Interesting peek into Facebook’s work culture. Possibly more employers should use Macs and inject a bit of Facebook into their workplaces.

http://youropenbook.org/?q=hate+my+job&gender=any

http://youropenbook.org/?q=work+sucks&gender=any

This is the face captured by photographer Phil Toldano and explained in the excellent Ted talk (embedded below) by game designer Jane McGonigal. It captures the emotion of gaming. Toldano set up a camera in front of gamers while they were playing. McGonigal in the video alerts us to the subtle nuances in this photo:

the sense of urgency, a little bit of fear, but intense concentration, deep deep focus on tackling a really difficult problem.

The crinkle of the eyes up, and around the mouth is a sign of optimism. And the eyebrows up is surprise. This is a gamer who is on the verge of something called an epic win.

McGonigal explains an epic win as an outcome that is so extraordinarily positive you have no idea it was even possible until you achieved it. McGonigal stresses this is the face that we need to see on millions of problem solvers if we want to survive the next century on this planet.

In the video McGonigal explains the rationale behind her thinking. Listen to her gob-smacking stats on gaming and why she believes we must increase gaming hours to at least 21 billion hours a week, by the end of the next decade.

This post builds on the thinking outlined in my last two posts Recruitment and addictive gaming and Turning jobseekers into crazed fans. I’m forming the opinion that the HR and recruitment industries need to get to grips with communities and industries happening outside their immediate realm. There needs to be transformation. At the very least there needs to be deeper understanding or greater collaboration with these groups. We are starting to see big brands infiltrating social gaming (eg), but we need to take the principles and emotions of gaming and build these into recruitment and HR processes.

Anyway, here are some questions to think about as you watch the video:

• What would happen to your workplace, recruitment approach, and employment brand if McGonigal took over the HR or recruitment function?
• Are you trying to create an environment that fosters epic wins online and offline?
• Do your existing processes, technologies, careers sites, ATSs etc encourage or stifle epic wins?
• Are you, your employees, clients and jobseekers experiencing epic wins?

Possibly this is all a bit too radical, but it makes you think.

Enjoy the video:

Video link 

Video link.

The above video is supreme. It has nothing directly to do with recruitment, but it made me think hard about recruitment, especially what would happen if there was more revolutionary, transformational and original thinking within the recruitment industry. It also follows on from my previous post which touched on the entertainment industry, where I explored the proposition of what would happen if an A-list celebrity manager ran a recruitment function.

So, I again pose a question. What would happen if a successful game developer was put in charge of a recruitment function? They would undoubtedly bring in a game element, possibly introducing sticky fun - not necessarily using virtual characters - but maybe we would see some of that thinking mentioned in the video. Recruiters may start viewing jobseekers as having an inner character (like mentioned in the video) and tap into the emotional drivers of jobseekers better. Maybe we would start seeing adopt-a-jobseeker or adopt-an-employee programs, like with the Webkinz model.

BTW, FarmVille just reached 80 million active members. Maybe the Recruitment Gaming Manager would work out a way to tap into this community. The average demographic is a 43 year old woman.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this. What would happen if an A-list celebrity’s manager was hired to run a corporate recruitment function? Take a few minutes to think about this, then keep scrolling down …

I surmise employer branding would be high on the new manager’s agenda. They would try and communicate the company’s unique brand (think: Lady Gaga, Michael Jackson, or George Clooney). They would want their company to be a star. They would have visions of crazed jobseekers (fans) running towards the company (think: The Beatles arrive in the USA, Elvis). And they’d desire to reach and win over the hearts and minds of new fans (jobseekers) and continue to feed the connection (or addictions) of their current community of fans.

As they do a scan of the current state, they would likely note:

• the company logo appears to be the only real differentiator between their company and its competitors - similar look and messages, different logos.
• the employee value propositions and brand statements don’t connect emotionally with fans.
• lots of static content and little of anything that actually encourages social engagement with the brand.
• company employees, the corporate recruitment team and external recruitment partners do not appear to be fans of the company or the employment brand, let alone act as brand champions or motivated referral agents.
• fans are lost deep in the database and long ago drowned in the company’s talent pool.
• little initiatives have made it from the lengthy and outdated strategy documents to the pilot or implementation phase.

The manager wouldn’t muck around. They’d be action-oriented. They would likely block out the next day, and get all key parties and a cross-section of stakeholders together in one room (not necessarily at the same time) and start a process of discovery. There would be lots of questions and lots of follow-up probing. Some of the questions asked would be:

• Why would someone work here versus XYZ company? (probably asking some recently hired fans).
• Are we able to deliver on our brand promises? (NB, even stars have their flaws).
• What do our existing EVPs really mean? Does ‘teamwork’ for example really tap into our fans’ motivational drivers, or is there something deeper - like a sense of belonging, having fun with colleagues, the desire for creative expression involved in developing new ideas as a team?
• How do we communicate our aspirational story? Do we need to show this as lengthy written statements or bullet points? (think: Apple). What’s our one key message? (think: Coca Cola’s ‘Open happiness’). Should we be creating an experience - letting fans interact with our brand and culture, rather than us telling them about it?
• Who are our fans, what is their demographic? Where do they hang out? How do they like to communicate? How should we, as stars, communicate with them? (one-way? two-way? openly? authentically?)
• How are we going to grow our fan-base?
• Do our recruiters (let’s call them DJs) want to step into the limelight - are they ready for the star lifestyle and associated hard work and support required?
• How will we create a recruitment experience where fans (even our unsuccessful applicants) want to be brand advocates and enlist their colleagues as fans?

A week later, the new manager would likely launch a unique employer brand that fans go crazy for, and a series of gigs and appearances. We would also likely see a few real life examples of social recruiting. Miley Cryus and her live-streaming shows on Facebook were the inspiration for Deloitte New Zealand.

Could we, as HR / recruitment professionals, learn from the entertainment industry? What other industries could we learn from?

As the recruitment market picks up in 2010 and companies start hiring again, we’re going to see recruiters getting busy. They will do exactly what they were doing prior to global financial crisis. Nothing much will change.

In parallel, we will see a tremendous amount of innovation in the social, mobile, real-time, and collaborative technology space. We will see more and more of the potential job seeker market participating in the social and mobile web. The small cluster of prominent recruitment commentators will continue to espouse the merits of social recruiting, in their crusade to convert and educate the industry. There will be great debate at conferences regarding what all this technology means for the industry.

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I look forward to attending the holographic recruiting summit in 2012.

Check out this video:

Cisco On-Stage Holographic TelePresence Experience from Musion Systems on Vimeo.

It’s like Second Life, but not. Now apply this to a recruitment context. Candidate beams in to meet with recruiter, candidate beams in to meet with hiring manager. And not a sweaty palm in sight.

For those who think the future is mobile recruiting, then take a glance at this: