By JOE LIGHT
More companies are trying to tap Facebook Inc.'s 750-million-plus user base to
find new employees, threatening traditional job boards and competing with
LinkedIn Corp., which has dominated the online professional networking arena.
Facebook's use as a job-recruitment tool remains small, but its appeal may be
growing. Some recruiters say they have all but eliminated their spending on job
boards, which can charge a few hundred dollars per job posting, depending on
volume. Others note that while LinkedIn contains a more comprehensive résumé
database, candidates tend to value referrals from their connections on Facebook
more.
The majority of social-media traffic to Waste Management Inc.'s careers website
comes from Facebook, beating out LinkedIn, said Jenny DeVaughn, manager of
social media and employment branding. The Houston-based environmental services
company is currently trying to fill 1,500 positions—from software developers to
garbage truck drivers.
In addition to posting jobs and videos of current employees on its Facebook
page, the company has recruiters and other employees find user groups and join
discussions.
When asked for comment, LinkedIn referred to its chief executive's remarks from
last week's conference call to discuss earnings. During the call , CEO Jeff
Weiner said users tell the company they want to keep their personal and
professional networks separate.
Indeed, Jeff Vijungco, vice president of world-wide talent acquisition for Adobe
Systems Inc., said that in focus groups, prospective job candidates were sharply
averse to being contacted through Facebook for jobs.
"The antibodies kicked in pretty quickly. They thought it was very invasive," he
said. The company posts job openings on its Facebook page, but Mr. Vijungco said
they have had more success finding employees through LinkedIn.
Facebook hires account for less than 1% of the total hires companies are making,
according to Jobs2Web, which helps companies track the sources of candidates and
hires.
But if current growth trends continue, Facebook could rival traditional job
boards in 2012, said Jobs2Web analytics manager Phil Schrader.
Matt Mund, Monster.com's vice president of product management, acknowledged that
Facebook as a recruiting platform is growing rapidly. The company, which hosts a
job board and other recruiter services, launched its own Facebook app, dubbed
BeKnown, in June, and the application now has nearly 800,000 monthly users,
according to AppData.com, a market research group. Over the next couple of
weeks, the company plans to launch a program where companies can offer employees
cash rewards for making referrals through the app.
"While I wish every company used Monster, social is a solution that many people
are using," he said.
As the number of job postings overall has bounced back from the depths of the
recession, Monster's core job postings businesses have benefited. Revenue in the
second quarter at Monster Worldwide Inc. rose 25% to $270 million from the prior
year.
LinkedIn's revenue from company recruiters is also growing rapidly. In the
second quarter, the company's hiring solutions segment—which among other things
helps recruiters search through their profile database for candidates—grew 170%
to $58.6 million from the same quarter a year earlier.
Still, Facebook is making a dent. VMware Inc., a Palo Alto, Calif.,
cloud-computing company, hired its first full-time recruiter dedicated to
working on social networks in November and is building a team of recruiters who
will focus on social platforms. The company, which is hiring for about 1,200
positions, has cut back on the number of jobs it posts to job boards, said Will
Staney, talent acquisition Web strategy manager.
While VMware still relies on LinkedIn to recruit higher-level executive talent,
Mr. Staney said that Facebook users tend to spend more time on the service and
are easier to reach than LinkedIn users. Since February, the number of monthly
active users on its Facebook page more than tripled to 11,000, he said.
Beginning next week, the company also plans to pilot a new Facebook application
that will allow them to search for candidates on BranchOut Inc.'s Facebook app
which, similar to BeKnown, builds a professional networking layer on top of
Facebook and has more than 2.6 million monthly users, according to AppData.com.
Candidates have been 50% more likely to apply to positions they found through
Facebook than through other means, said Mr. Staney. "[Job boards] just blast it
out. This is much more efficient and targeted," he said.
Source : wsj
Brought to you by
Sowmya
Manager
HRI Foundation
303 Motherland Building
3rd Main 3rd Cross
Kamanahalli
BANGALORE 560084
www.hrinindia.blogspot.com
www.twitter.com/Raghav_HRGuru
HR Help - Call +91.8105737966
