In a first for a professional services firm in Australia, KPMG is recruiting graduates by playing games!
Gamified recruitment assessment, combining gamification with analytics, big data, predictive phychometric models and cloud technologies are being used by KPMG this recruiting season to measure aspects of graduate candidates’ ability including mental agility, cognitive speed, attention, spatial aptitude and numerical reasoning.
Susan Ferrier, KPMG Australia’s Head of People, Performance and Culture believes this fresh approach puts the focus on the candidate’s strengths and abilities, rather than the test.
“These young people are digital natives. To get a true understanding of their potential we have to immerse them in an assessment where they will respond naturally – rather than a host of interviews and written tests. Candidates are given 10 minutes to complete the game, where they are likely to exhibit a realistic response to specific situations. The results will provide deeper insights into candidates’ strengths and abilities than traditional assessments,” she says.
“I am convinced aligning our recruitment process to actual work experiences, problem solving, decision making, and strategic thinking will deliver superior candidates who will stay longer and develop further within the firm. And their significantly improved experience during assessment will only make them more motivated to work for KPMG,” she said.
Every year, KPMG receives nearly 10,000 applications for around 300 available graduate positions. The challenge is to fairly and efficiently assess these candidates and end up with a diverse group who are considered on more than their intellectual ability.
Nikki Harrison, National Recruitment Manager for KPMG Australia, says, “We want candidates who can demonstrate business critical competencies that are relevant to our evolving business, with its emphasis on innovation and agile working. Our recruitment process needs to set our graduates up for success in the firm, with their first experience mirroring their later experiences within the firm.”
“When you play a game, you get immersed in the experience. Your responses are real and it’s an excellent and contemporary way to capture complex information about a candidate.”
Candidates will also now film their own ‘selfie’ video interview – in their own time and with their own content.
“These more relaxed videos help us assess their personal impact and verbal communications skills. Our graduates are going to be client facing and this video snapshot gives additional insight into who they will relate to our clients,” says Ms Harrison.
Importantly, KPMG expects gamification will enable more effective graduate recruiting and greater efficiencies for the business.
This new recruitment process provides a 79 percent reduction in applications that have to be individually reviewed and allows the business to review the top talent using robust data to support their selection including the ‘live’ video interview. All this happens prior to being invited to the assessment centre. From these candidates there is a 58 percent reduction in the numbers who go through to final interview sessions, which are run nationally. By then, all candidates have been rigorously pre-qualified against critical business and values criteria and the all-important personal impact.
The implementation of these new online tools results in a 27 percent conversion rate enabling 80-90 percent of offers being accepted by those who attend a final interview.
Ms Harrison says, “These new techniques deliver candidates who are aligned with our company values, who have the same sense of purpose as the firm. They are also an excellent measure of their future commitment to the organisation, their productivity and tenure.”
