Virtual reality as a creative recruiting tool

In today's tight IT labour market, companies are coming up with innovative ways to tackle the shortage of skilled workers. IT consultancy esentri shows that state-of-the-art technology can be a solution to this challenge: a virtual reality game specially designed for the company for recruitment fairs and applicant days brings the working environment and corporate culture to life.

Virtual reality as a gaming technology can be used creatively to recruit skilled labour and strengthen corporate culture. We have already demonstrated this with several projects. The most spectacular one, in my opinion at least, was a while ago: in spring 2017, the Paraplegic centre to attract new staff. But the virtual Career fair offered an exciting excursion into the world of recruitment.

The IT consulting esentri from Ettlingen near Karlsruhe has been focussing on virtual reality gaming for recruitment fairs since March this year, combining the pleasant with the useful by attracting the attention of tech-savvy IT specialists with the latest high-end VR gadgets (HTC Vive head-mounted displays).

Customised VR game

To attract potential applicants, the Karlsruhe-based company uses a customised VR game developed specifically for the company: For this, 360-degree images of the office premises were integrated as a VR environment in which the player goes on a virtual hunt for bugs with retro guns. The idea for the recruiting tool was developed in the consulting firm's own Innovation Lab, which specialises in digitalisation projects.

"We wanted to utilise the special appeal of VR technology of immersion and interaction in virtual space and the fun factor of gaming to attract both young and experienced professionals to us and introduce them to our company," says Jan Schmid, Director of Digital Business.

Conception and realisation in two months

The conception and realisation of the game - from the 360-degree images of the office space as a VR environment to the design of the individual elements such as opponents, sounds and in-game music - took place within just two months in close collaboration with the consulting firm netzreich before the game was ready for its first trade fair use. Since the start of the VR recruiting project in spring 2018, the new VR tool has already been used over ten times.

Source: Computerwoche