Question 1

Given BrainGame’s business context, there are several characteristics that would be expected from the company’s services and products. Among the characteristic is that the products ought to show some aspects of audience knowledge. A quality product should have a thorough understanding of the demographics of the target audience (Prescott & Boggs, 2013). This focuses more on what interests them and how they communicate. Understanding the target market is important as it provides a direction on how to reach the relevant audience in the company’s marketing endeavours. In this case, individuals involved with gaming are enthusiastic about the products. Including aspects that intrigue them more works towards driving them to remain loyal to the company’s products.

The products and services are also expected to showcase aspects of uniqueness. This helps in the establishment of a brand identity. Establishing a brand identity requires something distinctive. Creating an identity in a given niche is not a matter of having a revolutionary idea. It is more about having something special that separates the company from the competitors. Doing things differently helps the company in being noticed regardless of whether the niche is crowded (Prescott & Boggs, 2013). This is because most companies in a given industry tend to operate in a similar manner.

Products from the company are also expected to show aspects of consistency. When consumers remain loyal, they become repeat customers and are willing to try out new products from the company. There is the expectation that current products will maintain the quality that had been portrayed in previous products. Gaming enthusiasts do not want to deal with a company that cannot be relied upon in terms of consistency. Given the magnitude of competition in the industry, inconsistency is likely to motivate consumers to turn their attention to other companies in search of services and products that will make them satisfied at all times (Drake et al., 2011).

Another characteristic is that the products and services ought to be updated frequently. Games that have proved to be successful are usually updated on a regular basis. This does not imply only large updates such additional content, levels, characters and items, but also weekly live events. Consumers are likely to get bored of playing a game, in the same manner, all the time. Users need to have compelling reasons to play the games daily and feel as if they are having a fresh experience.

The products are also expected to include ‘monetization depth.’ Given the contents of the case study, it is evident that BrainGame depends on investors to fund the activities taking place in the company. For this reason, there is a need to make substantial products to keep the investors interested in moving forward with the business. Most game players do not spend a dime on free to play games. Majority of the ones that pay are only willing to part with between $1 to $10 (Drake et al., 2011). Only the minority are willing to spend hundreds and thousands. As a result, the game ought to have monetization depth for the players. Players ought to purposely spend a substantial amount of money for the company to remain as a going concern with the products on offer.

Question 2

During the recruitment and selection process, BrainGame has to use certain criteria to ensure that they have obtained the most qualified personnel given the characteristic of the products and services being offered in the company. Among the criterion to consider is that a potential staff member ought to have an interest or is a gaming fan. This is attributed to the fact that the products being developed by the company should indicate some knowledge about the target audience. Individuals interested in gaming have interacted with varied games before and have also interacted with other gaming enthusiasts. As a result, they have gained substantial knowledge of the audience more so of what they want and what they do not like. Having such individuals in the company’s staff would go a long way in ensuring that the products developed are well accepted by the target audience since their needs are considered during the development process. There are no better people at developing something great like people that have interacted with other products serving a similar purpose (Renwick et al., 2012).

The recruitment and selection criteria should also consider prospective employees that are innovative. The company’s products and services are expected to showcase aspects of uniqueness, and this can only be attained by hiring innovative employees. Innovative employees are usually creative in whatever scope they are allocated. They have the ability of “thinking outside the box.” These types of employees see things in a way that other people are not. The creativity that they employ comes in handy in developing products and services that superior compared to others that are in existence. Such an approach usually helps in ensuring that a company remains competitive in the industry of operation.

Ensuring that the employees have the ability to fit with the organizational culture is also a critical criterion aspect. Employees that fit in with the organizational culture mean that they will be doing what is required of them at all times (Renwick et al., 2012). Among the characteristics that the company’s products and services are expected to have are consistency and frequent updates. The employees being recruited should have the ability to make sure that these objectives have been met at all times. This is more of an organizational culture that they should be accustomed to in all the activities that they execute. Employees that can easily adapt to what the company believes in have a high probability of providing what is expected of them.

Prospective employees also ought to have the ability to take orders without failure. There is need to do what one is expected rather than trying to be “smart.” This would go well with the company’s product’s characteristic that requires them to include monetization depth. This is something that developers and engineers should heed while developing new games to ensure that the company is making favourable profits to help in moving the business forward. Employees that find it difficult to follow the stipulated rules and guideline are not worth being part of the company’s staff since they are more of a nuisance than assets (Marie Ryan & Derous, 2016).

