Tales From the Digital Side

There has been a lot of discussion about Second Life and virtual career fairs. From Job Fairs in Second Life (here and here), with many differing opinions regarding the value of such an initiative. Personally, I’m less enthusiastic about job fairs in Second Life, than I am about the branding opportunities.

However, I do very much believe that companies can leverage virtual recruitment to significantly enhance their ROI in Real Life. And that is by using chat technology to either to run a virtual career fair or as a recruiter chat function on the corporate career site. Why do I believe in this model?

• It breaks the mold of one-way communication on the career site. This is what candidates are always frustrated by - they believe career sites are black holes.
• Candidates use chat/IM in their daily lives. Over 52% of people age 29-40 and 66% of people age 18–28 use IM. Most people are comfortable with the medium.
• In reviewing my client’s web site stats, on average about 90% of the visitors do not submit a resume. These are the passive candidates, the browsers, that will need more convincing before they apply. Chat gives them a tool to get their questions answered and make a connection with the employer.
• It’s easy for recruiters. I’ve trained hundreds of recruiters on how to use chat tools. Some recruiters really take to it and are able to carry on conversations with up to 10 candidates at a time, but almost everyone can figure it out with a little training.
• It’s easy for candidates. Chat is widely used as a customer service tool, and therefore most systems are extremely easy for the candidate to use.

Several employers are using chat right now:

• US Army - Chats take place from 1-4pm ET most weekdays.
• Peace Corp - Chats are scheduled once a month.
• Heartland Express - No schedule, but recruiters were online when I visited.
• Kansas Army National Guard - No Schedule, but the sites says that they will be online from time to time.
• Lockheed Martin - There is a schedule for when recruiters will be available to discuss certain topics. There are chats scheduled for most weekdays.
• K & B Transportation - They are using an AOL widget to provide chat with their recruiters.
• Air National Guard - Chats are scheduled 10 AM to 11 PM ET Mon-Thurs and 8 AM to 5 PM ET on Fridays.
• Air Force - Chat is available for almost all day during weekdays.

Clearly there is trend for using chat in military recruitment and possibly in trucking. Why aren’t more corporations using chat as a tool to start developing relationships and convincing passive job seekers to submit their resumes? Millenials are not the only candidates that want quick and easy answers to their questions and they are not the only group that would be more likely to apply if they had forged a relationship with a recruiter. Experienced professionals want these things, too and they are just as likely to use a chat function if it was available to them.

You don’t have to go into to Second Life and set up an elaborate, 3-D simulation to begin interacting with your career site visitors. Chat is easy and very economical to add to your site, and it can dramatically increase the candidate experience on your site.