English 
A skills assessment is always a key moment in a professional life. It is an opportunity to take a step back and look at one's career path, to highlight the skills acquired, the sources of motivation or even the needs in order to project oneself into a coherent career plan.
Historically, these assessments have always been conducted with a specialized consultant. This approach has been widely proven and is now well structured and effective.
However, the format has not really evolved and can seem restrictive for a good number of professionals.
This is why gamification has extended to this activity. If the new generations of workers are demanding it, the demand for more senior profiles is also important.
To enlighten you on this still little known practice, we will present in this article the different forms that gamified skills assessments can take, why they are an efficient way to evaluate a candidate's skills and how to go about it.
1 - What is a gamified skills assessment?
The skills assessment is not a new approach, it has existed for several years and consists of evaluating the soft skills and/or the hard skills of a professional in order to determine his or her level of mastery in a particular context.
Gamified skills assessments are an extension of this, but in a different format. In fact, these tests are also based on skills, while taking advantage of the playful side of serious games. They are games, playful activities, going beyond the framework of entertainment. Thanks to this, games are no longer just a leisure activity in one's personal life but become a professional device. This is what we call gamification.
A new way to be evaluated
For example, they can simulate real or fictitious scenarios to assess the candidate’s ability to solve problems, be critical and make decisions.
2 - Why use a gamified skills assessment?
Carrying out skills assessments is of real interest for successful recruitment, internal mobility or professional retraining. Indeed, the assessments help recruiters, for example, to decide between candidates by identifying their strong and weak points. This is a plus given that it is not always easy to determine a candidate's potential. In addition, it ensures a recruitment without discrimination since only their skills are evaluated. It also saves time and resources.
An essential benefit package
However, while they are certainly useful, they are not necessarily attractive and motivating for candidates. Therefore, gamified skills assessments aim to change this by improving the candidate experience. Indeed, recruitment will be much better perceived by playing thanks to the fun that it can generate, rather than by only answering questions. Thanks to this, the company will make sure to recruit the right candidates while giving them a good experience. This in turn will greatly influence the employer brand.
This is certainly why gamified skills assessments are gaining more and more popularity among organizations as a way to assess a candidate's skills and knowledge.
3 - How do you implement a gamified skills assessment system?
Setting up a gamified skills assessment system within your company requires certain preliminary phases.
The first step is to define your needs by identifying which skills should be assessed? Hard skills? Soft skills? Both? For what volume of candidates or employees evaluated? Distance or face-to-face? Therefore, making a list of the skills that are relevant to the job or task in question will be much easier.
Asking the right questions is very important
At the same time, thanks to this first point, researching and learning about the different existing providers that best meet the company's needs will be an easier task as well. For example, some organizations specialize in evaluating employees in the IT development sector.
Unfortunately, these services are rarely free of charge, so you will have to determine the maximum price that the company or the employee (some assessments can be financed by the CPF) are willing to invest.
Note: as an employee, you can ask your employer to finance your skills assessment after 5 years of permanent employment with 12 months with the company, or 24 months of fixed-term employment with 4 months of seniority with the company.
Our advice: don't hesitate to ask different actors, to attend different demonstrations or to ask for a test when possible. This step should be repeated with different competitors to make sure you make the right choice.
Finally, the feedback document, even though it is the result of a fun experience, does not have to be of lesser quality. It can be confidential at the employee's request, shared with a consultant, an HR employee, a recruiter, etc. Some assessments must even be accompanied by training to facilitate understanding of the summary.
Our advice: take care to obtain as much information as possible about the skills assessment report before committing yourself.
As far as organizations and publishers of gamified skills assessments are concerned, there are also different formats. From mini-games of reflection to the use of virtual reality (VR).
The Yuzu solution, specialized in the evaluation of soft skills, is based on immersive scenarios developed with the latest video game technologies. In addition to being original, the experience is accessible to all from a computer thanks to the cloud. As for the duration, each skill is evaluated in 10 to 15 minute scenarios. So count on one to two hours for a complete skills assessment. Moreover, at the end of these tests, both the company and the candidate receive the results, in different formats, useful for recruitment, internal mobility or the implementation of training plans.
Conclusion
For several years now, the world of work has been evolving and skills have been changing with it. Assessments are an efficient way to evaluate the skills and knowledge of a candidate or an employee. It is a safe method that can only be improved thanks to the innovative approach of gamification.
The applications are multiple and can concern individuals as well as companies. A recruitment process, for example, can become not only unique but also more enjoyable. This in turn leads to a better involvement and motivation of test participants. Better employer brand, increased attractiveness, better training planning, employee loyalty... Many benefits will result from this.
Completely in line with the times (gamification is progressing in the world of work and more particularly in HR), these practices linked to gamified tools will become increasingly popular. The offer should then be enriched to adapt to all professional uses. Faced with this multitude of offers, take the time to define your project before choosing your provider.