The field of human resources has transformed traditional and outdated personnel selection methods through technological advancements, paving the way for more technologically advanced methods that reduce hiring costs and optimize the evaluation of candidates during the recruitment process. This is particularly relevant when it comes to millennials and Generation Z. Gamification is among these methods. It can be defined as “a package of services in which a basic service is enhanced by rule-based service systems that provide the user with feedback and interaction mechanisms that aim to facilitate and support users’ global value creation” [1], and in recent years, it has become an increasingly popular trend in nongaming contexts [2] to increase motivation and engagement [3]. Gamification involves the use of structured rules and competitive conflicts to achieve specific goals, and in which a person is fully engaged with the context, losing track of time and experiencing the thrill of doing rather than achieving external rewards [4]. Research has shown that play and games can be linked to positive social behavior [5], the development of important skills such as self-regulation and empathy [6], and the promotion of teamwork [7].

Gamification is often used to enhance services and test gaming experiences and can be a powerful tool for influencing behavior [1]. However, some studies have examined issues related to gamification [8]. This technique is applied in settings related to learning, business, or promoting a product or service [9]. Through elements, such as competition, goal achievement, and reward, gamification can increase users’ motivation, engagement, and satisfaction in an activity [10,11].

Many researchers have suggested that gamification and game-based assessments could predict work performance as an alternative to traditional selection methods [12,13]. Fetzer et al [13], according to the concept of “stealth assessment,” highlighted the potential of game-based assessments for predicting work performance. Invisible evaluation can accurately and efficiently detect a subject’s level of competence, can continuously extract data on their performance during the game [14], and is almost undetectable, reducing test anxiety while maintaining validity and reliability [15]. In this context, a gamified assessment environment could distract candidates from being assessed, promoting unconscious rather than desirable or socially acceptable behavior. Assessment and learning tools that may be created through the use of gamification are known as serious games [16], which are games designed for a primary purpose other than pure entertainment [17], like supporting human capital development [18]. Serious games are designed for educational, training, or informational purposes that combine the playful experience with learning specific skills and competencies [19]. Unlike traditional games, serious games were created to impart knowledge and teach players how to apply those skills in real life by creating engaging and entertaining experiences that prompt users to perform certain actions, improving the effectiveness and efficiency of those activities.

Various sectors, such as education [20], health care [21], mobility [22], marketing [23], and the environment [24], have been equipped with this innovation, simulating situations in which the player must make decisions, solve problems, or develop specific skills. Moreover, owing to the interactive nature of serious games, players can learn actively, receiving immediate feedback on their progress and the correctness of their actions [25].

If the game is user-friendly and realistic, it tends to generate positive responses from candidates [26]. Thus, one of the cornerstones of these games (as well as an aspect this paper will focus on) is the development of awareness related to one’s skills, particularly those skills called “soft skills,” which are indispensable in the world of work [27].

In relation to the connection between gamification and transversal skills, game elements, such as textures, feedback, avatars, visual effects, and voiceovers, can be effectively used to assess candidates’ soft skills [28].

Problem-solving skills, strategic thinking, and adaptation to new contexts are soft skills, also known as “behavioral skills.” They are non-technical skills (as opposed to hard skills) important for personal and professional success. Using game mechanics, gamification can make learning these skills more engaging and effective. Serious games play a key role in developing soft skills (such as problem solving, planning, and analytical thinking) in the world of work [27]. Certain elements, such as a risk-free environment, predispose users to a setting conducive to experimentation and exploration, activating stimuli, such as curiosity, learning by discovery, and perseverance [29].

Serious games are playful and interactive tools often used in education with pedagogical goals, which are designed to teach skills, notions, and strategies [30,31]. Serious games offer active involvement, immediate feedback, experiential learning, collaborative learning, and learning personalization, which enhance positive learning effects [32]. The scenarios designed for serious games have a positive relationship with student engagement and academic performance [33]. Despite their potential, serious games still pose a challenge to the educational world, and there is a need for more emphasis on less formal and traditional models that are suitable for teaching today’s generation of students [34]. Serious games are an important resource for the world of training and education, facilitating the learning of specific disciplines.

Transversal skills often overlap with digital skills, which have become increasingly necessary for performing tasks due to the growth of technology in recent years. Digital skills involve the use of information and communications technology (ICT) tools and can be classified as operational, formal, informational, or strategic skills [35].

Based on these premises, this research proposes an innovative method for addressing an issue dear to companies, the recruitment process. Recruiting an unsuitable candidate can be very costly, both in terms of money and nonproductive time. Therefore, many companies are looking for innovative ways to improve their recruitment process to attract and identify the most suitable candidates for available positions. This involves the use of cutting-edge recruiting techniques and an increased focus on assessing candidates’ skills and qualities [36].

