Facebook and Recruiting Online

Facebook Jobs Will Change Online Recruitment Forever

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Facebook Jobs Will Change Online Recruitment Forever

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Facebook and Recruiting Online

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Having spent more than some time in the HR and recruiting industry, I’ve seen the fall of traditional news media help wanted ads, the growth of the job board industry, the decline of the job board and now the rise social media.  While many have claimed each of these news and media distribution channels are the answer to our recruiting salvation, I disagree.  I completely disagree even when it comes to Facebook.

Each one of these platforms offers the ability to reach a group of job seekers that is different and diverse.  Because the American public is more diverse and different than ever before which is why Facebook’s play in the job board marketplace is so appealing.

Jobs in Tough Economics Times

June’s Department of Labor numbers lists that 12.7 million Americans are out of work, and yet if you ask recruiters and organizational senior leaders, they say that hiring qualified candidates is more challenging than ever.  It is not the free and fluid job market that one might expect given our economy.  In fact, it’s down right difficult to fill a single position.  Hiring managers sift through the hundreds of resumes with a growing percentage of these candidates not being qualified for the position.

The job market right now is just like the supermarket during an impending snowstorm here in the Midwest, but in reverse.  Customers out of fear rush to their nearest grocery or local market clearing the shelves.  It’s a frenzy as people fight for bottled water, canned goods, and batteries many not even needing the additional supplies.  Weather, like the hiring process and the economy is not a science and not 100 percent predictable.  Companies advertise their openings using what I call the “spray and pray.”  They send out their message to every job seeker hoping for a response, thereby creating a feeding frenzy of under-qualified, non-qualified, and desperate candidates.  Qualified candidates are overlooked.  Companies do nothing to explain the reason why the job seeker was turned down for the offer, and the frenzied cycle repeats again and again.

Finding Jobs on Facebook

Facebook’s entry into the job board market could change all that.  They offer the largest collective group of users throughout the globe, over 1 billion strong with Americans spending nearly 400 minutes a month on the world’s largest social network.  Their platform offers companies and human resource managers up to the minute insights into their user base from photos to interests, and conversations not to mention killer trends and analytics.  LinkedIn use falls short at just 17 minutes a month.  See a push from Facebook in the coming months to suggest that users fully complete their profiles including their work history and experience as they prepare to launch their job board as part of the Social Jobs Partnership.  “Jobs” will be a collaborative effort which is what makes them very different from their soon to be social recruiting rival, LinkedIn.

Inside sources say Facebook won’t be launching the traditional job board we are familiar with.  Facebook will partner with non-profit organizations like Direct Employers and the National Association for Careers and Employers, government entities in addition to HR technology vendors like BranchOut and Work4Labs.  This is a solid strategy for Facebook as there are a number of technology companies and job boards who are `all in’ having established platforms, services, and apps for job seekers, recruiting, and hiring contained within Facebook.  LinkedIn, however, has partners parting ways with Twitter saying adeiu to LinkedIn last month.

Facebook and Recruiting Online

Facebook is right to be cautious in establishing their key relationships.   They are not an expert when it comes to the employment market or the human resources tech space.  Otherwise, they would have leveraged their site’s marketplace section in 2008 during the recession when companies first turned to social recruiting as a legitimate option in which to hunt, recruit, and fill open positions.  Ninety-three percent of recruiters say they used LinkedIn or plan to in 2012 for recruiting versus Facebook which stands at 66% use in a 2012 Jobvite Study.

Facebook provides employers a real opportunity to leverage the entire job seeker as an individual customers, candidate, employee and consumer.  Employers can and should build a long term relationship built on trust, brand, and conversations.  This combined with their potential analytics offerings can provide companies the whole story when it comes to job seeker and employee patterns, trends, likes, and dislikes and beyond.

This post was originally posted on the Huffington Post where I write weekly.

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4 Comments

  1. Great post, Jessica! The recruiting team at Vocus is excited to see what Facebook rolls out in terms of job search later this year. I know I am curious to see how Facebook caters to recruiters and their need to search for individuals without affecting privacy settings. I am guessing it will become an opt-in service where users can decide if they want their “About” info available to recruiters and hiring employers. What recruiters want is access to those 1 billion profiles as well as the ability to search candidates by the employers listed in their profiles. Services like Identified struggle with the fact that the amount of active users of their service is so small compared to a service like LinkedIn. An option backed by Facebook itself will create a serious draw for employers if they can make user profile information more accessible and I see this as a potential obstacle with respect to individual privacy settings.

    1. Hi Veronica,

      All my sources tell me that it’s not going to be what you describe. FB is trying hard not to be a profile database even though they are exactly that when it comes to ads and promoted posts. My thinking is that at first it will likely be some sort of collaborative job feed where job seekers can look for jobs making engagement and relationships for the company even more important. Meaning, we as the employer have to put out good content and take time to develop relationships through conversations to still build our FB pages and drive job applications.

      Thanks for the comment.

      JMM

  2. A large success factor will depend on how Facebook Jobs is integrated into the site and if FB users will embrace it. At one time, Facebook Causes also had a lot of buzz!

    Looking forward to the Facebook Recruiting, Hiring, and Sourcing webinar.

    1. Hi there. I can’t wait either. The webinar will be fun, and I’m especially looking forward to how the Social Jobs Partnership on Facebook and if it might change the way we recruit on that platform. Only time will tell.

      Thanks for the comment.

      JMM

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