Enhancing Culinary Talent Hiring with Gamification: A Prototype and Framework of Pre-Trade Assessment

This paper introduces a novel recruitment system that incorporates a gamification round into the hiring process for culinary talent. In any organization, the most valuable asset is its employees. However, HR professionals are facing challenges in acquiring the necessary and right talent. To address this issue, many organizations are turning to innovative technological solutions for talent acquisition. In the realm of culinary talent recruitment, a specialized assessment round known as the trade test practical round plays a crucial role. Gamification is a design approach that involves integrating gaming elements or mechanics into non-game applications or systems. In comparison to traditional recruitment methods, gamified recruitment offers several advantages, including the ability to identify motivated candidates and effectively evaluate candidates based on points and badges. This pre-trade test approach allows for the identification of the most suitable candidates who can excel in the practical assessment. Gamification injects an element of enjoyment into the process, encouraging active participation and responses from candidates. By leveraging Marczewski’s gamification framework, this paper portraits how to implement gamification in culinary talent recruitment. The game mechanics employed in this gamification design are geared towards achiever-type users and include elements such as levels, challenges, and achievements, accompanied by game-related points in the name of “Buns,” “Cakes,” “Cookies,” “Laddus,” and “Chocolate.” The final results showcase candidates’ performance with gold, silver, and bronze Shark rankings. Although it’s important to acknowledge that this proposed concept hasn’t undergone testing, the authors have taken significant steps in establishing a foundation. They’ve done so by creating a game flow chart and a user interface prototype, informed by an in-depth comprehension of the current recruitment process. Additionally, they’ve proposed a novel pattern and prototype for culinary talent recruitment. This framework holds promise as a feasible solution in the real world of human resources management, potentially enhancing the process of hiring the best culinary talent.