Would you use a video game to find the right job candidate? How Theme Park Hero is revolutionising recruitment

Gone are the days of interviewing candidate after candidate in a stuffy meeting room just to ask them, “What are your strengths and weaknesses?” and hope for an honest response. These days, employers can cut through the time and tedium of the hiring process with something as novel as a video game.

Australian people analytics company Revelian has launched a tool that helps employers pinpoint someone’s abilities after just 10 minutes of playing a video game online.

Theme Park Hero combines gamification, analytics, big data and predictive psychometric models to identify the best candidate for a job by testing them on a range of different skills including mental agility, cognitive speed, attention, spatial aptitude and numerical reasoning.

Candidates play the role of a park manager who has to make sure the park operates effectively, while solving any problems that arise. They perform tasks such as constructing and planning a new water park feature and even fixing broken rollercoasters. It also incorporates ‘distractions’ similar to those that arise every day in a workplace.

The test takes 10 minutes but generates 10,000 points of data that can be analysed to measure aspects of the candidate’s ability.

Warwick Kirby, chief executive of Revelian, says SMEs can use the tool in the same way corporate firms have used question-and-answer-style psychometric ‘exams’ for years.

“It allows SMEs in particular to leverage what big corporates have been doing for many years,” Kirby told SmartCompany.

Although Revelian now lists major banks, utility and insurance companies as clients, Kirby says small businesses are the fastest growing market for Theme Park Hero.

The test is undertaken at the candidate’s home. The candidate applies for a position and then receives an email invitation to play the game. When they have completed the game, the company gets the results in a report. The tool is self-service, meaning small business can sign up with credit or debit card and then create a test that best suits their available position.

Kirby says the game is a more enjoyable alternative for both employer and employee, as the majority of candidates who don’t get the role walk away from the process feeling both positive about the encounter and impressed by the company’s innovation.

“People get all excited about going for roles and then say ‘oh my goodness, I have to sit an exam?’ It’s like some corporates are saying, we like you but here’s a punishment,” says Kirby.

He says while marketers have used big data for years, the trend is now evolving from understanding consumers to understanding employees.

“Big data I know is an overused word, but it really is a tool to capture and digest a lot of information to give business intelligence and insight,” says Kirby.

“You wouldn’t buy a car without looking under the hood, why hire someone without knowing exactly who you’re getting?” he says.