Case Study: Recruiting for Transferable Skills from Gaming
Business Issue: Komplett, a global e-commerce company with headquarters in Norway, wanted to expand its pool of candidates by identifying skills that can transfer from other professional settings and areas of life. Among the company’s employees, playing video games is more common than watching football. They recognized that gamers develop knowledge and skills, such as focus, teamwork, multi-tasking and cooperation, that transfer easily to the e-commerce industry.
Solution: To recruit candidates with gaming experience, Komplett tasked Manpower to draw on its extensive experience with identifying and translating skills from one domain to another, such as military experience to a civilian career or from teamwork in athletics to teamwork in a professional setting. The Manpower team set out to identify what relevant skills could be built through the gaming experience. The team then integrated the identification of gaming experience into the general recruitment process. For example, Manpower invites young people to put gaming experience on their CV when applying for jobs.
“We think it is great that Manpower is so future-oriented that they dare to take this step. It certainly is a step in the right direction, and we are happy to support this initiative because we know from first-hand experience how well it works. We see the value of transferring skills from the gaming world to the real world every day.” - Daniel Hauan, Customer Care Manager, Komplett
Results: The effort to build gaming experience into the application process has paid off. Select results include the following:
- Komplett’s customer service group has been bolstered by the addition of employees who are able to multitask and work across multiple channels.
- The company has found that some gamers take naturally to leadership roles in the workplace and several have transitioned to management.