How to Recruit Candidates on Facebook
Facebook is a great way to stay in touch with friends, play games and keep track of what’s going on in the world, but did you know it’s also a great way to recruit top talent to your company?
Research from the National Association of Colleges and Employers shows that half of recruiters use Facebook in the hiring process, and more than half think it will become a more important part of the hiring process going forward.
That’s probably because one rule of recruiting hasn’t changed: good people know other good people. The difference is that in the “old days,” we used to ask our best employees if they had any friends who might be interested in filling an open position. Today, we still want to tap the networks of our best employees, but instead of just asking around, we need to take the initiative to click around too.
This brings us back to using Facebook as a recruiting tool. Here are some effective ways to do it.
1. Post the Job Opportunity on Your Facebook Page
If your company has hundreds or thousands of people who like you enough to take the time to click “like,” you’ve already got a built-in audience of fans who might consider working for you or at least like you enough to refer their friends to your job openings. Alerting your followers to a job opening by using your fan page can yield tremendous results.
If your company is large enough, you might consider setting up a separate page specifically for job openings. Whether you choose this route or another, make sure your page is enticing and attractive for potential candidates. Add a personal touch to your page with pictures of your employees at work, such as photos of employees enjoying a free weekly lunch or engaging in fun activities together. You can also feature different employees' stories about how they grew within the company, developed new skills and built a really interesting portfolio or career path. Providing tangible stories and evidence makes your company an even more desirable place to work. Be sure to have an associate manage the page to field any questions as soon as they arrive. Also, clearly outline the job descriptions and your requirements, and make it simple for users to post resumes.
You can also ask employees if they’re willing to post your job ad on their personal Facebook profiles as well. Keep in mind that they don’t have to and should not feel obligated to. But those who are willing to do so give you two advantages: they spread the message farther around the network, and as good employees often do, they tend to attract other good job candidates.
2. The Social Jobs App
If you’d rather save your company’s page for marketing promotions and brand building, you can also use Facebook’s Social Jobs app, the service’s designated space for companies and recruiters to share open positions with Facebook users. Facebook developed the app in partnership with the U.S. Department of Labor, the National Association of Colleges and Employers, the DirectEmployers Association and the National Association of Workforce Agencies to give wider exposure to job openings.
Candidates can search by keywords to narrow down results by industry, skill set or location. The app consolidates open positions found on US.jobs, Jobvite, BranchOut, Monster.com and Work4 Labs into a single portal that’s easily accessible by Facebook’s hundreds of millions of users.
3. Graph Search
Introduced in June 2013, Graph Search can help you find people who have things in common. Say that you’re hiring for an auto manufacturing company in New Mexico and want to find candidates who have worked for General Motors and already live in Albuquerque. Graph Search sorts through that criteria and filters your results according to what you’re looking for. All you need to do is type “People who worked for General Motors and live in Albuquerque” in the search bar, and a list of users matching that criteria is generated. You can also refine the results by date or location.
4. The Work for Us App
The “Work for Us” app, created by Work4 Labs, is a free app that lets you create a tab on your main Facebook page that you can use as a job board. Candidates can register quickly and even submit resumes or apply for jobs directly through the app or from a generated mobile platform. If candidates like a job listing, they can hit the “like” button and spread the word through their networks. Better yet, you can create custom Facebook job campaigns just for people with specific characteristics.
5. Jobvite and Other Recruiting Apps
Jobvite offers two Facebook apps that can help facilitate and expedite the hiring process. Their “Work With Us” app implements a “Jobs” tab on any Facebook page, allowing you to easily set up ads for openings, and giving your followers an easy way to apply to and share your job openings. It also allows you to track job referrals and applications, and helps you organize your applications according to department, location and other factors.
Jobvite’s “Facebook Application” offering is a way to offer and track referrals from your network as well as your employees’. It utilizes Jobvite’s matching technology to glean the most qualified candidates from your talent pool, and it manages any referral reward program you implement, which could entice current employees to reach out to passive candidates.
Indeed also has a recruiter app that is similar Jobvite’s “Work With Us” app. It integrates a “Jobs” tab to corporate Facebook pages and allows jobseekers to search and easily share your open positions. Other handy recruiting apps include Monster’s “BeKnown” app, which gives you access to their giant talent pool, and Glassdoor’s app, which can give your openings better exposure and can help potential candidates learn more about your company.
Conclusion
Employers can use Facebook to recruit employees in numerous and increasingly effective ways. You likely already use the service to advertise and develop your brand’s goodwill with customers, so why not use it to recruit your next superstar employee? If you’ve ever wondered what 10,000 Facebook "likes" are worth in terms of attracting talent, you just might find out.
0 Comments