Psychological tests that measure cognitive abilities and personality tests, which are traditional selection methods, can somewhat predict job performance [37]. As previously mentioned, the game is an attractive and valid alternative to traditional selection methods, and gamifying these tests can be a way to assess candidates with the benefits stated above.

The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted a shift in the labor market toward Industry 5.0 to the New Normal Era, a time of collaboration between advanced technology and human creativity to address business, social, and environmental challenges [38]. This has had an impact on the labor market, affecting both demand and requirements, as well as leading to the emergence of the “great resignation” phenomenon, in which individuals across countries and industries are exhibiting a heightened awareness of work conditions and opportunities [39,40].

To successfully adopt artificial intelligence (AI), organizations and individuals must embrace transformative changes in their practices, recognizing the foundational role of connected technologies in driving increased digitization in business and management worldwide. Key factors for successful AI adoption include team coordination, organizational culture, governance strategy, and AI-employee integration strategies. Furthermore, the integration of serious games and AI provides new computational tools for social research. Soft skills, such as communication, problem solving, critical thinking, and creativity, are crucial for successful AI adoption, while leadership plays a vital role in setting a vision and strategy for its implementation [41,42].

Recent studies have emphasized the importance of soft skills and talent in the New Normal Era, where work has changed significantly and new methodologies, such as smart working and remote working, are becoming increasingly prevalent. As a result, soft skills are now a top organizational priority [43].

This study was conceived within the scope of the SWAG (Skills in Work-life Analysis Game) project. SWAG sets out to democratize the human resource world, through the use of intergenerational language, and it is inclusive and comprehensive of the needs, complexity, and peculiarities of today’s and tomorrow’s talents, connecting the right person to the right position. The SWAG team (involving Altomari Luca, Altomari Natalia, and Vigliaturo Daniele) was created in the context of the first cycle of “UniCaLab” (Contamination Lab of the University of Calabria) in 2019 (path concluded among the 3 winners) and achieved victory in Invitalia’s “#IoRestoAlSudHackathonTour*” contest in the same year.

In this work, a new assessment framework is presented that takes into account the needs of the labor market and is based on gamification, with a focus on the concept of “recrutainment” (a term combining “recruitment” and “entertainment”), which integrates cognitive and aptitude assessment methods into the personnel selection process [83] and is not only partially conceived as a subset of gamification, but also goes beyond it [84]. In this study, a serious game that assesses the most in-demand skills in the job market and provides feedback is illustrated, proposing a set of guidelines for the development of serious games while describing the game design process. The first trial of the game was conducted and positive results were achieved, paving the way for further studies.

The serious game Among the Office Criticality (AOC) was developed by the SWAG team as a desktop version with the technical support of Artémat.

The purpose of this study was to develop a model that can identify and evaluate certain work-life skills (in this case, 5 soft skills that are in high demand in the job market) and provide feedback to the user who uses the tool. Gamification is particularly suitable for this purpose because it allows for the creation of tools that can provide quick, objective, and standardized assessments [85] after an initial design and implementation effort, while also allowing for a more informal approach to the person being evaluated [12,13]. The study presents the AOC serious game, which is able to detect the 5 soft skills mentioned above. The AOC serious game uses a set of sequence analysis techniques, which is known as process mining, to overcome the limitations of traditional skills assessment methods [85]. The user interacts with the game, which tracks key performance indicators (KPIs) based on the user’s choices at each decision point and saves them in an event log at the end of the game. These events and values are processed by process mining software, which generates an output (Figure 1) [85].

The software that analyzes the event log uses an algorithm to read the data in the log and create a model. This model is then used to apply the metrics of the specific evaluation tool to produce the final report.

AOC is a serious game that is structured as a tree graph, with decisional moments represented as nodes. Analyzing the user’s choices within the game involves identifying the pattern arcs that connect the nodes. However, analyzing all user actions within the game can cause scalability issues. To address this, the event log only records data related to decisional moments and the duration of the game, rather than all interactions. In this case, sequence analysis can be helpful in solving or mitigating the problem [85]. In the AOC game, metrics are based on a data set of fixed-length numerical vectors and an overall rating formula. These vectors are added together based on the entries in the event log to create a final vector, the values of which are then used in the formula to produce a numerical result. This result, as well as the individual values, can be easily translated into a final report that is provided to the user in both graphical and narrative forms. The design of serious game processes can be performed in 2 steps: context analysis and iterative concept use. The first step involves using user-centered design methods, which focus on the user’s intent, situation, activity, and characteristics. The second step involves testing the tool, once it has been defined and materialized as a prototype or mock-up, in order to improve it with a focus on attractiveness, motivation, and support for activities [86]. It is important to keep in mind some fundamental principles of gamification, such as freedom of choice, benefits and relevance, personalized experience, long-term interaction, unwanted side events, and ethical and legal elements [86]. The tree graph structure containing the decisions should also be considered.

