9 Soft Skills To Develop With Online Business Games: The Simformer Case

9 Soft Skills To Develop With Online Business Games: The Simformer Case
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Summary: Every employer has his or her own idea about the ideal employee. We are not talking about the ideal in terms of looks obviously, but rather the employee’s personal qualities and professional skills. Job duty descriptions dictate what professional skills are required and the corporate competency framework determines what personal qualities an ideal employee should possess. Here is how online business games help develop crucial soft skills such as customer focus, stress resistance, team work, and communication skills.

How To Develop 9 Soft Skills With Simformer Business Games 

In a perfect situation the recruiters try to select the candidates who meet the requirements of the corporate competency model. But we are all unique and have a big array of personal qualities, just like a cocktail with a mixture of various ingredients. Hundreds of Human Resources specialists around the world are puzzled about how to develop employees’ weaker competencies and not neglect the stronger ones. The main focus of Simformer is corporate business games – a new trend in HR solutions. Since nowadays people cannot imagine their lives without electronic gadgets, Simformer has developed business games that meet those needs of computer literate modern generation.

Why Competencies Matter

Imagine you have found the candidate who seemingly has got it all – great education, experience, and expertise. He or she has conducted numerous tests and interviews and everything seems to match the job requirements. But how to know for sure if the candidate fits in the team of co-workers, adjusts to the corporate culture, and is overall efficient in particular working conditions? The corporate competency models are able to answer all these questions accurately. Candidate’s soft skills, described in the competency model, are precisely what are able to foresee the candidate’s success in the company. These days the quality products and service do not guarantee success in the market, and businesses are paying more and more attention on the overall working style and manners of employees. Simformer business games are a perfect tool to evaluate the candidates’ soft skills during the selection process and therefore to develop the right team.

Is It Possible To Develop Soft Skills?

Theoretically, there is the possibility to develop a lot of things; in the end it all comes does to time and efficiency. Turning an introvert into an extravert is perhaps possible in the long-term, but the question is whether all the efforts and means invested in that will eventually pay off. That is why recruiters base their selection choices on the corporate competency model; it means that the candidates with some of the competencies will be selected for the job. Therefore, it will be much easier to develop the existing skills and not invest time and money into unreasonable transformations.

Ways To Develop Soft Skills

According to some scientists, developing personal and social skills from childhood is essential. And somewhat annoying habits in people (like putting things off until the last moment) actually develop their stress-resistance and the ability to work within tight timeframes.

Adults have a wide choice of numerous training programs on motivations, team work, time management, leadership, personal development, presentation skills, etc.

Doing sports, volunteering, or collaborating with public organizations help develop one’s soft skills as well. Such experiences can greatly improve one’s communication skills and teach taking responsibility for one’s actions.

The recent trend in personal competences development has been business games. This particular trend is not entirely surprising, since psychologists consider games as the most effective way to acquire new skills and develop the existing ones.

Why Simformer Business Games Are An Ideal Tool For Developing Soft Skills

Simformer business games are known for their dynamic format, thrilling scenarios, and the opportunity to solve specific problems directly related to participants’ skills and competencies. Participants simply tend to forget that they are being assessed; they are so involved in the process of the game that it makes them develop their skills and competencies authentically, similar to when children and teenagers develop their skills just by playing contact sports or making sandcastles.

All game actions take place in Simformer Business Simulation (SBS), a business simulation environment, which has more than 1 million registered users worldwide. This helps create a unique ecosystem Simformer Business Simulation with its authentic competition, full of life and the need to make quick decisions in difficult situations. The irrational actions of real participants determine the future outcomes and add a risk element to SBS.

9 Examples Of Competencies That Can Be Developed In «Corporation In Distress» Business Game

Corporation in Distress is one of the most popular Simformer business games. It is highly dynamic and intense: Each participant has to manage a virtual company, some of the divisions of which are in financial crisis. The task of the participants is to lead the company out of this crisis.

  1. Customer focus (internal and external customers).
    All Simformer business games offer a number of situations where the participants play the supplier-customer scenarios. This will provide the opportunity to devise the right interaction model and assess the customer-focus skills of the participants.
  2. Can-do attitude.
    The business game allows the participants to perform the assignments and follow certain business procedures. The number of procedures, their consistence, and the timeframes for accomplishing them are predetermined by the business game moderators. The participants’ ability to perform assignments strictly according to business simulation procedures and within the established timeframes is taken into consideration when assessing the can-do attitude of the participants.
  3. Stress-resistance.
    The business game is set up that way, that the number of tasks that the participants have to accomplish would exceed their abilities. This creates the time pressure that will allow the assessment of participants’ ability to perform in stressful situations: To keep it together when it comes to multitasking and time constrains, remain calm when making team decisions, and don’t get frustrated when pressured by the game moderators.
  4. Team work.
    The business game is conducted in a team format and all decisions are made by the group of participants. Due to this fact, it is possible to assess participants’ team work skills, their ability to collaborate, assist others, as well as ask for assistance, putting the interest of the team in the first place.
  5. Adapting to changes.
    The business game to SBS environment will be a new experience for the participants. This helps assess the participants’ ability to behave in unfamiliar situations and adapt to new environment.
  6. Aptitude for learning.
    During the business game, the moderators will provide training on how to work under tight timeframes, multitask, work in a team, delegating, etc. Every hour the moderators provide feedback to the teams as well as individual participants. The way the participants use the acquired information will allow the assessment their aptitude for learning.
  7. Leadership and communication skills.
    The ability to work in a team reveals participants’ leadership and communication skills.
  8. Decision-making.
    The business game contains a big number of situations, which allow the assessment of participants’ decision-making skills.
  9. Presentation skills.
    The business game can include the parts, which allows the assessment of participants’ presentation skills: The ability to clearly and briefly communicate the main point of a certain decision, idea, etc.

This competency model is not just an abstract example. In fact, it served as a foundation of the real training session for the managers of one of the major European banks. Therefore, this competency list together with Corporation in Distress game is a useful solution with proven practical efficiency. With the help of business games Simformer you can create programs for developing a wide variety of competencies and a big choice of scenarios that will make every program unique.