Play To Work – find a job by playing games

What

An online game platform to assess the unique qualities of an MBO level job searcher, by letting them play casual games, and match these qualities to jobs they might never have thought of themselves.

The research

“I look for the right personality. For sales one needs to be outgoing and flexible, but for an assembly line you look for someone for whom precision comes naturally.” – an interviewed recruiter

Well, these qualities are something we can tell you something about, by analyzing player style and choices made by a player. The application was build on these 4 research pillars:

  1. From expert interviews (n=12) we learned what qualities recruiters are looking for in an MBO level candidate.
  2. From te meta analysis of 6 different assessment methods and over 15 games I found suitable qualities we can assess using games (speed, eye for detail, empathy, bravery, perseverance and more).
  3. From a market analysis combined with focus groups (3x 5-7 participants) we learned what type of games, characters and style would appeal to the target audience
  4. We played around with various ideas and concepts in co-creation and validation-loops (with prototypes made by me) to ‘get it right’ and find the right tone of voice for this project.

Result

60.000 players and counting are using Play to Work as a tool to find their dream job. The company counts 10+ employees itself (starting with 1 when I joined them for this project). The number of matches they made is not public available, but some success stories are shared.

Among those a lady who found a sales job via Play To Work at Vattenfall/Nuon and became salesperson of the month in het very first month. That is what I call a good match!

Read more: https://www.ijsfontein.nl/en/projecten/play-to-work-2