Can Facebook's new job posting feature compete with other recruitment services?

In typical Facebook fashion, the social media giant rolled out a new job posting feature quietly and without much fanfare.

A post on the Facebook blog detailed the new feature, with a focus on small employer recruitment needs. Job board developers and recruiters everywhere are paying attention to how this new feature will play out. But can Facebook can give other job websites a run for their money?

How the Facebook jobs feature works

The Facebook job posting feature is currently limited to businesses who are using the platform for marketing. The feature was added to the already growing number of tools that businesses can take advantage of, with the added convenience of a job plugin that enables users to submit their profile for employment consideration with one click. Just like other social media enabled job posting services, user data is automatically populated into the job app form.

HR Dive talked with Yoh’s Mike Dachenhaus, Director of Operations, Recruitment Process Outsourcing to get his thoughts on the Facebook jobs feature and if it can compete on the same level as other major job posting services.

“It’s an interesting development, but it’s in it’s infancy in terms to the solution being offered in the marketplace," Dachenhaus said. “While it may be helpful for small employers with limited hiring needs, for larger employers with mature HR functions, the Facebook experience probably is raising more questions than solving problems.”

Transparency is a two-way street

One of the issues with the use of social media platforms like Facebook for recruiting purposes is the level of transparency available for recruiters. While we do know from studies like ‘Using Social Media for Talent Acquisition—Recruitment and Screening’ that 8 in 10 HR professionals use social media primarily for engaging with and sourcing passive candidates, another 71% use this platform to increase brand awareness.

Depending on how each social media user sets up his or her profile, the amount of information readily available for view is astounding. This can potentially raise the risk of bias in hiring, which many companies are not prepared to handle.

Employers need to consider ways to attract passive talent and avoid any negative feedback, which has become all too popular with review sites like Glassdoor. Company information and career opportunities need to be authentic.

“As candidate engagement rates drop and as transparency increases people will be looking at [your organization] to see the real things about you,” Katrina Collier, Chief Searchologist for Mighty Recruiter, shared with The Undercover Recruiter. The information that any company puts out there is just as critical, because it can influence candidate decisions at key times.

Guidelines for reducing bias and risk

"Social media can be too open to bias," Dachenhaus told HR Dive. "Unless there are clearly defined processes around social media accounts, what would prevent companies from making decisions about candidates before screening and hiring candidates using standard processes?”

He recommends that the first thing every organization needs is a policy for the use of social media in recruitment. Some basics include:

No snooping on candidates, which poses a risk of discrimination
Make sure any Facebook advertisements used include acceptance of terms
Understanding that a smaller employer’s level of bias is more prevalent

The right social network for the task

Another aspect of using social media for passive candidate recruitment is choosing the right platform for attracting the right candidates.

For example, LinkedIn is more useful for finding mid to senior level professionals who are using the platform to show off their portfolios. Facebook has a better track record of being useful for attracting skilled talent in certain industries like healthcare and technology. Twitter is useful for sharing new job leads and networking with passive talent. However, unlike ATS, there are limitations to understanding and tracking user behavior and capturing this data in social media recruitment presently.

The future of social media recruitment and application tracking system integration is uncertain, but if anything, Facebook's latest tool looks like a window into things to come.