Recruitment/Talent Hunt in Second Life – Initial Considerations for Organizations
November 22, 2008
Author: David D’Angelo
About Author:
David has worked in Human Resources for seven years primarily as an analyst. He is a member of the International Association for Human Resources Information Management. David’s Blog “Recruiting in Second Life” can be read on the ere.net blog network and was referenced by Governing online in their September 2008, article “The Reality of Virtual Reality” which appeared in “The Managing Technology Letter”. His article “Try Second Life Beyond the IT Department” appeared in September 19, 2008, online issue of ere.net.
The technology has very much arrived for virtual worlds to impact real world business and they will only improve in time. Many of the early adopters have reaped the benefits of these technologies and improved their brand globally.
Many organizations are now recruiting in Second Life. Universities recruit students, police departments recruit cyber savvy officers, IT organizations look for talent and evidence of it in Second Life, and the list goes on. You may also have an interest in doing the same. Where would you start? This post will discuss some of the discussions and due diligence you will want to perform as you frame your case for recruiting in Second Life.
The first step to take to recruit in Second Life is to assess if you have the talent in house or would need to outsource the work. One caveat to consider even if you have talent in your organization that could conceivably perform the work is that it may be well worth the additional cost to have a professional design firm set up your first virtual presence. You want to be on a competitive level and project a professional image to recruit professional talent. There are many design firms with competitive prices that will tailor a package for your needs. Interview several before making a decision. Once you have an established presence in Second Life, your onsite technical staff may be more than adequate for modifications and maintenance. You may even want to have them shadow the design firm when your site is created so they can perform the routine maintenance.
Your next step should be to define how your goal to recruit in Second Life would benefit your business both directly and indirectly. You will need a project plan of what you would want to achieve in Second Life along with costs and benefits. Also, note other stakeholders in your organization who could benefit from your presence. The obvious benefactor is your marketing and branding team. They can assist in announcing your presence in Second Life along with leveraging their branding focus. It is also important to discuss your recruiting strategy with marketing. They may be able to provide some demographics of your customer base that will give you some indication of how many people you may potentially have an opportunity to recruit.
Be sure to reach out to other areas in your organization that engage in training or travel frequently. There may be an opportunity to develop virtual training in Second Life and virtual meetings for those that travel or video conference often.
It is a good idea to have a discussion with your legal department on your specific plans for recruiting in Second Life. They will be reassured if you stick to initial recruiting and keep the paperwork, secondary screening, and paperwork outside of Second Life. You may even be surprised and find an interest in recruiting an intellectual property attorney in Second Life. There is probably no other target so rich with intellectual property use and abuse as Second Life is.
The last step in your consideration is your budget. In consideration of the difficult economic environment we are in this could be a deal breaker for some. List the costs of development and having an island in SL along with anticipated benefits. Some of these such as branding will be intangible. I would suggest one of the best cases you can make for recruiting in Second Life is to participate in a job fair for minimal costs with avatars that display your logo. There are organizations that might do very well with representation at job fairs periodically. Those committed to recruiting in Second Life will want to move forward with developing an Island to build on your success in the job fairs.
I am certain there are other considerations but I am hoping this will provide you with a starting point on how to frame your analysis if you plan to recruit in Second Life. One final suggestion is to make your presentation to management in Second Life to give them an ideal how virtual business can work for your organization.
Entry Filed under: Driving Business, Virtual Worlds, Workplace. Tags: Business, Economy, Organizations, Recruitment, Second Life, Talent Hunt, Virtual World.
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1.
Claus Nehmzow | November 25, 2008 at 5:45 pm
“Recruiting in SL”. That probably is already a somewhat misleading way to frame the question. It invites of course “are we recruiting avatars we don’t know who hang around in SL”, or “isn’t face to face better”.
From my experience at PA Consulting where we started experimenting with how to use this new medium in 2006, here is my perspective on this:
- recruiting is a long process, it involves attracting people, for them getting them to know you, asking questions, for you to get to know them, submitting resumes, interviews, making offers, finally convincing them to accept. It then doesn’t stop with being hired, but keeping in touch with them between having accepted an offer and actually joining, and beyond, “on-boarding”, etc.
