通過(guò)玩游戲甄選人才

“What is your biggest weakness?” The first time Iencountered this classic interview question I wasabout 20 and I had no idea how to handle it. “I’mreally bad at turning up on time for things,” Ireplied, which had the virtue of being true. Theinterviewer, frowning, drew a careful X on hisclipboard.

“你最大的缺點(diǎn)是什么?”第一次遇到這個(gè)經(jīng)典面試問(wèn)題時(shí)，我20歲左右，完全不知道怎么應(yīng)付。“說(shuō)實(shí)話，我并不擅長(zhǎng)準(zhǔn)時(shí)出席各種場(chǎng)合，”秉承著誠(chéng)實(shí)的美德，我這樣作答。面試官皺著眉頭，在他的本子上仔細(xì)地打了個(gè)叉。

The lesson I learnt is that persuading someone to hire you is like playing a game: there arerules and you need to find out what they are.

我從中學(xué)到的教訓(xùn)是，說(shuō)服別人雇傭你就像玩游戲：這其中是有規(guī)則的，你需要找出規(guī)則是什么。

Some employers are now taking this idea to extremes by designing games for job candidatesto play.

現(xiàn)在，有些雇主把這個(gè)理念發(fā)揚(yáng)到了極致——設(shè)計(jì)游戲，讓應(yīng)聘者玩。

L’Oréal, Ernst & Young, Microsoft and Deutsche Bank have signed up to a smartphone appcalled Debut that promises to let young people “fast-track the recruitment process and landroles in blue-chip companies simply by playing mobile games”.

歐萊雅(L’Oréal)、安永(Ernst & Young)、微軟(Microsoft)和德意志銀行(Deutsche Bank)都和一款叫做“Debut”的智能手機(jī)應(yīng)用簽署了合作合約。這款應(yīng)用承諾讓年輕人“只需通過(guò)玩手機(jī)游戲就能快速走完招聘流程，贏得藍(lán)籌公司的職位”。

At first glance, it is hard to see why these employers thought this was a good idea. L’Oréal’sgame involves running around a maze, jumping over walls and collecting things. DeutscheBank’s requires you to roll a ball around the corporate logo without letting it fall off the edge.Do bankers need good balance? Do product designers need good reflexes?

初看之下，很難看出這些雇主為何會(huì)認(rèn)為這是個(gè)好主意。歐萊雅的游戲是在迷宮中奔跑，翻墻越壁，收集物品。德意志銀行的游戲要求玩家操控小球滾過(guò)該公司的logo，不能讓球從邊緣掉落下來(lái)。銀行家們需要良好的平衡感嗎?產(chǎn)品設(shè)計(jì)人員需要良好的反射神經(jīng)嗎?

Even if these games were testing for the right attributes, the obvious problem is that they canbe gamed. It does not take a genius to set up several user accounts with different emailaddresses, practise the games endlessly, then log on with their real name once they haveperfected them.

就算這些游戲測(cè)試的是正確的特質(zhì)，一個(gè)明顯的問(wèn)題是人們可以?；ㄕ?。一個(gè)人無(wú)需聰明絕頂，也能想到用不同的郵件地址設(shè)置幾個(gè)賬號(hào)不斷練習(xí)，達(dá)到完美以后再登錄用自己真名注冊(cè)的賬戶。

It would be like having the chance to answer that “biggest weakness” question over and overagain until you found a response that did not elicit a frown.

這就像是有機(jī)會(huì)一遍一遍地回答“個(gè)人最大缺點(diǎn)”的問(wèn)題，直到你找到一個(gè)不會(huì)讓對(duì)方皺眉的回答。

Thankfully, these companies are not foolish enough to have overlooked this. Notwithstandingthe app’s hype, these mobile games are really a marketing tool rather than an alternativeselection process. They are a way for employers to engage with potential job applicants whothey might not otherwise reach.

幸虧這些公司還沒(méi)有蠢到忽略這一點(diǎn)。和這款應(yīng)用的宣傳措辭不同，這些手機(jī)游戲?qū)嶋H上更多是一種營(yíng)銷手段，而非可替代的選拔流程。這種游戲是雇主接觸它們?cè)谄渌闆r下可能接觸不到的潛在應(yīng)聘者的途徑。

“It’s not as if we’re struggling for applications, but it’s about getting the right applicants,” saysDan Richards, EY’s head of UK recruitment. He does not want to keep fishing for recruits in thesmall and homogenous pool of university students who go along to recruitment fairs.

“并不是說(shuō)我們?cè)诹?zhēng)收到申請(qǐng)，而是要獲得合適的申請(qǐng)者，”安永英國(guó)招聘主管丹•理查茲(Dan Richards)表示。他不想一直在赴招聘會(huì)求職的大學(xué)生這種同質(zhì)化、規(guī)模又不大的人才池中尋找新員工。

In that sense, these mobile games are indicative of an important shift taking place inrecruitment.

