5 industries that benefit most from serious games

Serious games are games with a serious purpose: they teach something, train something, or show what someone can do. In recruiting we call them job simulation games. Candidates experience a realistic slice of the working day and make decisions that can be measured. That sounds like a solution for every industry, but it isn't. In some fields a job simulation game makes the biggest difference, in others a good conversation is perfectly enough.

How to tell whether an industry fits

Before the examples, a few traits that speak for using one. The more of them apply to your company, the greater the benefit:

• The work consists of recurring, observable situations in which good and poor performance can be told apart.
• There are many applications to pre-screen, or too few suitable ones because classic job ads no longer reach the target group.
• A bad hire is expensive, for example because of safety, quality or high onboarding costs.
• The target group is young and grew up digital, especially for apprenticeships.

01Energy and utilities

Municipal utilities, grid operators and energy suppliers look for technically skilled staff and apprentices, often in rural regions and in competition with industry. At the same time, many of these jobs carry real responsibility: anyone working on lines, plants or grids has to be careful, follow the rules and stay calm under pressure.

A job simulation game can map exactly that. A grid technician prioritizes tasks, spots hazards and decides what to do during a fault. That tells you more than a conversation about strengths and weaknesses. How well this lands with young applicants is shown by the statement from one of our clients in the energy sector, which you can find on the homepage.

02Skilled trades and technology

The trades are short of new talent, and grades say little about practical skill. Someone who struggled with math in school can still be an excellent electronics technician. A job simulation game gives these candidates a stage that a report card doesn't: spatial thinking, problem solving and precision can all be shown through play.

For employers there is a second effect. A modern, game-based application experience sets them apart from the competition and shows young people that the company has arrived in the present.

03Healthcare and nursing

In nursing, grade point average matters less than the ability to stay caring and reliable in stressful situations. That is hard to see in an interview, because empathy can be described without being present.

A job simulation game puts candidates in situations with time pressure, conflicting priorities and sensitive decisions. It shows how someone reacts when several things matter at once. That helps facilities recognize fit early and reduce the high cost of dropouts in the first months. Candidates, in turn, get an honest look at the daily routine before they commit.

04Logistics and transport

Warehousing, handling and dispatching depend on process thinking, concentration and reliability, often in shift work. There are plenty of applications here too, and telling them apart is hard. A short job simulation game with typical planning and sorting tasks delivers a comparable data set for every candidate in 15 to 20 minutes.

That saves HR time in pre-screening and makes the decision traceable, including toward the works council or management.

05Retail and sales

People who are meant to sell are often judged in interviews by how well they sell themselves. That is a classic mistake, because eloquence in an interview is not the same as persuasiveness with customers. A job simulation game simulates typical customer situations: objections, difficult conversations, decisions about the next step.

In retail, high application volume adds to the picture, for example for apprenticeships and part-time roles. A digital game pre-sorts without anyone having to read every application individually.

What if your industry isn't listed?

The five examples are not a complete list. What matters is not the industry label but whether the traits from the beginning of this article apply. A tax advisory with apprenticeships, a data center or a municipality can benefit just as much as an energy supplier. The important thing is that the game fits the job and not the other way around. That is why we develop every job simulation game individually, with the tasks that actually occur in your business.

Conclusion

Job simulation games are no cure-all, but where action counts for more than self-presentation, they deliver information an interview cannot. Anyone hiring in one of the five industries above has good reason to try one.

More on this: Job simulation games vs. job interviews or What is gamification – and why does it work?