Second Life - An employer's curse?
Wed, Feb 13th, 2008
Isabelle Hung - Yell Dave Coombs - TMP
"Second Life - An employer's curse?" was the question raised by Isabelle Hung of Yell and Dave Coombs of TMP at the February meeting of the Recruitment Society in front of an enthusiastic, expectant, yet rather nervous, audience held at the Guardian. The virtual world is where an increasing number of young people are spending much of their time and employers can not ignore this trend and need to adopt appropriate strategies to engage their interest and intentions, argued the panel.
The initial question, "What is a Virtual World?" produced a somewhat awesome answer - "an Online 3D environment allowing people to interact and converse with each other". A Virtual World is an extension of the web and is "stickier" than the web. However, it is very much in its early stages of development and is not a solution when used in isolation. It is an extension of Web 2.0 where hosts can "personalise" their environment (whereas Web 1.0 is limited to publishing and Web 3.0 offers the opportunity for co-creation of the environment).
Dave Coombs observed that Virtual Worlds are beginning to proliferate. These are mainly used for entertainment and gaming but Second Life is retaining a more focused, serious and career orientated group of users. It is estimated that it has 12.38 million users worldwide, with 40,000 using the environment at any one time. And its base is growing, with an average user age of the surprisingly high level of 31.
Its advantages can be summed up for employers: • It has a limitless ability to communicate the brand and allow others to experience it • It can facilitate "Real-Time" interaction with no geographic boundaries • It can create Buzz and Excitement, with the introduction of new channels of innovation • It can bring fun into the employment process
A first Virtual Careers Fair was hosted by the Guardian in October 2007. This created great interest, attracting 9000 registrations online, 300 people applied for jobs offered by the three participating employers and 100 virtual interviews were conducted. In order to facilitate the event, there was a support hotline for clients and training was available for clients and candidates.
This first fair acted as a massive learning process. Obvious issues to be addressed are the authenticity of candidates and their credentials, access issues, support requirements and the amount of time required before any interview process in the planning and creative side.
There was generally positive feedback from candidates. Some felt that the process was less intimidating than a normal interview and were more relaxed and able to ask questions. Surprisingly both sides felt that they became acquainted with each other more quickly and easily. Also, the medium almost completely avoided diversity issues, as problems with ethnicity faded into oblivion.
Where can the process go from here? Clearly, the whole idea of "Virtual" recruitment is driven by the possible opportunities for huge cost savings. However, no one is under any illusion that it will be a panacea on its own for recruitment. From a branding point of view, it will complement websites and other communications strategies and activities. It needs to be sector specific (e.g. certain kinds of jobs such as IT lend themselves more naturally to the process), and it needs to be supported by more presentational events such that organisations and their potential candidates can familiarise themselves in the real world with each other.
Isabelle Hung said that Yell become involved when approached because it saw an opportunity for branding as a means of supporting its marketing activity. While access to Second Life was easy, there were serious technical and staff issues to be resolved along the way. From a technical viewpoint, laptops had to upgraded, firewall issues had to be resolved, and 3G administration rights had to be negotiated. There was extreme scepticism at first but personal interaction with open minded and enthusiastic staff provided necessary support for successful implementation. In fact, eventually, internal relationships improved between marketing, HR and IT/IS departments.
The interview process allowed interaction on an informal basis. This produced quicker interviews with more information obtained, for both interviewers and interviewees, in a much shorter timeframe. No pressure was placed on candidates to participate. Nevertheless, 50 interviews were held for both finance and marketing positions. From the company's point of view, it enabled Yell to obtain more information about their candidates, especially those who could not be offered a position but who were highly skilled and capable and might be approached later when a more suitable position became vacant.
The experience was worthwhile, but many long term issues were raised. • Formats. Generation Y use various formats of instant messaging rather than universal email. This is a serious problem, especially with candidates from the US. • How should the company get engagement in their sector? Clearly online advertising such as Pay per Click is a way forward. If this could be done successfully, then it would save millions in press advertising in the appointments pages. • Companies need to link up with consumer organisations. For example, Adidas have a huge online turnover, and their might be opportunities for co-branding. • Second Life is a social interaction tool. However, much work needs to be done in the establishment of acceptable technology platforms which are readily accessible by candidates.
A further Article on this event was written for UK Recruiter by People-First which can be found at www.people-first.co.uk
