The staff selection process is considered “a critical process in the integrated management of human resources in organizations given it strongly influences the effectiveness of management processes that occur after the selection” as it is presented by Salgado and Moscoso (2008). The authors highlight that the activities that are usually carried out in the selection processes deserve reconsideration. This is because doubts have been identified about the effectiveness of applying a written test that makes clear the pretensions of what it’s been investigating, in addition to the fact that they take long application times.

For his part, Highhouse (2008) mentions that the traditional unstructured interview is more effective than other procedures involving resolutions using paper and pencil. However, most companies perform these procedures more frequently (handmade, usually multiple-choice). This is complemented by the fact that human resources professionals are aware of the limitations of the informal interview, which is mentioned by Rynes et al. (2002) and Vakkayil et al. (2017). Similarly, authors such as He and Gong (2010) agree with these positions, as they support the following limitations in some methods of recruitment: false or incorrect information can be obtained during the background investigation; interviews need to be applied by experts trained to not be carried away by a certain bias; and there is a high probability of false positives with polygraphs. In addition, the procedure is long and arduous, and in some countries, it is not legal to administer polygraphs or they have no regulation.

Gamification is an unexplored area in issues related to selection of personnel. Authors like Burke (2012) and Kim (2015), in addition to mentioning the topic of employee performance, summarize gamification as the trend of using gaming mechanics in other non-entertainment environments such as innovation, marketing, training, health, and social change.

In the literature we can find different decision making approaches based on fuzzy tools, see Capuano et al. (2017), Liu et al. (2017), Zhang et al. (2017), Pérez et al. (2010), Cabrerizo et al. (2013, 2014). One of the motivations of the following article is to raise, from the point of view of fuzzy logic, a series of rules of inference that can be linked to the management of the profiles of the aspirants to top management positions (players) through a test based on gamification. The characters that support the profiling of aspiring players within the game were defined from two conceptual notions: the first notion, related to an organizational theory about leadership in which employees are classified as eagles or ducks, and the second notion, which describes human behaviour from five global dimensions: anxiety, independence, tenacity, extraversion, and self-control. All these features of the game model developed are specified in Albadán Romero et al. (2016), with emphasis on the gamification details. Finally, it is intended to propose a series of guidelines that facilitate the modelling of profiles in function of the non-programmed decision-making supported in the gamification.

The paper is organized as follows: Section 2 presents the background, where the rules that define mathematical modelling for non-programmed decision-making are discussed, and the characteristics about gamification are also presented. Section 3 defines the method of work based on the methodology used in our study. Section 4 presents the analysis of the results obtained from a case study defined in a test based on gamification. Section 5 presents the discussions, and, finally, Section 6 presents the conclusions and recommendations for future work.

In order to define a systematic method for our study as provided in the introduction section, we used an experimental research method. First, we defined an experimental research method based on mathematical modelling in order to measure and define rules for a fuzzy logic system. Then, we applied a quasi-experimental research method in order to define the profiles of the participants, based on Teddlie and Tashakkori (2006). Next, we made these rules apply to the game to validate the results found in the exploration process for our study case. Finally, derived from the participation results, we made an experimental research method to validate the results according to the profiles and roles defined.

In particular, four phases were proposed in the work methodology, covering the basic aspects of research: analysis, exploration, application, and validation. The details of each of these phases are illustrated below in Fig. 1.

The analytical phase focused on the mathematical models discussed in the background section. It was hoped, therefore, to have enough basis to set up the inference rules of fuzzy logic, which are exposed in the next phase, the exploratory phase, inasmuch as it is intended to discuss a conceptual connection between the inference rules and profile management in personnel selection processes, topics with great detail for work in future research.

Subsequently, an applied phase was projected, through the definition of a case study, that contains the design of several interactions, covered by gamification concepts that are detailed in earlier studies, as mentioned before. In this way, metrics and indicators are thrown in to confirm, in the last phase, how close the model was to the inference rules in order to get profiles during selection processes.

There are several proposed models based on the fuzzy logic system for studies in the field of decision-making like those in Zeng et al. (2016) and Shouzhen (2016); however, there is no research or literature review available related to the use of the gamification model. Using the Matlab Fuzzy Logic Toolbox, a Mandami fuzzy logic system was created to perform the process illustrated in Fig. 2. First, criteria were established to evaluate the results obtained by the players in each of the 10 attributes: adaptability, self-control, conviction, dynamism, initiative, integrity, leadership, perseverance, persuasion, and planning. The range was classified with values between 0 and 100, such that the values between 0 and 50 were classified as bad, the values between 50 and 80 were classified as average, and 80 to 100 were high.

