Facebook as a tool for recruitment?
Watch out job recruiters are about! Recently I was reading a really interesting article on “Facing up to the Talent Crunch” which discusses how companies can take advantage of Facebook to enhance their recruitment efforts.
The author states that “HR companies are looking for ways to successfully leverage the site for recruitment”. Fascinating, but is this fair to the Facebook community? And do my fellow users even know about this?
Personally, it doesn’t surprise me that Facebook has evolved in this way and continues to grow as a multi-faceted social network.
Over a short space of time it’s transformed from a place for students to share information and interact; through rapid expansion to a far wider audience (even my father is an active user!); to the point where companies now find uses for it as a marketing tool to target audiences through PPC initiatives; Facebook Pages and groups; polls etc.
It’s evolved so much that recruiters are seeking to utilise the social media platform to head-hunt the right candidates.
My only concern is that despite applying Facebook privacy settings, will such corporate usage take away the fun element of why I joined? Most of us like to keep our social life separate from work. Do we really want to be bombarded with corporate messages in our social space, albeit online?
Do we want fellow employees to head-hunt Facebook friends for an employee referral program? The article also suggests using the social network to gain valuable insight into an individual’s personality to ensure getting the right candidate, in stark contrast to the purely professional profiles on “LinkedIn.” (another social space, but one where I'm far more reserved and professional).
I’m not too sure what to think of this. When I set up my Facebook profile I saw it as a platform to socialise and talk to my friends online; it was simple, fun and quick to use.
While I can see the advantages of using Facebook for recruitment, it does detract from the fun element of the brand and what initially I thought it was all about.
If anyone else has a strong view about this I’d really like to hear from you.
About the Author
The opinions expressed herein are the personal opinion of the author and are not intended as statements of fact and do not represent the view of Coastdigital Limited in any way
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Saying that, my company have a MySpace page dedicated to one of our products which I run, so I suppose I'm just as bad as the rest of them.
I also think the set up of of Facebook Pages for organisations is a great way for them to connect with people online and chat. The difference is people have the choice to join these groups.
I think it's just a natural progression for social networking sites to be used in this way. Granted its perhaps not in the original "spirit" of social networking but if people think their data and infomation won't be used or scrutinised in this way then in my opinion they are being a bit naive.
As an employer myself I'd have no problem using Facebook to give me some background information on a potential candidate. Recruiting and training new staff is a long and costly procedure and small businesses can't afford to get it wrong. CVs will only ever tell you so much about a person (and lets face it, everyone bends the truth slightly on their CV) so getting so extra insight on a candidate could be invaluable.
However, I do agree to a certain extent that work and personal life should be kept seperate but equally if there are elements of your private life that you'd really rather your employer not know about, then it's probably a good idea not to post them on Facebook!
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