In February, Facebook rolled out a new feature that at first sight seemed great for applicants, but less beneficial for job boards. Starting immediately, companies were able to post (and promote) jobs directly on the world’s biggest social network, while candidates could submit an application without ever leaving the site.
The feature functions similar to LinkedIn, aiming to improve convenience for job seekers and visibility for employers. It’s too early to definitely determine its impact on how we search and recruit for jobs, but the first two months have made enough of an impact to draw first conclusions.
Borrowing From LinkedIn
As any employers actively recruiting talent online know, LinkedIn has drastically changed the recruitment industry over the last few years. No less than 93% of hiring managers use the platform to look for potential hires, and millions of jobs are posted on LinkedIn every month.
Not surprisingly, then, Facebook wants a piece of the pie. With its new features, it trusts the power of its user base as well as its ubiquity among businesses to shift the job search from job boards and professional networks toward a more casual setting.
Initial User Reactions
Given the increased convenience for job seekers, reviews of the new features among Facebook users have been surprisingly mixed. As Fortune reported, many users are not keen to mix their personal lives with their professional lives. The fit on LinkedIn is natural; on Facebook, users simply might want to read about their family and friends instead of thinking about their careers.
On the other hand, some job seekers are eager to give it a try. Facebook gathers enough information about users that it can serve more relevant job postings than most job boards. The increased candidate pool, along with a more diverse audience than LinkedIn’s group of industry professionals, make Facebook a potentially enticing option for many industries.
A Replacement for Job Boards?
An important question that arises out of the above, of course, is the question how (and if) these new features will change the job board industry. The potential is undoubtedly there, as Facebook has the opportunity to reach audiences where they already spend their time.
On the other hand, depending on the jobs companies are looking to fill, the ideological fit might not always exist. As John Koetsier points out in Forbes,
Facebook job postings are clearly going to be exceptionally interesting for the low end of the job market, and certainly for local companies. It’s unclear if it will work for high end professional postings.
Fortune’s reporting, mentioned above, finds a similar sentiment among users.
In a way, then, Facebook’s job posting features just might enhance instead of replace the job board industry. If the above quote holds true, Facebook could find its niche for temporary and local jobs, while job boards remain effective for higher-end recruiting needs. A combination of both ensures that your postings get in front of the greatest possible number of potential candidates.
The Future Potential (And Dangers) of Facebook’s New Feature
And yet, it’s difficult to underestimate Facebook’s potential power in changing the recruiting market. With almost 2 billion users around the world, the social network has an audience that other job boards can only dream of. If it can leverage these users in the same way it has been able to leverage video, it might just become the premier way in which job seekers find their next career destination.
For now, though, it’s too early to tell. At the time of this writing, and given the limitation mentioned above, it seems more realistic to predict a future in which Facebook’s new feature enhances, rather than replaces the way in which companies search for talent.
Facebook constantly introduces new features, and some of them fail. Still, it makes sense for any recruiter of job board platform to pay attention to this shift and where it leads. Whether it will replace or enhance the candidate behaviors remains to be seen, but it seems clear at this point that the new job search features will result in some impact of candidate behavior and preferences.
This article was originally published on our website at www.the-network.com/spotlight.
