Conference to Show How Games Can Help Win the War for Talent in the Workplace

The NYU Tandon School of Engineering’s Department of Technology Management and Innovation will host a free conference exploring how games and “gamification”—the application of game principles to non-game contexts—can attract, engage, motivate, and train employees.

The event, “Using Games to Win the War for Talent in the Workplace: From Design to AI and Big Data,” will be held Tuesday, April 12, 2016, in downtown Brooklyn and will feature thought leaders from industry and academia. This fifth annual Conference on Human Capital Innovation in Technology and Analytics will be co-sponsored by Mercer—a global consulting leader in talent, health, retirement, and investments—in cooperation with the NYU Tisch School of the Arts Game Center and PolySHRM, NYU Tandon’s award-winning student chapter of the Society for Human Resource Management.

Employers deploy games as recruitment exercises that allow candidates to learn about themselves as well as sophisticated, realistic 3D or 4D simulations to train employees on difficult tasks. Organizations employ gamification to engage and motivate employees.

“Game technologies are becoming increasingly popular in the workplace since they appeal to the millennial generation, which has grown up playing video and computer games together with using mobile devices,” explained Professor of Management Harold G. Kaufman, who organized the conference. “But this is much more than fun. Serious games can generate up to millions of data points that can then be fed into machine-learning algorithms to help employers make smart HR decisions to win the war for talent.”

“In today’s fast-paced environment, companies are facing new challenges to attract, retain and build talent with the skills they need in order to grow their business,” said Barbara Marder, senior partner in Mercer’s Talent business and team leader in Mercer’s Innovation Hub. “Games and gamification are part of the answer—we’re seeing companies effectively deploy games for recruitment, training and employee engagement.”

Sessions include:

• “Games: What, Why, and How?” with faculty from the NYU Game Center and NYU Tandon Game Innovation Lab
• “Serious Games & Gamification in the Workplace: What’s Out There?” with Barbara Marder and Antonio Poglianich of Mercer
• “Serious Games for Engaging Employees: Case Studies in Assessment and Training” by Jennifer McNamara of BreakAway Games
• “Predictive Hiring Using Big Data, Machine Learning Algorithms and Gamification” by Frida Polli of Pymetrics
• “Measuring the Benefits of Gamification and Serious Games in the Corporate Learning Space” by Andrew Hughes of Designing Digitally
• “PwC Game of Threats: Human Capital” by Anthony J. Smith Jr of PricewaterhouseCoopers
• “The Dynamic Duo of Employee Engagement: Gamification and Analytics” by Keith Conley of Bunchball

The conference—which will also be streamed live at engineering.nyu.edu/live—will conclude with a panel discussion featuring all presenters and an evening networking buffet. Registration is required for attendance in person or virtually at online.engineering.nyu.edu/hci.

About NYU Tandon School of Engineering
The NYU Tandon School of Engineering dates to1854, when the NYU School of Civil Engineering and Architecture as well as the Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute (widely known as Brooklyn Poly) were founded. Their successor institutions merged in January 2014 to create a comprehensive school of education and research in engineering and applied sciences, rooted in a tradition of invention, innovation and entrepreneurship. In addition to programs at its main campus in downtown Brooklyn, it is closely connected to engineering programs in NYU Abu Dhabi and NYU Shanghai, and it operates business incubators in downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn. 

About Mercer
Mercer is a global consulting leader in talent, health, retirement and investments. Mercer helps clients around the world advance the health, wealth and performance of their most vital asset – their people. Mercer’s more than 20,000 employees are based in 43 countries and the firm operates in over 140 countries. Mercer is a wholly owned subsidiary of Marsh & McLennan Companies (NYSE: MMC), a global professional services firm offering clients advice and solutions in the areas of risk, strategy and people. With 60,000 employees worldwide and annual revenue exceeding $13 billion, Marsh & McLennan Companies is also the parent company of Marsh, a global leader in insurance broking and risk management; Guy Carpenter, a leader in providing risk and reinsurance intermediary services; and Oliver Wyman, a leader in management consulting. For more information, visit www.mercer.com. Follow Mercer on Twitter @Mercer.