经济学人34:工作兼娱乐 招聘游戏化

 　　Business.

　　商业。

　　Recruitment.

　　人才招聘。

　　Work and play.

　　工作兼娱乐。

　　The gamification of hiring.

　　招聘游戏化。

　　THE rules of Happy Hour are deceptively simple. You are a bartender. Your challenge is to tell what sort of drink each of a swelling¹ mob of customers wants by the expressions on their faces. Then you must make and serve each drink and wash each used glass, all within a short period of time. Play this video game well and you might win a tantalising prize: a job in the real world.

　　游戏Happy Hour的规则看起来十分简单。你是一位酒保，你的挑战是察言观色，一群趾高气扬的黑帮客户进入酒吧，你需要根据他们的面部表情判断每个人要喝何种酒，然后斟酒擦酒杯。所有这一切都需要在短时间内完成，如果玩这个游戏表现出色的话，你诱人的奖励是在真实世界获得工作。

　　Happy Hour, which will be unveiled to the public on May 28th, is one of several video games developed by Knack², a start-up founded by Guy Halfteck, an Israeli entrepreneur. The games include a version of Happy Hour in which sushi replaces booze, Words of Wisdom (a word game) and Balloon Brigade (which involves putting out fires with balloons and water). They are designed to test cognitive³ skills that employers might want, drawing on some of the latest scientific research. These range from pattern recognition to emotional intelligence, risk appetite and adaptability⁴ to changing situations.

　　由一位以色列企业家Guy halfteck新创始的公司Knack开发的众多视频游戏中的一款Happy Hour预计在5月28日发布。这一系列的游戏包含一个用寿司替代美酒的Happy Hour版本游戏，Words of Wisdom（一种文字游戏）和气球大队游戏（用气球和水去灭火）。这些游戏都是借助一些最新的科学研究，测试雇主可能比较注重的认知能力，如模式识别、情商、风险承受度和对变化环境的适应性。

　　A pilot now under way with students at Yale combines the results of games with academic grades. As little as ten minutes of play can yield enough data to predict performance, says Mr Halfteck.

　　这款游戏现在正在耶鲁大学的学生中进行试点，将其游戏的结果与学业成绩结合在一起。Mr Halfteck声称，只要玩十分钟就有足够的数据来预测个人的表现。

　　Knack combines three fashionable trends: gaming, the use of massive amounts of data and the application of behavioural insights from science. According to Chris Chabris of the Centre for Collective Intelligence at MIT, a member of the Knack team, games have huge advantages over traditional recruitment tools, such as personality tests, which can easily be outwitted by an astute⁵ candidate. Many more things can be tested quickly and performance can't be faked on Knack's games, he says. The two biggest challenges, according to Mr Chabris, are ensuring the games are fun to play and convincing recruiters, who typically make no attempt to measure cognitive skills, to pay attention to these new data.

　　Knack将三种Fashion的潮流结合在一起：游戏，大量数据处理以及科学角度的行为预测。麻省理工学院综合智能中心的Chris Chabri是Knack团队成员之一，他认为：游戏相比传统的招聘工具有非常大的优点，比如传统的个性测试，很容易被聪明的应聘者蒙混过关，而通过Knack游戏，很多方面能够快速的测定而且不可能作假。Chris Chabri表示最大的两个挑战来自于确定游戏足够好玩，并且能够说服那些往往不对认知技能进行测试的招聘者把注意力放在这些数据上。

　　Some firms seem to see the potential. The GameChanger unit of Shell, which seeks out new disruptive technologies for the oil giant, is about to test if Knack can help it identify innovators. Bain & Company, a consultancy, is to run a pilot: it will start by getting current staff to play the games, to see which skills make for a successful consultant⁶. (The ability to charge a lot for stating the obvious is presumably not one of them.) "If someone can materially improve our ability to select the best talent, that is worth a lot to us," says Mark Howorth, a recruiter at Bain. And if not, at least the process will be fun.

　　一些公司似乎看到了潜力。壳牌公司中为石油巨头寻找突破性新技术的GameChanger部门即将测试Knack是否能帮助它去发现创新者。贝恩咨询公司在这方面将启动一次试点：它将让现有职员参与去玩些游戏以帮助决定哪些技能是有助于去做一个成功的咨询者。（收取高昂的费用却说些显而易见的东西，这种能力大概不是其中一个）"如果有人能显著提高我们挑选最好人才的能力，那么这对于我们是非常有价值的。"贝恩公司的招聘者Mark Howorth如是说。当然，如果不能，起码这玩意儿有点意思。

1 swelling   

n.肿胀

参考例句：

• Use ice to reduce the swelling. 用冰敷消肿。
• There is a marked swelling of the lymph nodes. 淋巴结处有明显的肿块。

2 knack   

n.诀窍，做事情的灵巧的，便利的方法

参考例句：

• He has a knack of teaching arithmetic.他教算术有诀窍。
• Making omelettes isn't difficult,but there's a knack to it.做煎蛋饼并不难，但有窍门。

3 cognitive   

adj.认知的，认识的，有感知的

参考例句：

• As children grow older,their cognitive processes become sharper.孩子们越长越大，他们的认知过程变得更为敏锐。
• The cognitive psychologist is like the tinker who wants to know how a clock works.认知心理学者倒很像一个需要通晓钟表如何运转的钟表修理匠。

4 adaptability   

n.适应性

参考例句：

• It has a wide range of adaptability.它的应用性广。

5 astute   

adj.机敏的，精明的

参考例句：

• A good leader must be an astute judge of ability.一个优秀的领导人必须善于识别人的能力。
• The criminal was very astute and well matched the detective in intelligence.这个罪犯非常狡猾，足以对付侦探的机智。

6 consultant   

n.顾问；会诊医师，专科医生

参考例句：

• He is a consultant on law affairs to the mayor.他是市长的一个法律顾问。
• Originally,Gar had agreed to come up as a consultant.原来，加尔只答应来充当我们的顾问。