- for certain of these steps, an immersive 3D world that offers rich communication, public text chat, private messaging, shared communication with others, asymmetric anonymity (recruiting know that you are with a company but you might not know, during a certain period, who they are).
- for example, you might find potential recruits through traditional channels, but they might early in the process (and after having read your website), come to your virtual office to have a safe and protected (one sided anonymity) informal discussion with your representatives. as long as you are aware of that they might not be who they say they are, that can be very productive. Recruits can come as a group or meet other people, getting drawn into discussion, etc. Can be much more productive than looking by yourself at a website with no easy way to ask questions. During the virtual and anonymous discussion the confidence might grow to the point where the person doesn’t mind a real phone conversation.
- another example is to manage attendance for a more formal virtual event, where someone manages through email who is who, and limits the events to those attendants. big advantage, no travel, and easy to attend, not replacing a real event, but perhaps allowing people to attend something they wouldn’t have otherwise. shy people might ask questions as an avatar and gain in confidence.
- during the period after people have accepted, but with students still being in different places, they can attend informal virtual events to get to know their colleagues (and you will be surprised, I have been in virtual discussions where students who are probably used to being an avatar from playing World of Warcraft, have totally natural discussions about their future work with future colleagues, while still in distant cities). Again, not replacing the real meeting, but augmenting it, preparing for it, leading up to it.
- then once on board, HR might organize a meeting where junior people can be anonymous and ask, probably just through text in that situation, a more senior person (who knows they are all new hires, but doesn’t know who is who individually or even who is black, white, man, woman) any question they like. This will lower the threshold to a very open communication, and because of the nature of the answers perhaps increase the confidence in the openness of the culture of the business.
These are all examples that I have personally experienced, and they really work. It all depends on understanding the nature of this medium and using it for what it’s good for. Not expecting this will replace everything we know. These are entirely new capabilities that can have their time and space in the continuum of communication channels. Don’t forget, the generation that grows up with multi-player computer games is probably wondering why we grown-ups make such a fuss about this.
2.
Paul Aslin | November 25, 2008 at 5:47 pm
If your employing people for programming, design, or customer service its a good idea I’d think. IM and phone aren’t the same as talking face to face with someone, even avatars are an improvement therefore. Plus a company can have things like a virtual office based off the real thing, or a 3d model of a product.
I’ve found things like Skype and other IM apps to be unreliable, they sometimes don’t tell the other person you are online. Certainly harder to share content or have multiple people join.
Mind you I wouldn’t call SL reliable either, but it works well enough.
3.
Dana Paxson | November 25, 2008 at 6:04 pm
Definitions always interest me. What is ‘recruitment’ in the 21st century, when loyalty and employment are morphing into negotiation and consultancy? Virtual worlds are another powerful tool in the marketing of oneself and one’s skills, talents, and credentials. VWs extend the connecting range of the likes of Facebook, LinkedIn, and so many others. I don’t think they constitute a replacement for the processes of building trust and understanding that occur in an F2F setting. But I think VWs augment such processes through their surprising richness of modes of transaction: avatars, VW-specific tasks and projects that demonstrate competence, gradual increased engagement with other avatars and objects. Interviews never tell much of a story about actual capability — they just let the interviewer and interviewee swap narratives about their respective agendas and situations. Watching someone perform tasks to their liking in a VW can be far more revealing than an interview.
And in the end, recruitment gives way to negotiation, as the truly competent market their abilities worldwide, whether in VWs or in the Web or in the physical marketplace. Companies are breaking down into their component organizations, and those break further into their squads of specialists who move quickly and effectively from task to task, contract to contract, consultancy to consultancy. Jobs, in the larger corporate picture, are dead.
The world isn’t ready for this chaotic picture, but it is upon us as we discuss it.
Best wishes,
Dana
4.
Dragan Stiglic | November 25, 2008 at 6:05 pm
Recruitment through second life? Yes it’s possible. But going beyond hype and “just because we can” excuse, the question is: why?
Being interviewed is very exciting and frustrating experience anyway, as human component is usually detached from applicants who are considered products and/or tools for new company.
I’d agree with Ralph that taking this process into Virtual World just furthers this alienation. Interviews should happen F2F, because it’s humans being hired.