在這個(gè)意義上，這些手機(jī)游戲折射出了招聘領(lǐng)域所發(fā)生的重大轉(zhuǎn)變。

Big employers are beginning to realise they have to change the way they do things if they wantmore diverse workforces.

大雇主開(kāi)始意識(shí)到，如果它們想要打造更加多樣化的員工隊(duì)伍，就必須改變行事方式。

Deloitte, for example, has changed its application process so recruiters do not know where thecandidates went to school or university. It is running a video game trial of its own.

比如，德勤(Deloitte)改革了申請(qǐng)流程，招聘人員不知道應(yīng)聘者的教育背景。德勤有自己的視頻游戲測(cè)試。

Many of the biggest law firms, meanwhile, have signed up to use a “contextual recruitmentproduct” that identifies people who might not meet standard academic requirements but haveoutperformed relative to their backgrounds.

同時(shí)，許多大型的律師事務(wù)所已經(jīng)簽約使用一種“情境招聘產(chǎn)品”，這種產(chǎn)品能夠辨識(shí)出或許沒(méi)有達(dá)到標(biāo)準(zhǔn)的學(xué)術(shù)背景要求、但相對(duì)于他們的背景表現(xiàn)出色的人。

For its part, EY has scrapped all academic qualifications from its entry criteria and replacedthem with a set of standardised online tests. Its research shows that a good score on thesetests is a better predictor of professional success than academic performance. In the firstfew months of the new system, one in 10 applicants who made it to the interview stage wouldhave been ineligible to apply previously.

至于安永已經(jīng)取消了申請(qǐng)標(biāo)準(zhǔn)中的所有學(xué)歷要求，取而代之的是一組標(biāo)準(zhǔn)化在線測(cè)試。安永的研究表明，比起應(yīng)聘者在校的學(xué)習(xí)成績(jī)，在這些測(cè)試中拿到高分更能預(yù)測(cè)應(yīng)聘者在職業(yè)上的成功。新系統(tǒng)啟用后的頭幾個(gè)月里，在成功抵達(dá)面試環(huán)節(jié)的應(yīng)聘者中，每10個(gè)人中有1個(gè)人在以前根本沒(méi)有資格申請(qǐng)。

“Name-blind” recruitment is also gaining ground to try to combat racial bias. Academic studiesin the US and UK have shown that identical job applications make more progress when theyhave “white-sounding” names on them. Experiments in France, Germany, Sweden and theNetherlands suggest that anonymous job applications do increase the probability thatapplicants from ethnic minorities are invited for interview.

作為一種應(yīng)對(duì)種族偏見(jiàn)的手段，“不記名”招聘也在逐漸流行開(kāi)來(lái)。美國(guó)和英國(guó)的學(xué)術(shù)研究表明，提交內(nèi)容相同的簡(jiǎn)歷，署有“聽(tīng)起來(lái)像白人”的名字的簡(jiǎn)歷能夠走得更遠(yuǎn)。法國(guó)、德國(guó)、瑞典和荷蘭的實(shí)驗(yàn)表明，匿名工作申請(qǐng)的確能夠提高少數(shù)族裔申請(qǐng)者受邀參加面試的幾率。

The evidence is too patchy to tell whether their chances of a job offer recede again at theinterview stage.

要判斷這些人在面試階段過(guò)后被錄用的幾率是否會(huì)再次回落，證據(jù)還不充足。

Interviews, of course, are the final frontier in this battle to diversify recruitment. This is thestage where racial discrimination can creep back in. It is also where those candidates withpolish and practice can still outgun the rest.

當(dāng)然，面試是招聘多樣化員工這場(chǎng)戰(zhàn)役中的最后一道戰(zhàn)線。這是種族歧視可能會(huì)再次悄然回歸的階段，也是那些有風(fēng)度、有經(jīng)驗(yàn)的應(yīng)聘者依然能夠脫穎而出的階段。

Employers will have to tackle this challenge next. “Gamification” is easy to dismiss as apassing fad involving online play. Yet in its broadest sense, it is something well worth fightingfor: an attempt to make recruitment the sort of game where the playing field is level andeveryone knows the rules.

下一步，雇主必須解決這個(gè)挑戰(zhàn)。“游戲化”很容易會(huì)視作不過(guò)是跟在線游戲有關(guān)的一時(shí)風(fēng)尚。然而，從最寬泛的意義上來(lái)講，這是一種非常值得我們努力爭(zhēng)取的東西：它力求讓招聘成為公平競(jìng)爭(zhēng)、每個(gè)人都知道規(guī)則的游戲。