Optimizing talent management using business simulators

 What is business simulation?

Business simulations are interactive learning environments that allow participants to experience
real-world business situations and systems and develop their industry-related skills. Along with
focusing on theoretical business principles, participants get to enhance their conceptual knowledge
and assess their comprehension of practical scenarios. Business simulations mimic real-world market
variables and conditions thereby strengthening talent / learner engagement, by way of exposing
them to situations they may encounter in the job. A business simulation is a powerful tool for
organizational learning and development and talent management.

 Business simulation in Talent Management

Business simulations enables talent managers improve the bottom line of the business by:

- Aligning talent to organization strategy and building business acumen

- Building leadership capabilities
- Building talent that is capable of navigating sales conversations and cycles and boost product
knowledge
- Identifying change agents within the organization, coaching them and driving an idea to
adoption

 Why use a business simulation? 

Business simulations are a hands-on, interactive learning experience that allow participants to truly
engage with the varied aspects of the business. Instead of focusing on theoretical knowledge like in a
typical classroom, participants build skills, improve conceptual knowledge, and gain a big picture
view of the organization all at once.

There are many benefits to using business simulations in your company, including:

- Reflective of the real world: Business simulations emulate the real-world factors and
challenges that your organization faces. Give your people a big-picture view of operations
by scaling everything down to a smaller scale.
- Risk-free environment: Employees will be able to learn from their mistakes in a safe
environment and see the consequences of their actions across the whole organization –
without actually affecting the organization.
- Stimulates collaboration: Working in cross-functional teams stimulates conversation and
co-operation between colleagues. These conversations create peer-to-peer learning, and
open up people to better understand the different perspectives in the organization.
- Learning by experience: It is said that we remember 10% of what we read, 20% of what we
hear, 70% of what we discuss with others, and 80% of what we personally experience. A
business simulation allows your people to personally experience the consequences of all
the different aspects of business.
- Higher learning engagement: Experiential, hands-on learning engages all the senses.
Participants visualize, discuss, plan, receive feedback, and practice real techniques that they
will use in the workplace.
- Accelerated learning:  A simulation provides a big picture view of operations, meaning that
participants are able to grasp a wide range of concepts and materials in a short period of
 time. By relating their new learnings back to their own company, stickiness increases and
the knowledge follows back to the workplace.

 Mapping Simulations To Job Levels

Business simulations vary in what they measure and therefore need to be mapped accordingly to
different job levels to ensure accurate results. Organizations need to look into what is required at
each job level before starting the search for business simulations. A mapping matrix can then be
created that ensures tool accuracy. As an example, for C Level executives, their job requires
leadership of business direction and strategy, growth of the business, shareholder management.
They are therefore given a Business Simulation that would boost their capabilities in the areas of
Business Acumen, Strategic Thinking, Market Orientation, Competitor Analysis

In contrast to this a First Line Manager is a direct people manager and is responsible for reporting
the execution of strategy. He needs a Leadership Simulation and a Project Management Simulation
that would develop in him Contextual Leadership, People Management, Team Development,
Problem Solving

 Administering the business Simulations

The way that simulations are administered can significantly impact the results and their usefulness
to the organization. Methods of administration come in two forms, facilitated or unfacilitated. Let’s
take a look at both methods to understand how it affects the use cases.

Unfacilitated – Unfacilitated sessions are typically used in the recruitment process in which
candidates receive email invites with instructions on how to perform the simulation. A key reason
for this is logistics, as recruitment pools are usually large in volume and can span geographic
territories. Simulations used here aim at assessing rather than developing; therefore, they are
typically kept shorter, have a shorter or no candidate report, and are not followed up with a
theoretical explanation of the simulation logic.

Facilitated – Facilitated sessions are most popularly done in two scenarios; learning and
development and internal mobility, especially senior roles. In learning and development, facilitators
play the role of trainers. They explain the theoretical concept behind the simulation before or after
the exercise for candidates to understand how to apply them to real situations. Here, simulation
times are usually longer with a development-centric report, so candidates genuinely see what they
did wrong or right. For internal mobility purposes, simulations are part of the assessment process in
finding suitable candidates for suitable roles. Although simulations are shortened, facilitators are
there only for instructional purposes and to ensure internal candidates have a great experience.