Companies are finding it increasingly difficult to find suitable specialists in the War for Talents. Find out how Recruitainment can help you attract the attention of the talent you need.
It’s no longer enough to post a traditional job advertisement online and hope for a call from the right applicant. Highly specialized and young talents are not so easily enticed into companies. The acute shortage of skilled workers gives them a stronger hand than the employers’. Nowadays, applicants can afford to reject job offers and place high demands on their place of work and the future employer. Especially now, when Generation-X, -Y and -Z talents are increasingly of the opinion that the employer should suit them, rather than the other way around, the area of recruitment is in need of innovation.
One of these innovations is called “recruitainment”. The approach is particularly appealing to young talents and is viewed by many employers as a promising strategy. But what is recruitainment and how is it supposed to help companies out of their predicament?
The term recruitainment was first used in connection with career hunting on the Internet, in which applicants to various companies had to hold their ground in interactive recruitment games with question and test procedures.
A portmanteau of the words “recruiting” and “entertainment”, recruitainment is a modern way of selecting applicants in the hiring process. When professionally implemented, it can be very efficient. Recruitainment tools include games, contests, video interviews and events. The goal is to attract the attention of talents in the war for talent, so it is an attempt to make the company more familiar and interesting as an employer, while providing a pleasant decision basis for selecting applicants.
Various types of recruitainment have been trialled by companies. One example is the so-called “job shuttle”, which takes interested young talents to various companies in their region. Applicants can get to know potential employers in situ through short presentations or one-to-one conversations. Other options are a quiz followed by an award ceremony, or an escape game among the applicants. What is interesting here is that such game, in addition to soft skills such as the ability to work in a team and analytical thinking, can also give an insight into technical skills, provided the match is sufficiently well designed.
Other possibilities are professional murder-mystery dinners, as well as project competitions and tours, etc. Some renowned companies already used the following recruitainment ideas in the past:
Emmi, Switzerland’s largest milk-processing company, uses the Wepow video-interviewing tool in the application process. This allows Emmi, as a potential employer, to get a first impression of the applicants’ personalities. On the other hand, the applicants can get familiar with the company in a relaxed manner.
During the Berlin Fashion Week, fashion retail chain Peek & Cloppenburg invites students and college graduates for a day at the Fashion Meets future event in a luxury hotel. There are information events, workshops and the opportunity for one-to-one conversations. Afterwards, the participants are invited to a fashion show put on by the company.
Also worthy of mention is management-consulting firm McKinsey, which holds the Backstage event, whereby applicants can look behind the scenes of the company for four days. There are also interactive workshops, lectures and discussions.
Then there’s cosmetics company L'Oréal, which puts on a variety of games, including an international competition for teams of students to develop competitive cosmetic strategies in a business simulation.
Recruitainment has advantages for both sides in the application process. On the one hand, young talents benefit from the playful way of getting information from potential employers about the various professions within their companies. On the other hand, the potential employer gets specific insights into the personalities and professional skills of the applicants. In addition, the applicants get first-hand experience of the corporate culture, seeing what their future professional life could look like and discovering the people behind the company. In contrast to the classical advertising of job vacancies with subsequent applications, the focus in recruitainment is on a shared experience in a relaxed atmosphere.
By using recruitainment tools, the company not only raises its profile, it will also increase the number of qualified applications. In addition, the recruitainment serves as a modern complement to employer branding by giving the company an opportunity to present itself to the target group in a good light. It also lays the first foundation stone for employee retention, because by the playful experience of a company gives applicants an impression of transparency and approachability. This makes it easy to establish an employer brand and boosts the image of the company.
The only disadvantage of recruitainment seems to lie in the costs associated with implementing interesting ideas in the application process. However, these costs depend strongly on the type and professionalism of the tools used, and are therefore easily controlled.
There are practically no limits to the design of recruitainment tools. However, it is important for a company to stick to certain guidelines.
Published: 29. January 2019
