Interviewer: Nourhan Badr El-Din
“The traditional hiring process is biased and unfair. Unconscious and – even worse in same cases – conscious racism, ageism, and sexism play a big role in who gets hired. Most often, recruiters miss out on a high potential candidate simply because they haven’t presented their resume in an eye-catching layout.”
Paul Keijzer
ABOUT THE INTERVIEWEE
Paul is a renowned name in the HR Tech space with over 40 years of industry experience. He is an official member of the Forbes HR Council and currently working as the CEO of The Talent Games, a Singapore-based HR Tech company that pioneers in AI-driven gamified talent assessment tools.
THE INTERVIEW
1-HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: Dear Paul Keijzer, it’s our pleasure to interview an innovative business leader and HR professional like you. In several conferences you have spoken about the impact of technology on talent management, so can you share with us how to engage millennial talent through gamification? Also, how can gamification be used as a part of the inbound recruiting?
Paul Keijzer: Thank you for the opportunity! It’s a real pleasure to be invited.
Shell, Unilever, Novartis, Telenor are just some of the renowned companies that are leveraging the power of gamification in recruitment today, and not merely to add the element of fun but to keep up with the ever-evolving digital landscape.
You see, these companies have recognized two important facts. First, that their new hires are predominantly Millennials, and second, that they’re a tech savvy generation that grew up playing games and that they can’t attract top Millennial talent using 20th century tools.
Video games are a staple among Millennials’ media diets. J McGonigal, the game designer, believes that the average western Millennial will have spent 10,000 hours on computer generated gaming by the time they are 21. Considering this fact, gamification provides the perfect solution for all talent management processes hiring, assessment, learning and development. In using gamification for recruitment, for example, you can engage with Millennials, showcase your company and at the same time ensure only the best and right fitted get selected.
2-HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: Based on your experience, when will technology and artificial intelligence help HR professionals and when will it take over their job especially in the Middle East and Asian Frontier market?
Paul Keijzer: In HR, there is a distinct boundary between repetitive tasks and crucial decisions that entail human judgment. What’s interesting is, most HR jobs involve a bit of both.
For example, a recruiter might have to sift through hundreds of resumes, shortlist them, and schedule interviews – a cumbersome and effort-intensive process that could be taken over by AI. But the recruiter also has to engage candidates effectively across the hiring journey, with regular communication and a personal touch.
3-HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: In addition to your conferences and work, you are interested in sharing your experiences through “writing”, can you share with our readers more about your articles?
Paul Keijzer: In my spare time I am also the CEO of Engage Consulting FZE. In this capacity I am amongst others helping organisation to develop leadership capabilities through executive coaching and leadership academies.
My way of giving back as a leader is to share my insights, observations and experiences from the amazing people and organisation I meet with as many people as possible.
I have now published more than 600 articles, do check them out on paulkeijzer.com
4-HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: Through one of your articles, you have mentioned that “Becoming an entrepreneur isn’t just another career choice – it’s a life calling. Starting your first business is a thrilling venture and one of the most exciting things you’ll ever do in your life.” It seems that you have taken a step further in your career, as you have been also working on frontier market for many years, to encourage new entrepreneurs, so why do you think it is important to start the first business and how to succeed in such a challenge?
Paul Keijzer: Creating something that is your own was and still is my biggest motivational driver and that drive is what makes you, in my opinion, succeed. In my experience people that start an own business because they are ‘in between jobs’ or hope that they will be able to make loads of money, fail.
For example in the current Covid-19 crisis being entrepreneur is probably the most daunting and scary position to be in. You have a responsibility to pay the salaries of your team no matter what. Through all the ups and downs I am proud to have been able to do this for the past 15 years and I will make sure I will continue to be able to do so through this crisis as well.
5-HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: Can you share with us what are the best practices that you have applied for transformational leadership and how this could be reflected through different industries?
Paul Keijzer: Through my 30+ years of experience in leading and consulting organizations I have come to the conclusion that one and only one thing creates the most impact in the success of an organisation and that is the quality of its leadership.
I have seen organisations up close where transitions of leadership had dramatic effect on the results of the company without any changes in the external environment. Companies that did extremely well, went heads down after a leadership transition and that same company came roaring back after another leadership team was appointed.
6-HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: Paul, what made it attractive for you to work on and believe in the potentiality of success in frontier markets? What were the most successful startups that you are proud of working with?
Paul Keijzer: Working in Frontier Markets for me is all about possibilities and opportunities. Whenever I go back to the Netherlands I am struck by the amount of regulation. Everything is already done and if it is not done it is not allowed!
In Frontier Markets you can create business and wealth out of nothing. Of course the risk is also significant but as they say: ‘no risk no gain’.
7-HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: As a believer in women empowerment, can you tell us more about your efforts to highlight the concept of gender inclusion?
Paul Keijzer: Throughout my career I had the pleasure of leading large teams and most of these teams were female teams. My HR team in Unilever Vietnam consisted of 95% women and one man apart from me!
Not only I believe but also research has shown that female leaders create more sustainable results, with better relations, better safety track record, customer service and engagement.
Unfortunately, in many parts of the world, access to opportunities for female leaders are not the same as for male professionals. Throughout my career I have tried to give female leaders an equal (if not better) opportunity.
8-HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: Paul, as you work on talent management, how can organisations avoid discrimination based on gender, social class, race or any kind?
Paul Keijzer: The traditional hiring process is biased and unfair. Unconscious and – even worse in same cases – conscious racism, ageism, and sexism play a big role in who gets hired.
Most often, recruiters miss out on a high potential candidate simply because they haven’t presented their resume in an eye-catching layout.
That’s why I believe so strongly in our Talent Games gamified assessments solutions, as they bring all candidates on a level playing field. In the gamified world you’re as good as your capabilities and skills allow you to be, irrespective of what you’ve done in the past and what you’ve stated in your resume.
9-HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: What inspires you to work on business leadership and to connect and relate it to your experience in HR and do you think that every HR specialist should be a leader or have the skills to become so?
Paul Keijzer: Like I mentioned in my view, the difference between success and failure of an organisation is directly and almost completely linked to the quality of its leaders – whether it is business leaders or HR leaders.
It is our responsibility as HR leaders to be able to connect business insights with people insights and use the levers of ‘Talent, Structure, Culture and Leadership’ to create value for the organisation.
Can every person become an HR Leader? Of course. But it does require you to display positivity, integrity, perseverance, creativity and above all courage.
10-HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: Finally, can you share with us what is the value added that you have gained through working in different countries and with multinational corporate and frontier markets and how this impacted you on both the personal and the professional level?
Paul Keijzer: I have been working now for 23 years outside of the Netherlands. I would be a foreigner in my own home country if I would ever return.
For me there are three things that I have learned from working abroad:
1-At a deeper level every human is striving for the same things,
2-The longer you work in a different culture the more you realise that you will never fully understand the deeply embedded intricacies of a culture,
3-The best way to deal with unfamiliarity and setbacks is to laugh about it and see the humor of it.