This is the time of the year when organizations, campuses, and students get ready for the massive campus recruitment drive that happens across the country. A recent study by Monster is expecting 20-30% increase in jobs in FY23 as compared to FY22 with demand for fresher and junior management employees remaining high in the next few months. As fresh graduate talent is a desirable commodity, companies want to recruit the best of the lot. These recruitments work on a relationship which is built by the company's status and employer brand. Not just the pre-recruitment phase but also the actual phase of selection-recruitment should be engaging for the candidates. Using the traditional pen-paper or online aptitude tests fail at engaging the students and don't create any differentiation against your competition in the minds of the students.

These conventional campus recruitment drives often witness many challenges including:

1. 1. Large number of applications across multiple campuses and locations to be processed in a limited time-frame.
2. 2. People dependent grading of talent or manual pen and paper processes.
3. 3. Incapacity of scope in testing actual skills and abilities of the candidates.
4. 4. Inability to identify the cultural fit.
5. 5. High costs involved in logistics.

A well-designed selection process is important for talent identification. It helps recruiters to create an everlasting positive impression on the candidates. A smooth and unbiased selection process helps to build better engagement & experience for candidates therefore strengthening employer brand. The candidates recall the company having an innovative approach towards hiring with a promising future. Therefore, game-based assessments have been considered a major tool to identify skills and abilities highlighting job relevance, thus streamlining hiring processes.

Candidates want job-relevant assessments. Assessments which would help them draw an association with what is required of them to do on the actual job. Research shows that 94% candidates say that game-based assessments engage applicants, and 90% say that they reflect the hiring company's brand as well. Game based assessments help in informed decision making which can be relied upon if there are 1000's of candidates to be assessed at one time.

These tests are:

1. 1. Inclusive of natural & behavioral traits
2. 2. Accurate on results
3. 3. Have better completion rates because of higher engagement
4. 4. Reduce bias as abilities & skills cannot be manipulated
5. 5. Reduce stress as the assessments are formulated as "games"

Normal numeric & verbal reasoning assessments do help in highlighting the abilities of candidates that the organization and job role might need. But adding the behavior & personality traits into the trail can help conclude on a better platform, showing how candidates might react on the work assigned to them in their job. The goals and mission of the company should be well aligned with what it wants from its employees, in terms of dedication, work ethics and facing challenges. These traits cannot be judged through a conventional hiring process having basic aptitude tests and then a specified round of interviews. Graduates especially freshers should be given a platform to showcase their skills before they are recruited for the job role.

Game based assessments help candidates to react & behave naturally towards the challenges posed in them, the immersive nature of these assessments doesn't let the candidates fake or manipulate their reactions. These are outside the scope of traditional assessments, as being subjective they miss out on actual interpretations of candidate's responses.

Campus recruitments are crucial for the organizations specially reviving from the most recent economic recession. The talent from campus recruitments is fresh and companies want to create a positive impact just not on the current candidates, but potential candidates for future. There are several ways to strengthen the employer brand, but streamlining your hiring assessments, is one of the first things the candidates are exposed to which creates the initial picture of the organization. At the end it's all about creating engagement and providing the best candidate experience while acquainting them to the company, so just ponder over how different is your selection process.