Although many people utilize virtual worlds for purely recreational purposes, there are a lot of companies trying to think of creative business applications for this new technology.  I’m particularly intrigued by the potential uses of virtual worlds in the hiring process.  Some organizations are now holding job fairs, recruiting sessions, and interviews in virtual worlds (see articles from WSJ and NPR).  What about going a step further and actually conducting work simulations for job candidates?  I propose that virtual worlds have the potential to drastically improve hiring practices if used to actually give people a try at doing the job they are applying for.

I discuss the following in this post:

1. Why do we need work simulations in the hiring process?
2. How virtual worlds can provide better simulation environments.

Why do we need work simulations in the hiring process?

Hiring practices in many organizations are desperately ineffective.  Hiring managers can rarely determine an accurate picture of the skills and abilities of candidates, nor do candidates usually have adequate information about the job for which they are applying.  Hiring someone with the basic skills needed for a position is setting the bar low, and yet it’s a struggle for many to even achieve this level.  Ideally, managers would be able to hire people who not only have skills, but also who fit with the job, the team, and the organization.  A good fit means an individual’s skills, personality, and needs are aligned with the work they do and the environment in which they do it.  If you’ve ever found either that perfect fit or a really terrible fit, you probably know just what I mean.

While it’s sometimes hard to quantify in dollars the cost of a non-ideal hiring decision, we are starting to understand that less-than-ideal hiring decisions can hit the bottom line pretty hard. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates the average cost of a bad hire can be between 25% and 50% of the staff member’s first year salary.

In the past, one possible “real” world solution to this problem has been to give candidates a trial run at the job they have applied for – let them work a few hours or even a couple days in the position.  This would be akin to an extended audition.  Although a nervous candidate might not be at their very best in such an exercise, they allow a manager to get some first hand evidence about the candidate’s skills and how well the person interacts and fits with other team members.   While this practice is tremendously useful, it is often not feasible since it requires significant resources.

Virtual worlds can provide better simulation environments

This kind of trial period is, in essence, a simulation.  We have seen virtual environments used for many other types of simulation (e.g., see product information and case studies from Forterra).  Therefore, it seems to me that virtual environments might also be tremendously helpful in making it much less expensive, time consuming, and difficult to let job candidates experience aspects of the job they have applied for.  Here are a few of the potential benefits of conducting job simulations in virtual spaces:

• As with phone interviews, issues of prejudice (especially non-conscious prejudices or preconceptions) might be alleviated if the first meeting is between avatars instead of between “real” people.  This may take a little ingenuity – because the avatar is visual, there could still be preconceptions.  But there is at least potential for avoiding this “real” world pitfall.
• Assuming technical specifications can be met, candidates could have a meaningful, profound interaction with a hiring manager and/or work team without having to travel to a physical location.  This could save time and money for both parties.
• Simulating work virtually might not be as nerve-wracking for candidates as trying out a job in person.
• With the right technology, the session could be recorded.  This could be used to provide feedback and helpful tips to the candidate between tasks or trials.  Alternatively, it could be used for hiring managers to refer back to if they need to remember the details of a simulation (human memory is astonishingly imprecise).
• Simulations might include multiple members of a work team, not just the manager as in many current hiring practices.  Involving other team members might have a number of positive effects, such as building trust, giving team members a sense of ownership, and fostering cohesion within a team.
• If hiring occurs across cultures, simulations can be very informative to both candidate and hiring manager/team.  Perhaps in the virtual space both parties start to understand better what they take for granted in their own culture about hiring.

I have found another blog posting by Dr. Charles Handler with similar ideas about the hiring potential of virtual worlds, but can’t find any evidence of organizations using virtual environments for more than typical real world hiring practices.  For several years we have all been talking about the great potential of virtual environments for making positive changes, but struggling to come up with really clever ideas.  I think the weakness of hiring practices in the “real” world represents a huge opportunity for a meaningful use of virtual space that does more than just imitate the “real” world.