GigaOM

The National Health Service is the UK’s state-funded health-care system, and with 1.3 million staffers, the fifth largest employee in the world. And thanks to a chance meeting at a Texas bar at last week’s SXSW, I discovered they’re about to get avatars for their internal resource network. As such, they’re probably the biggest non-gaming organization to incorporate whimsical alter egos into their enterprise infrastructure.

The enterprise part stems from NHS’s licensing deal with Microsoft, which built their online Resource Centre. The avatars come from WeeWorld, the Benchmark Capital-funded social network featuring customizable avatars that resemble “South Park” characters cleaned up for prime time.

“We thought avatars might engender more of a community feel,” Microsoft Web Editor Marilisa Vergottini told me. “Otherwise it’s a bit more anonymous.” (The site is not just for the NHS’s IT department, but for the organization’s health workers, admin staff, etc.) Microsoft last summer initially tried using more generic, non-customizable avatars, but was unsatisfied, so it recently partnered with WeeWorld. And no, British tax dollars aren’t paying to bring avatars to socialized medicine. It’s a promotional showcase for Microsoft’s enterprise solutions, said Vergottini. “The NHS do not pay for this web site; it is entirely a Microsoft-funded site and we see it as a value-add to our NHS customers.”

It’s also the latest application of MMO-like features for corporate use, joining job fairs, virtual world intranets, and other applications that have been introduced in the last couple years.

“[National Health Service] employees are outfitting their WeeMees to reflect their personalities and medical specialties,” said WeeWorld’s marketing & editorial director, Maura Welch, who first told me about the NHS program over Austin margaritas. “It’s becoming a core part of the community NHS is developing for their far-flung employees.”