GAME- LIKE APP USED TO SCREEN LAW FIRM APPLICANTS.
U.K. law firm using app to select trainees
Taylor Wessing has become the first U.K. law firm — and possibly the first law firm in the world — to bring a game- based testing app into its law trainee selection process.
The international firm last Fall began using Cosmic Cadet, created by U. K.- based Arctic Shores, to assess law students seeking U.K. training positions. Arctic Shores has been creating game- based assessments for several years and counts Deloitte, the BBC, Citi and Xerox among its clients.
Taylor Wessing personnel happened to see an Arctic Shores presentation during a conference in the summer of 2015. Intrigued, the firm decided to try Arctic Shore’s Cosmic Cadet app in early 2016.
Sarah Harte, graduate talent manager at Taylor Wessing, said that the Cosmic Cadet experiment is still in its early days and that the firm is taking a very cautious approach.
“We initially ran an internal pilot to make sure it was right for us,” she said. “After gaining feedback from our trainees and associates, we decided to use it in our current trainee hiring process which runs until April of this year.”
The data collected by Taylor Wessing won’t be used to inform hiring decisions — at least, not yet. The use of the app is still very much a beta test — allowing the firm to make as many observations as possible on how candidates approach different situations. Once the data is collected, the firm will try to sort out what it all means.
For now, trainees who get through Taylor Wessing’s initial screening process (a combination of having a good resume and good grades), will then be given two weeks to complete the game.
It’s not that it takes much time to complete. It’s just that users need to set aside a block of time to find a quiet, distractionfree area where they can focus for 20 to 30 minutes on the game. No legal questions are asked and no prior gaming experience is required. All candidates are given an assessment report, even if not hired by the firm.
Harte said that while the firm is keen to test whether the new technology can help identify top talent, it’s not going to replace the current hiring process. “We just want to enhance what we’re currently doing.”
The app is specifically geared for mobile devices, not desktops or laptops. I gave it a run on my smart phone. I donned headphones to get the full sound. Soon I was on board a starship, the Comet, and tasked with getting the maximum number of stars across four challenges which are designed to assess several traits, among them my social confidence, risk appetite, persistence, innovation potential, and processing capacity. I had to sort out the best strategies for each task, whether it was trying to remember the correct sequence of ingredients for a new space formula or timing my button push to stop a moving needle within a specified area.
As I was saving the universe, Arctic Shores was collecting data points — 2,173 to be exact — on my behaviour. I was given an assessment report that runs about 15 pages. Admittedly, I was playing for much lower stakes than those seeking a job at Taylor Wessing, but did I have fun and was I engaged? Yes.
The introduction of a non- intrusive, entertaining and gamified approach to psychometric testing is well- suited to the millennial generation that now dominates Canadian law firm hires. But will law firms, in an age of growing legal technology and legal artificial intelligence, ever begin to value behavioural traits over high grades? And if so, will lawyers who are hired based on behavioural traits hasten a transformation in how legal services are delivered? In my view, there is potential for great first mover advantage to those who seriously look at building a firm around desirable behavioural traits, rather than pure legal skills.
So, who will be a Canadian first?