??? 招聘人員當然可以登陸求職者的 Facebook或LinkedIn頁面，看看他們的個人資料，剔除不符合需要的人，許多招聘者也的確是這樣做的。但一些公司現在發現，運用網游技術招募、篩選申請人是一種物色杰出人才更有效率、更為快捷的途徑。

????一些公司過去或許認為此類游戲是導致員工工作分神的主要因素之一，但它們現在發現，運用這種充滿競爭性、具有積極意義的評價工具可以幫助招聘人員精確地找出那些或許缺乏明顯的資歷、但卻具備成功所需技能的潛在雇員。同時，由于年輕人在日常生活中經常玩網絡游戲，他們非常歡迎這種競爭性十足的評價方式。

????這種“社交式招募”還可以擴大品牌的知名度，激發求職者的興致，加盟不太知名的公司。Facebook這樣明星公司自然是求職者競相追逐的對象，它發布的編程難題吸引了眾多參與者，其中一些人最終成為該公司員工。

????德勤咨詢公司（Deloitte Consulting）進行的一項調查顯示，由于各家公司都在尋找具備多樣化技能和高端技術的求職者，對頂尖人才的爭奪已變得日益激烈。這項上個月公布的調查發現，25%的公司人力資源部職員都擔心熟練工人短缺，這一比例較去年的16%出現了大幅上升。

????即便如此，許多公司依然嚴格恪守簡歷篩選、面試和背景調查等傳統招聘流程，這些工作不僅費時費力，而且往往無法尋覓到各方面都符合要求的求職者。對于Upstream Systems公司來說，這些傳統的方式根本就不管用。這家總部位于倫敦和舊金山的移動營銷公司一度苦于找不到既具備分析和營銷技能，又精通技術，同時還需要與遍及40個國家的客戶打交道的全球營銷經理。

????“我們當然可以聘請一個專家小組，但我們想要這樣一個人，他單槍匹馬就能運用我們的技術投入為客戶提供營銷服務，”Upstream Systems公司負責創意事務的高級副總裁蓋伊?克里夫在倫敦接受記者采訪時說。

????克里夫決定結合游戲機制設計一個競爭性的測試網站，從而尋覓到獨特的人才，他們具備的技能很難、甚至根本無法從傳統的簡歷中辨別出來。這個網站的網址是：http://thechallenge.upstreamsystems.com。

????這款對所有人開放，名為Upstream Challenge的游戲提供了7個有時間限制的挑戰項目（比如數學、文字圖像、為虛擬的工作情景匹配情緒等），以衡量應聘者的分析能力和市場營銷知識。

????招聘人員需要擴大職位搜索范圍，不能只關注形形色色的證書，而應重點關注哪些具備創造力、獨創性和適應力等“軟技能”的人才，《如何率先發現杰出人才》（The Rare Find: Spotting Exceptional Talent Before Everyone Else）一書的作者喬治?安德斯說。這本書列舉并分析了頂尖企業在尋覓潛在雇員時所使用的種種創新方式。

????安德斯說：“這種招募理念發源于陸軍特種部隊。軍方發現，在招募合適的人選時，最關鍵的考慮因素是他們的韌性，而不是體力或其他類似的特質。”

??? Recruiters can certainly poke around a job seeker's Facebook or LinkedIn profiles to weed out undesirables, and plenty do. But some companies are finding that using online game techniques to recruit and screen applicants is a more productive, faster route to scouting out stellar hires.

????Businesses that at one time might have considered such games a major employee distraction are finding that using competitive, and positive, screening tools can help pinpoint potential hires who may lack the obvious pedigree, but have the skills to succeed. Since young adults often play online games in their everyday lives, they are open to embracing competitive screening approaches.

????Such "social recruiting" can also expand brand awareness and encourage interest in working at lesser-known companies. People clamber to work for star companies like Facebook, which has posted programming puzzles that have attracted significant participation and has led to some employee hires.

????Jockeying for top talent has gotten more intense as companies look for more varied and sophisticated skill sets from candidates, according to a survey by Deloitte Consulting. The survey, which was released last month, found that 25% of corporate human resources professionals were worried about skilled worker shortages, up from 16% last year.

????Even so, companies still hew to traditional resume screening, interviews, and reference checking, tasks that are time consuming and often fail to produce the right match. These conventional methods were not working for Upstream Systems, a mobile marketing firm based in London and San Francisco, which struggled to find global marketing managers with the right mix of analytical, marketing, and technology savvy to work with its clients in 40 countries.

????"We could hire teams of experts, but we wanted a single person to use input from our technologies into the marketing for our clients," says Guy Krief, senior vice president of innovation at Upstream in London.

????Krief decided to incorporate game mechanics to design a competitive test http://thechallenge.upstreamsystems.com?that could identify people with a blend of skills that would have been much harder, or impossible, to discern from a conventional resume.

????The "Upstream Challenge" -- open to anyone -- provides seven timed exercises including math, word images, matching emotion to hypothetical work scenarios, and other challenges to measure a candidate's analytical skills and marketing knowledge.

???Recruiters need to widen their job searches beyond paper credentials, and focus on candidates with "soft skills," including creativity, ingenuity, and resilience, says George Anders, author of The Rare Find: Spotting Exceptional Talent Before Everyone Else, which examines innovative ways top companies find employees.

????"The idea got started back when the Army Special Forces found that tenacity, rather than physical strength or other such attributes, was more critical to recruiting the right candidate," says Anders.