Crehana is a Peruvian online training platform for Creatives, a modern industry that is proliferating. Their target location is Latin-America. Learning opportunities are limited and underdeveloped, which has given ground for the company's noble goal: democratizing education in the Central-American region and beyond. The platform offers comprehensive online courses ranging from 3D animation and music production to front-end development. Recently, they have even extended to the B2B market by providing classes for professionals. Undoubtedly, efficient recruitment is crucial at this stage of a growing company.
When the company began the co-operation with Benchmark.games, their primary goal was to implement a modern recruitment solution that reflects its innovative culture. By the end of the project, together, we improved the hiring process to the point where both the recruiters and the candidates were satisfied with the unique selection method they all experienced.
Facing high volume selection challenges
High-volume hiring was among the areas that required some significant improvement. As Crehana's HR analyst, Emilio Jiménez Ramirez stated:
"The company was going to keep growing at a fast pace. Many new applicants were expected to be on board, so we needed to be excellent at the selection process to make sure we had the best talent in the team."
Before implementing Benchmark.games, Crehana did not use any game-based assessments in their candidate engagement and assessment process. Like many other companies, they usually had multiple rounds of interviews - first a general, then one with the hiring manager, and later the executive interview. Before the first interview, the recruiter used to ask the applicants to attach an introductory video, which intended to ease the pre-selection process. However, screening all the Resumés and watching videos took a considerable amount of time. In this fast-growing environment, the HR department needed to develop new methods to revolutionize the processes.
First, we conducted an in-house pilot, meaning that the current employees could try the games and then receive feedback reports about their performance. After the successful pilot was evaluated, we launched the official revamped recruitment project. Emilio, who is now part of the HR department, personally played the game-based assessments during his hiring process at Crehana and very much enjoyed them. He found the games challenging enough, and made him feel great about the company as a candidate - and now it is his handy tool on the other side of the table.
So, Crehana decided to implement Benchmark.games into their hiring process; more specifically, we integrated the game-based solution within the pre-screening stage. The recruiters now send out an access link and ask the candidates to play. By doing so, they can quickly narrow down 50 or so candidates to only 10-15, who have just what they are looking for.
Breakthrough: less biased selection and more equal opportunities
Another reason Crehana was looking for a solution like Benchmark.games was related to reducing biased decision-making. Anahi Lavado, the Head of HR, also participated in the interview screening and experienced some difficulties with evaluating interviewees without biases. We all know that age, gender, appearance, in some positions, existing experience, or lack of it should not be a biasing selection factor; they still can influence most of us. Consequently, she started searching for a solution that provides her with real information about the candidates and helps her better understand how they would perform in the company. The applied game-based solutions are the same for everyone, so it is up to the candidates to handle the same type of challenges. Fun fact: there are no right or wrong answers but many different types of behavioral patterns that become visible in the report in the end. After all, the game-based assessment enabled Crehana to create a less-biased selection procedure that contributed to giving the applicants more equal opportunities.
No tricks, but pure facts
In general, pre-employment skill tests help determine whether a candidate is skilled enough to perform well on the given tasks and under specific job responsibilities. However, many of these assessments lack essential requirements. Firstly, most of the pre-employment tests do not consider how willing someone is to learn new things or improve upon perceived weaknesses. Secondly, some tests are not suited and valid for a particular job position.
Emilio, Crehana's HR analyst, also adds:
"If we consider the traditional assessments, the questions in these tests are obvious. The candidates will answer the way they "should" to look better. However, the candidates can't do it with Benchmark.games, it's not possible. Also, by the game - they feel challenged at this stage. It is fun and difficult at the same time."
The data-driven approach ensures that no such things occur during the pre-selection phase. The reports might not explicitly say which candidate to pick, but they provide reliable information on each applicant.