Recruiting in Virtual Worlds
Was browsing through some staffing blogs today and found this post from Martineau Recruiting’s Voice of IT about Second Life. I’ve blogged about my personal experiences with Second Life before here and here, and with other virtual universes here.
The post poses the following question:
…and because of this built in fudge factor (not really lying, but creating a false impression of who you are by altering your reality) I wonder why companies who try to weed out this same action during a real interview process (with various levels of success) would purposely invite someone to lie to them in the hopes of finding a quality employee. So why not bite the bullet and do the hard work of finding employees through cultivating your real life processes? Sure people still aren’t a 100% truthful, but I find that they have a much more difficult time perpetuating some falsehood about themselves when you meet them in person.
While it is a valid point, I think the question was presented on the premise that companies who recruit on SL eliminate the screening process by doing the initial contact on Second Life rather than a phone call or e-mail or other First Life means.
I’ve spoken to some of the folks who have set up camp in SL such as Cisco, Intel and got a guided tour of IBM Islands by their Virtual Worlds Research Project Manager and when posed with the question of why they were there, recruiting was a common denominator. These companies are going beyond job boards, career sites and user groups so that their candidates can not only find them but also so they can experience the company and connect to them. IBM holds developer events there and also have an IBM Redbook library available to users. If it interests the candidate enough to work for IBM there are links that direct to IBM’s job listings.
On the staffing firm side I have visited Manpower’s Second Life facilities and I am fairly impressed. They have an avatar there 24/7 ready to answer questions about jobs or contingent staffing. They also offer group memberships which basically is kinda like a subscription that alerts you to their events on SL.
And I think that’s just the way recruiting in Second Life needs to be. I think the staffing industry should see it as a place to connect with candidates and allow them to experience our brand rather than a venue for active recruiting/solicitation. I know that there are definitely a bunch of stories out there about actual interviews happening on Second Life though I believe those are for virtual jobs. I’m sure there have been real life companies that have done interviews on SL for real life jobs but I think that’s just ill-advised. At least for now. I’ve also written that a reputation system is critical to the viability of companies doing any sort of real life business on SL.
So I’m taking a wait-and-see stance here and say that while I won’t recommend heavy-duty recruiting (sourcing, interviews) on Second Life I’d also have to say that we also shouldn’t be so quick in dismissing it as a viable place to connect with candidates.
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About This Blog
Lisa Amorao is currently the Marketing Programs Manager for ATR International, a Silicon Valley-based contingent staffing firm.
Lisa has held roles in recruiting and sales before moving on to her current role in Marketing.
The opinions expressed here are her personal opinions and does not reflect those of her employer or any of its clients.
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