Accenture has been using Second Life since 2006. The recruiting that it's doing there has paid for itself, reports ThinkBalm. While the company doesn't disclose the specifics of its success, it has found "a decent number" or recruits. More importantly, the initial investment in an island and a virtual build paid for itself after only 5-6 events. The virtual world isn't going to replace physical events entirely, but the broad reach and lower barrier of entry (compared to flying around the world) of a virtual job fair makes sense as a supplement.
"If you think about recruitment at Accenture taking place in 49 countries, and each of these countries using the Accenture Careers island rather than building its own, the cost savings really start to stack up," notes ThinkBalm's Erica Driver. "Also, recruiting becomes more standardized across the regions as people start to use the same materials and processes."
In determining the cost effectiveness of employee recruitment in a virtual world, wouldn't one need to compare the cost of doing so not just to real world recruitment gatherings but to other web based methods of recruitment, such as having a web page asking for resumes, posting an email address for interested parties to send messages to, etc.?
Posted by: Sue Baskerville | August 18, 2008 at 08:42 PM