AOC is a serious game that assesses 5 soft skills by immersing users in a simulated game context where they can use various tools as needed. The game context places the player directly into a company through a specific delivery at the beginning of the game. In the simulation, the player, who is starting their work experience, begins their journey at a fictious firm with an apprenticeship contract. At the start of the simulation, the user is presented with an organizational chart, and graphic and textual descriptions of the business context. Over the first 6 months of the game, the player must interact with other characters to complete tasks, deal with unexpected events, and make decisions, choosing the means of communication and working with superiors and other team members in order to achieve the best possible result at the end of the simulation. At the end of the game, based on the choices made, the user is presented with a scenario that reflects the path they took. The contract can be converted into permanent employment, extended for an additional 6 months, or terminated.

Ethics approval for the research project, “Innovation in Teaching Methods” was granted by the Ethics Committee of the University of Calabria (COMITATO ETICO DI ATENEO - CEA) on May 9, 2019. The project, which was conducted within the University of Calabria, aimed to assess soft skills using the tool developed by SWAG, alongside human tutors. Adhering to the approved ethical guidelines, the research team ensured participant confidentiality and privacy throughout the data analysis process.

To test the serious game, the researchers conducted a pilot study with 160 subjects from the University of Calabria (Italy) who were enrolled in the 2018/2019 academic year. Table 2 and Figure 3 show the results of the preliminary data screening and the normal curve of the collected data. According to the criteria of Curran, West, and Finch [89] (asymmetry greater than |1|=severe nonnormality; kurtosis greater than |3|=moderate nonnormality), the value for aggressive communication was close to being severely nonnormal in terms of asymmetry. This may be due to a small number of data points for individuals who had this type of communication as a result. While only 1 item showed these values, the results of the descriptive analyses can still be considered reliable.

A trial of the AOC experiment was conducted, and at the end of the simulation, users were asked to complete a questionnaire about their experience. The data analysis showed a strong consistency between the user evaluation produced by AOC and the user’s self-awareness. Specifically, 88.3% (121/137) of responses to the question “Do you see yourself in the evaluation?” were at least “partly,” 70.1% (96/137) were at least “quite,” and 29.2% (40/137) were at least “yes.” It was also useful to analyze the users’ responses to the question “How would you describe the simulation in 3 adjectives?” The most common adjective used was “interesting,” with a frequency of 16.1% (63/392) of all adjectives, followed by “fun” (36/392, 9.2%), “useful” (23/392, 5.9%), “engaging” (22/392, 5.6%), “realistic” (22/392, 5.6%), “stimulating” (17/392, 4.3%), and “innovative” (16/392, 4.1%), only considering adjectives with more than 15 repetitions (Table 3).

We found it useful to group the adjectives used by users into clusters based on their focus during the simulation. These clusters were arbitrarily defined as “involvement” (cluster 1; 120/392, 30.6%), “pleasure” (cluster 2; 73/392, 18.6%), “functionality” (cluster 3; 71/392, 18.1%), “innovation” (cluster 4; 25/392, 6.4%), “truthfulness” (cluster 5; 23/392, 5.9%), “dynamism” (cluster 6; 15/392, 3.8%), “personal growth” (cluster 7; 14/392, 3.6%), “challenge” (cluster 8; 5/392, 1.3%), and “other” (43/392, 11.7%). In this study, the first, second, and third clusters accounted for 67.3% (264/392) of user responses in the survey administered after they played the serious game. We found that these clusters corresponded to other questionnaires conducted after serious games in the literature. A key factor considered, as reflected in the final feedback from users, was fidelity.

Fidelity, referring to the consistency of the game with the real world, is a crucial attribute for reality-based games as it enhances player immersion. Immersion refers to the player’s involvement in the “player’s world,” which is a crucial factor in motivating players to pursue “serious” goals [90]. However, it is important to balance immersion with entertainment elements, as previous studies have shown [27,91,92]. Fidelity can also contribute to the entertainment value of a game.

The enjoyment of playing a video game can increase motivation and lead players to find pleasure in the activities within the game, regardless of their achievements. This is especially relevant when the objectives of the game are perceived as enjoyable by the player [90].

Previous studies have found that user-perceived determinants after playing a serious game include feedback, ease of use and usability, and learning effectiveness, among others. This is consistent with the findings of this study, in which the analysis of the open-ended questionnaire taken by users at the end of the game revealed factors associated with the functionality cluster, such as ease of use and effectiveness [93]. Additionally, the enjoyment and presence-immersion factors identified in the study by Fokides et al [93] can be linked to the pleasure and involvement clusters.