On the other hand – court cases can really do good in Virtual Worlds : ) Judge does not wants to be seen, neither wants jury, convict, lawyers… and It’s hard to get everyone to the court anyway… it will be so easy to get people sentenced to second life (or second lifetime : )
cheers
Dragon
5.
Ralph Sklarew | November 25, 2008 at 6:07 pm
Let me state at the outset, I don’t *get* recruitment in SL.
Of course, it could be just going to where the “raw products” are…like looking under the streetlight.
But two problems: Isn’t F2F better? From video phone (a la Skype, iChat, Google video, etc.) to telepresence, these are much simpler to use effectively and much more faithful communications, unless you want to test the recruit in some artificial situation.
Second, when you hire someone recruited in SL (or any VW or MMOG) how is your corporation set for really engaging them? Do you already use rich virtual environments day-to-day? Or are you planning to dump them into Microsoft Office where any interest they bring will quickly evaporate?
Just IMHO and love to hear the responses.
Ralph
6.
Brian Meeks | November 25, 2008 at 6:08 pm
Good article. I didn’t realize that recruiting in SL was this far along. I wonder if companies would be interested in renting a space for one day recruiting events? This would eliminate the need for a permanent build.
7.
Sheena Anand | November 25, 2008 at 10:51 pm
@ Dragan Stiglic
Amazing comment
I liked your idea of court cases being held in second life….lol
8.
David D'Angelo | November 26, 2008 at 1:54 pm
@Claus:
Thanks for such a great analysis in your comment. SL and other virtual worlds can be part of an overall recruiting strategy as you noted. It is a great environment to screen applicants for further real life discussions. In the U.S. recruiters need to be mindful of employment laws and that is why I suggested the discussion with the legal department on any planned recruiting engagement in SL. Generation Y is very comfortable with web 2.0 and organizations are having them join their page in Facebook and other social networks. It is about sharing information that may lead a new college graduate to want to work for them. Thus Generation Y is a natural choice for web 3.0 ventures such as SL. Recruiters are going to where the talent is and are also targeting specific technical skills that are inherent in those that design and code buildings in SL. Police departments also have a keen interest in potential officers that will help fight cyber crime. There are many possibilities for a virtual recruiting strategy and you are correct that this will unfold before us as time moves on.
9.
David D'Angelo | November 26, 2008 at 1:55 pm
@Paul
As I noted in the prior comment there has also been an interest in recruiting in SL by police departments who seek to fight cyber crime with young technical recruits. In my blog I note that even the food service company, Sodexho, has participated in job fairs in SL so there seems to be interest above and beyond programming and design. Recruiting IT talent as you note is often the main focus for recruiting in SL.
10.
David D'Angelo | November 26, 2008 at 1:55 pm
@Dana
Thanks for your comment. I agree that recruitment is very different in the 21st century. Generation X and Generation Y have changed the model with social networks and technology. In a global economy it just makes sense that a virtual recruiting model like SL will gain popularity as it is a cost effective method of talking to many people in many places that often have the technical skills organizations are competing for.
11.
David D'Angelo | November 26, 2008 at 1:56 pm
@Ralph
Thanks for your comment. Recruiting SL or any virtual is still a very new process. You are also correct in thinking it is going to where the talent is and will be soon. A virtual recruiting engagement is not meant to replace face to face recruiting. It is designed to access a geographically diverse pool of candidates for initial screening. Often organizations that use a virtual world are looking for a younger technially savvy worker with specific skill sets. Engaging any employee once they hired is always a challenge. I’m not certain Microsoft Office it to blame as is a lack of autonomy or a fixed working schedule. The technical talent is usually engaged when they are allowed to use their creativity to achieve their goals. Those recruiting in SL tend to already have a creative bend.
12.
David D'Angelo | November 26, 2008 at 1:56 pm
@Brian
Thanks for your comment. Organizations are already renting space for job fairs in SL without having to commit to the cost and time of maintaining an island. It is a great way to test the waters for this with limited resources or those who are trying to make the business case for an island.
13.
David D'Angelo | November 26, 2008 at 1:57 pm
@Sheena:
Thanks for your comment. I doubt any SL court will ever hold any real world jurisdiction but real world intellectual property infringements do occur in SL that have real world implications. Attorneys have taken notice of this and I came across one firm that does passively recruit form their SL office.