Question 3

BrainGame should opt to employ staff as opposed to the use of volunteers based on the industry involved and the model of operation. The company intends to build a recognizable brand that can operate for as long as possible, and remain profitable within this period. Employing staff would work in helping to achieve this objective. This is because the organization will be able to cultivate a culture that helps to work towards this realization. The culture will be engrained among the staff, and it will be their obligation to act in accordance with the set stipulations. A similar thing cannot be said when it comes to the volunteers. Volunteers will opt to work on their ideas and ethics. It will be more of following what they think is right and not necessarily what the organization thinks is the best (Drake et al., 2011). This will lead to constant conflict between the organization and the volunteers more so when the company will be expanding, and the revenues trickling in are increasing. Managing volunteers would be difficult and might lead the company in an undesirable direction.

Opting to go with the staff also makes more sense from an investor’s point of view. BrainGame uses investors to fund its operational activities. As a result, the company has to present a strong case to the investors that would prompt to offer the needed financial support. Going with the staff will be more encouraging due to the fact that it provides a stable environment. With volunteers, they can opt to stop offering their services at any given time regardless of the stage of development that the company is experiencing. This would result in failure of the current projects hence stagnation of the company. When it comes to software development, the aspect of creativity is increasingly important. However, execution is vital for success to be actualized (Drake et al., 2011). Investors want to be informed of whether the company has reliable resources and processes before committing their finances. Reliability will be high when the company employs staff as opposed to using volunteers.

Keeping volunteers motivated can be a tricky thing too. For one, these people are not receiving wages from the company. In addition, they need to put food on the table one way or the other together with taking care of other basic needs. How will this be attainable without receiving a salary? The volunteers will be prompted to work in other organizations or projects for the sake of fulfilling their basic needs. This would mean that they are not giving 100% of their efforts to the company. This will make it difficult for the organization to achieve most of its objectives since the people involved with the company are not operating on a similar level. However, it would be easier to make the staff more engaged and work towards ensuring that the company achieves its objectives through the issuance of varied incentives (Prescott & Boggs, 2013). The staff will be answerable to the management hence will give their best to ensure they maintain their employment status.

Question 4

Given that BrainGame will be opting to use staff as opposed to volunteers, there will be a need to have specific elements for the recruitment and selection strategy. Among the elements that would be viable for the company is determining the primary goals for hiring the staff. There is a need to ascertain why the company is hiring outside personnel. There will be the need of considering the company’s goals and ascertaining how these employees will contribute to the attainment of each goal (Werner & DeSimone, 2012). Every section in the organization ought to be considered differently. This will ensure that the company recruits the most appropriate staff.

Another relevant element is determining the performance level to target during the recruitment and selection process. An attempt to recruit top performers will require a different approach and set of tools compared to recruiting average performers. Having this in mind, the company has to determine first the level of performance that is primarily being targeted before determining other elements of the recruiting strategy. The performance level requirements for all the departments do not have to be the same. It is the company’s human resource to determine what is required and where.

Determining the category of candidates to target for the recruitment is also a viable element. There are different categories of potential candidates in the market. The company might be targeting either active or passive candidates. These aspects present both the difficulty of getting an acceptance and the quality of hire (Werner & DeSimone, 2012). Active candidates are the easiest to attract since they are either unemployed or frustrated in their current job. Passive candidates, on the other hand, are potential employees that are currently employed and are not actively seeking employment. They are usually the hardest to attract given their current employment status. It is the company to decide the category of employees they need to help attain the desired objectives.

Determining the source of the candidates is also a vital element. To strengthen the recruitment and selection efforts, there is need of knowing where the best employees in the industry come from (Berman et al., 2012). For Brain Game, there is the option of hiring either internally or externally. The company already has volunteers working in various areas of operation. There is the option of taking in these volunteers and making them part of the company’s staff with different rules and regulations now. Given the scope that these volunteers operate in, it would not be that easy to convince some of them.  External candidates, on the other hand, could be brought in to ensure that a new workplace environment has been established and the staff involved is ready to operate within the confines of what the management is expecting of them.

References

Berman, E., Bowman, J., West, J., & Van Wart, M. (2012). Human resource management in public service: Paradoxes, Processes, and Problems (1st ed.). California: SAGE Publications.

Drake, M., Roulstone, D., & Thornock, J. (2011). What Investors Want: Evidence from Investors’ Use of the EDGAR Database. SSRN Electronic Journal.

Marie Ryan, A., & Derous, E. (2016). Highlighting Tensions in Recruitment and Selection Research and Practice. International Journal Of Selection And Assessment, 24(1), 54-62.

Prescott, J., & Boggs, J. (2013). Gender divide and the computer game industry (1st ed.). CRC Press.

Renwick, D., Redman, T., & Maguire, S. (2012). Green Human Resource Management: A Review and Research Agenda*. International Journal Of Management Reviews, 15(1), 1-14.

Werner, J., & DeSimone, R. (2012). Human resource development (1st ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western.

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