Finding the talent: how we recruit future Wilders for our teams

Searching for great talent is a real challenge. Check out what drives prospecting and hiring of new talents at Wildlife and how it’s done.

Here at Wildlife, our mission is to entertain as many people around the world as we can, and touch generations with our games. Therefore, we bet on the development of mobile games, an accessible, diverse and low cost form of entertainment (plus being super fun, of course). It’s not by chance that the global video gaming industry is larger than that of music and film combined, surpassing the $140 billion benchmark.

To produce amazing games of different genres that reach people around the world, we need a team of talented and skilled professionals from various areas. Every day, we work so that those arriving at Wildlife can do their best in a company that brings joy to so many people.

We are the only gaming enterprise of Brazilian origin with a global impact. We’re still young, but we’ve grown enough and don’t want to stop growing anytime soon! It also means that we need to constantly increase our productive capacity and hire only the best. That’s why we can proudly say that our professionals are at the same level of excellence as in the best companies in the world, and that defines our recruitment process.

We want to make sure the candidates have a real clear view of what it’s like to work here. From the first moment, we treat candidates as Wilders. We use state-of-the-art technologies for all stages and ensure that all candidates, no matter who they are or where they come from, have equal opportunities.

Three pillars underpin Wildlife’s recruitment: attract and hire the best talent globally, affer a high-quality experience to the candidate, and promote diversity.

WHERE ARE THE FUTURE WILDERS?

Today, the biggest challenge is hiring competent individuals is in the area of technology and development – in fact, it’s a pain shared globally by many companies. But the requirement process we use with all our professionals is the same, even outside these areas. We’ve extended this “rule” to all the other areas of the company.

Where are these professionals? Are they really not in Brazil? These are questions we always ask ourselves. Today, we have a mapping strategy throughout Brazil. And if we can’t hire a ready-made professional, we look to develop the capabilities we need within the country itself. Yes, we bring people from outside, but we also want to bring in promising potential within Brazil: we pride ourselves on being a company of Brazilian origin.

We build, engage and maintain networks to hire new employees. One strategy is to join every community these people might be in. It’s a good “Discovery Channel” type of job, to find out where they live, what they like and what they feed on – and a fundamental part of these networks are the Wilders. From day one, we show the new employee ways to showcase talent. Every Wilder is a recruitment magnet. After all, good people refer good people.

UNIQUE EXPERIENCE

Our goal is to have a recruitment process with great clarity and transparency. We want the person to have an amazing experience – or at least a much better experience than what they’ve had in the past.

We work like those institutions responsible for University entrance exams: we give very clear instructions regarding each and every step of the selection process. More than that, the recruiter is like a coach: he/she stays close, clarifies any questions, talks about the skills that will be evaluated, how and by whom. It’s the kind of attention that hardly any large company gives, and this is our great competitive advantage. We make it a point to follow the candidate very closely, up to the end of the process, and if you don’t see that in your case, we want to know about it so it can be corrected as soon as possible.

These are procedures that help us relieve the tension of the moment and allow the candidates to go through the steps with more focus to show their best. We always welcome people with treats! We distribute notebooks, pens, stickers, surprises – a friendly kit that also works as a support material. The new employee does not arrive at Wildlife without someone to welcome him/her at the door. We show where the bathroom, the pantry and the offices are, always asking: “do you need anything? Make yourself at home, our home is your home.”

This complete reception experience is not only for the candidate who is hired, but for everyone who goes through our recruitment process. We want to build lasting relationships with everyone, because we understand that maybe they won’t be Wilders today, but they could be tomorrow.

WE WANT TO RECRUIT WITH DIVERSITY

We deliver games to people all over the world and want them to be represented in our teams. Therefore, it’s essential to build a diverse environment. A lot of people think that diversity is HR’s concern, but we understand HR to be a tool, and we try to bring diversity through our recruitment.

To be honest, we haven’t yet reached our ideal target. Far from it. It takes very detailed work to discover the best practices, efficient strategies and not be biased during the process. It’s our pillar, still in its embryonic stage, but nevertheless, equally important.

HOW WE RECRUIT

Today, Wildlife is structured into three large units:·Game Studio, directly responsible for the development of the games;·Platform, where the distribution and monetization of products is made; and Corporate Functions, which includes the areas that support the other two teams.

We have an HR team for each unit, with recruiters who are experts in finding and hiring the best professionals for each sector. In order to ensure that everything is done consistently, all these professionals follow company standards, adapted to each area. In general, we do a minimum of three interviews. The first conversation is always done with the recruiter responsible. The second is with someone from the team where they will be placed once they are hired, usually in the same hierarchical level. Then, the interviews progress under the command of more senior staff, such as managers and even directors.

Today, our biggest challenge is to get the candidate’s attention and make him/her be interested in our company and choose us over all the other good options that exist in the market, such as Amazon or Facebook, for example. Then, in the middle of this selection, our struggle is to find people technically qualified for the functions we need, which is a natural difficulty in this industry. And then we still have to get people through the process and actually hired.

Ultimately, we want great professionals who also have a passion for what they do and the will to make a difference in the lives of millions of people.

Photo by mostafa meraji on Unsplash