative] tools do this in an exciting and creative format,” says Richard Hamilton, marketing director of recruitment services provider Guru Careers. “But don’t jump into everything. Trial the services that speak to you and find the balance between traditional and unconventional. However you approach it, have fun. That is what gamification is about.”