Author: BWild

This new recruitment technique has been gamified to help to reduce the risk of unconscious bias.

Unilever has announced a new mobile gaming strategy it has launched as a part of its new hire selection process. They have added this new technique in order to promote diversity while speeding up the process as a whole and reducing the cost of hiring.

This giant consumer goods company is launching the process in the UK following success in other countries.

Unilever has already implemented similar mobile gaming strategy programs in the United States and Asia. They have proven to be successful for hiring new staff in those regions. The British and Dutch company is now expanding the program to save money and time while limiting the risk of unconscious bias when new staff is hired. Considering the fact that last year saw applications from 250,000 graduates around the world, this is an important step. The strategy brings mobile games together with video interviews.

Unilever says this mobile gaming strategy for hiring represents the first fully digitized recruitment process.

That said, other companies have used mobile gamification to help the process. For instance, Vodafone, L’Oréal UK and Ireland, Microsoft, and Ernst & Young. Those brands each use the Debut mobile app as a part of their hiring process.

In Unilever’s case, new applicants complete an online application form. Those who do so successfully then receive an application to play a number of games for a maximum of twenty minutes. Those with the best results are selected to receive a video interview. The applicants who are preferred during that phase move on to the final stage. In that stage, they take a virtual tour of the Unilever offices and experience a virtual collaboration. This provides them with an idea of how it feels to work within one of the company’s real environments.

The mobile gaming strategy for hiring was, in part, a response to data such as that produced by University College London and the Monster employment website. That research indicated that nearly half of all firms use video interviews as a component of their selection process. Moreover 7 percent no longer conduct face-to-face interviews. This occurs, despite the fact that it could promote appearance-based discrimination.

While the biometrics trends have been focusing on fingerprints, the Chinese giant is looking at eyes.

Biometrics based mobile payment security is still in its early days. So far, certain companies, such as Apple, have introduced fingerprint scanning to verify a device user’s identity. However, Alibaba has something else in mind.

Alibaba’s payments and financial services affiliate, Ant Financial, recently announced new plans.

Ant Financial purchased EyeVerify for an undisclosed amount. EyeVerify is a startup based in Kansas City, Missouri. Reports have suggested that the acquisition may have been made for anywhere from $70 million to $100 million. This suggests that the e-commerce giant from China may be looking into a new kind of mobile payments security.

Not only will this purchase provide the company with one more step in expanding its reach into the western market, but it also reveals an interest in biometric security. That type of technology analyzes biological features that can be detected with scanners. In the case of EyeVerify, the software they produce can analyze and recognize the veins on the sclera (the visible part of the eyeball that is white inc color).

This mobile payment security uses a smartphone’s front-facing camera to capture the vein patterns of the eye.

Once the pattern has been captured, it is recorded so that it can be used for certain mobile security features. These can include logging into an account or even unlocking a phone, similar to the way fingerprint scanners are currently used.

According to EyeVerify, this type of biometric security provides the same level of verification protection as a password of 50 characters in length.

Ant Financial first introduced biometric mobile payment security software into its Alipay app in July 2015. This was released exclusively to a small group of beta testers. The beta testers have the ability to log into their accounts using traditional password and/or fingerprint readings. That said, they can also choose to have their eyes scanned in order to log in.

Companies from China stand to gain a great deal from biometric security investments. The reason is that the country is facing a massive battle against online fraud and every new layer of security protection can go a long way.