According to a literature review (54 studies, 59 data sets, and 586 variables) conducted in 2019 by Baptista and Oliveira on gamification, the best predictors of acceptance for gamified technology were attitude, enjoyment, and usefulness on intention. The clusters of adjectives that were found to be most significant (involvement, pleasure, and functionality) in this study aligned with these findings, suggesting that the proposed serious game follows the trend of accepted gamification technology.

The results of the study showed that users were particularly interested in the level of engagement and interest generated by the simulation [94], as well as the entertainment value and overall emotional reactions (such as “interesting,” “engaging,” and “stimulating”). This aligns with the concept of recrutainment, which emphasizes the role of engagement in the recruitment process [95]. In addition, users were interested in the functionality of the assessment tool, as indicated by adjectives like “useful,” “effective,” and “efficient.” These results highlight the importance of designing the tool with users’ needs in mind. Overall, about half (193/392, 49.2%) of the adjectives in the involvement and pleasure clusters [86] supported the theory of user-centered design.

This study proposes an immersive serious game model, called AOC, which aims to evaluate 5 important soft skills sought after in the job market, namely, problem solving, team working, time management, decision-making, and communication. The design of AOC was based on the literature and followed a user-centered design approach to create a user-friendly and intuitive environment. The output provided to the user holds significance as AOC was designed to generate value for both the evaluator and the evaluated subject. Therefore, it is essential to show areas of potential growth and increase the user’s self-awareness after the simulation. This study found that the proposed serious game model may be considered in line with existing literature. Nevertheless, it is worth acknowledging that this study is not without limitations. One such limitation is the relatively small sample size, which may have implications for the generalizability of the findings. To build upon and strengthen our findings, future studies with larger and more diverse samples are recommended.

Gamification is a viable solution to improve some aspects of personnel selection [95], particularly the concept of recrutainment, which focuses on the candidate’s involvement in the selection process [4,83]. Serious games are useful for both education and assessment, and are increasingly used in business and work contexts, as they help reduce selection time, avoid subjective evaluation [70], and reduce cognitive bias. They also allow for employer branding, which can positively influence the user’s opinion of the evaluator [84]. According to Diercks and Kupka [84], the use of self-assessment elements in selection can increase the success rate of achieving objectives to 93%, especially when employer branding and personnel marketing are properly carried out. The term “recrutainment,” which combines the words “recruiting” and “entertainment,” has gained popularity among Generation Y and refers to gamified, user-oriented, and simulation games that aim to improve the quality of suitable candidates through self-assessment procedures [84]. The use of gamification, combined with cognitive and aptitude assessment methods [57], is increasing in the field of recruitment and human resources in general. It is expected to triple from 2020 to 2025, with a focus on its use in personnel selection [95].

However, as noted by Kirovska et al in 2020 [95], implementing a gamification model in the recruitment process carries risks, including the need for constant monitoring. Therefore, many companies outsource it to third-party organizations to benefit from reduced hiring times and increased interaction levels, as well as to delegate risks. Attracting innovative talent is a goal for many organizations and allows them to consider characteristics and attitudes aligned with their brand’s aim. Gamification also encourages the user to do more than what is required [96], which can be a competitive advantage. In 2017, Korn et al [83] identified 42 applications (evaluating 60% of them) proposed by well-known organizations that use recrutainment, with a focus on the correlation between the profile and the hiring subject’s needs (job relatedness). They also emphasized that a low score in a single game does not necessarily mean poor user skills and that, in fact, each result could identify areas for improvement.

The human resource industry has come to fully understand and use gamification in the talent acquisition process, including from a strategic perspective. While the evaluation of technical skills is important and can be inferred from a candidate’s resume, transversal skills, which are intrinsic, innate, or developed through training and life experiences, are more difficult to objectively evaluate. This requires a significant amount of time and energy from human resource professionals [97]. In this context, gamification becomes important as it allows certain characteristics to emerge indirectly, which can be very complicated to discover otherwise [63]. Soft skills can make a significant difference in the business environment, and serious games are particularly effective at evaluating them because they can be assessed in various contexts and methods [12,13], including through self-assessment.

This research presents AOC, a serious game designed to meet the needs of the job market and place the user at the center. Evaluation techniques consistent with the literature were used to create an interdisciplinary approach for adequately evaluating the user and adding value. Initial analysis suggested that the scores obtained by subjects during the serious game can be generalized to the general population. Additionally, feedback from a postgame questionnaire indicated that the game is engaging, enjoyable, functional, innovative, and realistic, and promotes personal growth. The feedback specifically emphasizes the engagement and interest sparked by the simulation, aligning with the principles of user-centered design and recrutainment theory.

In conclusion, we propose the methodologies used in the development of the serious game AOC as a framework for designing serious games that consider the key aspects of the user journey and their relevance to theory and traditional assessment.

Future work may include analyses of the data generated by the serious game, including skills of the studied sample, skill development over time, cross-analysis with other samples, and comparison with data from other serious games evaluating different work-life skills.