5 Tips for Recruiting Research Participants in Second Life

Jodi Swicegood of RTI International posted tips for recruiting research participants in SL. She notes, "After working for the past 6 months on recruiting using nonprobability sampling in Second Life, I’ve assembled the following tips for recruiting residents for your next virtual world study." Her tips which will resonate as very good advice from anyone involved in SL are: 1). Understand your environment, 2). Develop your avatar, 3). Establish legitimacy of yourself, your study, and your organization, 4). Utilize word-of-mouth recruiting, and 5). Use a targeted approach. I encourage you to read the full blog post to benefit from Jodi's insight.

Academic Paper on Recruiting in SL

A Google alert recently notified me of this academic paper defined as a project that analyzes the potential of job recruiting in Second Life by Cosmin Tudor with guidance from Professor Eleanor Loiacono. Kudos to Mr. Tudor for an excellent thesis on recruiting in SL.

Social Media & Government Recruiting

The April 27, 2011 "Management Insight" article in Governing by Jerry Mechling discussing "Social Networking and Recruitment." In the article there is a reference to SL which notes "Missouri has produced interesting results recruiting through Second Life (20 million members." The article puts forth the current challenges to government discussing fiscal constraints, a possible lack of innovation as the nature of the work evolves, and the need to harness talent with the talent to make government succeed suggesting the answer may be in social media. There is a great deal more well worth reading that I will leave the reader to find. Note Mr. Mechling is an adjunct lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and research vice president at Gartner, Inc.

Campus Tour Used for Recruiting

HyperGrid Business posted an article on March 17, 2011 that is worth reading. It is an interview with Andrew Hughes, President of Designing Digitally, Inc. and an instructor at the University of Cincinnati. When asked about the most interesting 3D project he has worked on recently Andrew discusses "a large-scale one year development to create a browser-based virtual campus tour that is being used for admissions recruiting for the United States Air Force Academy."

Andrew notes as a result of the work on this project project his firm has "launched a web-based product called “3D Virtual Campus Tours” for college recruitment. This product allows admissions reps to schedule guided tours where they can show students around a high quality 3D replication of the campus that far surpasses anything you can get from a traditional “virtual campus tour,” Google Earth, Second Life, Opensim, as well as many other virtual world platforms out today."

Training at Canada Border Services

The Public Sector Social Media 2011 Conference will focus on "Increasing Participation and Collaboration with Web 2.0." The conference will occure Tuesday March 29 - Wednesday March 30 2011 at the Hampton Inn Ottawa and Conference Centre, Ottawa, Ontario from what I gather from their website.

SL followers will be interested in a Case Study—Second Life Training at Canada Border Services featuring Richard Levick, Chief Executive Officer and President, of Levick Communications. "Using the example of training at Canada Border Services, Ken Hudson will discuss principles of virtual world design, and the success factors of this training pilot project."

U.S. Energy Department

The U.S. Energy Department received two recent mentions for their recruiting in SL. A nextgov article on "Embracing E-Recruiting" briefly discussed the Energy Department stating; "The agency also has launched a virtual recruitment initiative that involves 3-D virtual world platforms, like Second Life, to better engage the public on information about the agency, its mission and job opportunities, the Partnership noted."

A recent post from Government Executive also citied the Department of Energy in SL noting; "Energy also has found creative ways to use technology to attract job candidates, according to the Partnership. For example, potential applicants can meet recruiters and managers in the virtual world of Second Life. The platform also allows job seekers to simulate mission functions, such as using a particle accelerator."

Linden Lab founder leaves CEO post

Many have heard by now but if you did not VentureBeat reported on October 20 that Linden Lab founder Philip Rosedale, who had been serving as interim CEO since June, announced he was stepping down from the job immediately. The company said today that Linden’s current CFO and COO Bob Komin will act as CEO post until a replacement is retained. You can read Rosedale's own blog post own the change in leadership.

Ontario Public Service

ITBusiness.CA published a post on the Ontario Public Service in SL on 10/19/2010, titled "Ontario's virtual world recruiting effort." The information doesn't provide any new information on what Ontario is accomplishing in the virtual world but accurately notes "Second Life is still alive and well amongst a certain niche." The video narrated by Glen Padassery is well worth watching. Ontario's effort is probably one of the best representations of what can be accomplished recruiting in SL. The Metaverse Journal has also weighed in on Ontario's efforts in SL.

1% Recruiting in SL?

Human Resource Executive Online published a post on social media titled "Recruiters Lagging Behind". The article references an Emerging Workforce Study from the sfn group which appears to have been released on their site on October 4, 2010. The post by Human Resource Executive Online notes the study included "306 HR managers surveyed as well as 2,519 employees surveyed (95 percent full-time and 16 percent part-time — respondents could choose more than one category." It also states the social media recruiting breakdown from the study noting: "LinkedIn (23 percent); corporate blog (16 percent); company (14 percent); viral video (7 percent); corporate (6 percent); Second Life (1 percent); and other (16 percent) — but never tells the reader what these percentages indicate." The study sampling group was small but it is interesting to see any statistic on recruiting in SL.

Shaker Recruitment Advertising & Communications Uses INXPO

Hypergrid Business recently reported Shaker Recruitment Advertising & Communications has partnered with INXPO "to provide companies with innovative opportunities to attract talent by hosting their own Virtual Career Fairs." It would be interesting to know what other virtual platforms were considered before arriving at the decision to leverage INXPO.

The article states; “We’re very proud to have partnered with InXpo,” says Tina Krater, Sales Director. “Shaker continually searches for innovative ways to leverage technology for recruitment and retention. By capitalizing on the strength of the InXpo product, we are able to provide an easy, convenient and cost-efficient means of interaction between recruiters and jobseekers.”

Recruiting in Other Virtual Worlds?

If you have been following this blog it is more than apparent SL is experiencing challenges. Sourcing activity is not occurring as frequently as it did just 3 to 4 years ago.

The question to ask is whether recruiting is alive in other virtual worlds. If you want to work in activeworlds there is an ad but no jobs at this time. Are other firms recruiting in activeworlds? The virtual worlds imvu and vside appear to be social outlets targeting a younger audience rather than a corporate collaboration or sourcing platform. Twinity is a 3D mirror world based on real people and real cities. By its very nature there should be recruiting for talent as there is in the city it replicates but it does not appear this is so yet. Thus the search for talent acquisition activities in other virtual worlds as we start the 4th quarter of 2010 continues.

Microsoft Interested in Linden Labs?

There is an interesting post at 1up.com reporting a rumor that Microsoft may have an interest in acquiring Linden Labs. Quoting from the article it states; "TechEye reports that a source close to Linden Labs tweeted the rumor. "A little birdie told me that Microsoft may have silently offered to buy Linden Lab this week," it read. Reportedly the leak came from inside the company, claiming Linden has been "entertaining offers and Microsoft has stepped up with a bid."

This would indeed be a very interesting development if this proves to be true.