In the game, the initial scenario is an environment where the player must parameterize basic skills as a moment of self-evaluation. Subsequently, in the main scenario of the game, the capture of several events that are generated during the interaction of the player is highlighted. These events allow the characterization of the decision-making processes according to the approach made in Albadán Romero et al. (2016, in press), where a small group of psychological capacities was chosen starting from the base, resulting in the following ones being chosen: 1) dynamism, 2) planning, 3) self-control, 4) conviction, and 5) perseverance.

During a trip back and forth, random events are generated in which the player must make decisions, which are then stored. The decision might be to escape and return to the lair, or you can fight against the opponent. That combat is solved by probabilities (Math.random) and under comparison against a threshold, the outcome of the combat (win or loss) is determined. In the first outcome, the tour continues to the lair and food is added to the total. If the combat is lost, the member’s health decreases and the trip is lost. The capture of information from the events given in the interaction in the game is in relation of determining indicators of the psychological competences described above, which will allow for the consolidation of the characterization of the processes of non-programmed decision-making.

Approximately 50 tests were carried out, with people of different academic characteristics (30 professionals and 20 university students), to test the interaction in the game and to corroborate how the reports are obtained, contributing to the establishment of the candidate profile. Each test generates a small description of the profile of the player/applicant, and linked to the textual description is a statistical report of the psychological skills already mentioned. Initially, the report of self-evaluation of psychological skills, with the traits that the person pretends to show as the most outstanding in his personality, were created. As an example, Fig. 3 shows a comparison in relation to the psychological competence of dynamism. This is observed in the upper part, where the player maintains, in general terms, an ascending level of attention. On the other hand, in the lower part of the figure, a descending level of attention is observed. These opposing cases are textually described in the candidate’s profile and supported by the corresponding graphs.

In terms of planning, the following is the curve with the sequence of points that identify the profile of a methodical person who carries out actions in a sequential way and waits for the complete conclusion of all actions in progress to start again. However, if a player executes actions without any order, it denotes a person who, in the face of unexpected events, manages to deal with them as they arise without performing sequential actions. These two opposite situations are evident in the planning curve in Fig. 4.

The gamification of the tests proves to be a very attractive proposal and offers great support for the processes of personnel selection. Nevertheless, to carry out the capture of events for non-programmed decision-making, it is necessary to model more psychological competences that allow for a real estimate for tests that are given to applicants in real time. There are few proposals in this area of human resources, despite proposals such as those presented in Guenaga et al. (2014) and Supendi and Prihatmanto (2015), so the determination of which psychological aspects that are evaluated in a selection process can be carried out within a scenario based on game mechanics is still open for discussion.

The most relevant aspects on which deep reflection can be carried out are related to the presentation of the test in a selection process, and in that order of ideas, the time factor of the application of the test stands out. It is presented as an advantage with this game model while reducing, between 40% and 70%, the time records. These data have as a reference Albadán Romero et al. (2016), where it is argued that a psychological test, within a selection process, takes about an hour. This comparison is made considering the duration records of the proposed game. The advantage affects the two parties involved in the selection process: the applicants and the organization.

Based on the results obtained, models based on rules of inference can be applied to consolidate the profile of an applicant. However, there are variables associated with psychological competencies that require a more detailed analysis from strategies that allow for the analysis of the behaviours of an aspirant when making certain decisions. To this end, it is suggested to apply tests by implementing methodologies based on eye tracking, as supported by Bobić and Graovac (2016), with which it is possible to capture subjective aspects such as facial expressions or vision, from more specific tests, as detailed in Ujbanyi et al. (2016) and Zhang and Chen (2016).

The design of a test model based on gamification was carried out with the inclusion of different organizational and psychological theories. These characteristics allow one to obtain the characteristics of the behaviour of the aspirant while playing and even use them to complement the scenario of self-evaluation, facilitating the processing of those aspects without the player even being aware that it is being analysed.

In that order of ideas, there is a great advantage to obtaining such data, in terms of consolidating the profile information in the background. So, we have grounds to affirm that the data capture works in an optimal way when implementing game mechanics, while allowing the implicit transfer of information.

Although certain decision-making strategies have been linked directly to the connotation of non-programmed decision-making, it is evident that the large amount of data generated after interaction in the game does not make it easier to determine if the applicant made a decision using a pessimistic approach, an optimistic approach, or other criteria, considering that in many cases, this can be a product of rapid actions within the dynamics of the same game, beyond reaching to contemplate and analyse all the possibilities of choice to make use of the criterion.

Considering that we designed randomly generated events, which appear unexpectedly, and that it is not possible to know how many times and at what moment something specific happens, or if a fight is won or lost, it is considered that there was adequate work done to delimit the characteristic of non-programmed to the decision-making. On the other hand, the psychological competencies consolidated in the reports were chosen from a list of psychological abilities associated with the decision-making processes, with which considerable statistical details about the profile of the aspirant are considered.