Recruiting on Facebook? Like Fishing Where the Fish Are

Today the folks at BranchOut, the professional networking application built on top of Facebook announced the general availability of Recruiter Connect, their new recruiter focused product designed to provide a platform to allow corporate recruiters to more effectively source candidates from Facebook's 800 million or so users, build private talent networks from which to cultivate candidates, and tap into the social graphs of employees and other recruiters in the organization.

I was able to see a demonstration of the product and ask some questions of the BranchOut team in advance of the launch today. From the functionality that I saw, and as you might be able to tell from the screen grabs attached to this post, the Recruiter Connect application is clean, easy-to-understand, and has a nice intuitive design and flow. As I watched the demo one of my notes simply read, 'This is really cool.' Maybe not a particularly insightful observation on my part, but still important I think. Enterprise applications, in a way, are not just for the enterprise anymore. Meaning that users of enterprise apps today, especially ones tied to consumer oriented social platforms, need to almost mimic the design, layout, flow, and feel of the fun to use and no explanation required to get going public social networks.Click for full size image

I'll have to admit I was personally kind of slow to come around to the idea of recruiting on Facebook, at least conceptually. Perhaps it was too many grad students over the past few years indicating they'd never see a reason or desire to want to be recruited via a social network seen to be a personal space, meant for sharing updates and photos with close friends and family. But over the last two years or so attitudes even among the most reluctant seem to have shifted, and as social networks in general, and Facebook in particular, have become such a central component of online identity, for the making and sustaining of social connections, and these days for seeking job opportunities and strengthening professional contacts; the ability to successfully tap into Facebook for sourcing and recruiting is fast becoming an essential capability for many organizations.

So if you are warming up to the idea that since everyone is on Facebook, (something you really can't say for LinkedIn, and definitely not Twitter, and certainly not some of the other job board or professional communities out there), then understanding the unique Facebook environment, articulating the correct approach and strategy, and importantly, finding the right tools to enable your social sourcing and recruiting strategies on Facebook; are probably on your agenda or soon will be as a corporate recruiting leader.Click for full size image

And for now BranchOut is leading in that space. Yes, there are lots of other applications and solutions that have either centered on Facebook as a sourcing/recruiting platform, or have augmented their existing ATS or other solutions to connect with and attempt to exploit the Facebook social graph, and I am sure they will be many more to come; but for now it seems like they're all chasing. Either chasing the platform itself and the attitudes and inclinations of its users, or chasing the first movers, (like BranchOut), in fear of missing their passage to social recruiting success.

Though the future past 18 months or so is just about impossible to predict, Facebook isn't going away anytime soon. And neither is most organizations' need to continually feed the talent beast, even in these tough economic times. So if the talent are mostly swimming around on Facebook, then you probably ought to consider how to drop a line in that ocean, and the tools from BranchOut are a good place to start. 

'Like' this job on Facebook

At the recent ERE Expo in San Diego, I had a chance to interview Stephane Le Viet, CEO and Founder; and Matt Brown, Director of Business Development of Work4Labs, the company responsible for the popular Facebook recruiting application known as 'Work 4 Us'.

Work 4 Us is a Facebook application that allows organizations to quickly and easily add job listings to their company Facebook page, whether by automated import from the company ATS or career site, or via manual entry. Once imported or entered, the company can then leverage the social sharing capabilities inherent inside Facebook (individual jobs can be shared and 'liked'); and the supported integration with the Facebook advertising platform allows the creation of more precise ad campaigns designed to get the company job listings noticed by the target candidate audience on Facebook. Tracking and analytical tools allow the organization to assess and evaluate the reach and success of their job posting campaigns.

That's assuming the desired candidate pool is on Facebook. And considering that pretty much everyone these days from your 12-year old nephew to your 83-year old Grandma seems to be on Facebook it is a pretty good bet that at least some of your desired candidates are out there.

Work4Labs claims over 6,000 organizations have installed the Work For Us application to date, with large, multi-nationals like L'Oreal and Citi among the applications' most notable adopters.

Yesterday the team at Work4Labs announced a new enhancement to the Work For Us application, namely the ability to present the Facebook user that views a job description in the application with a suggested list of Facebook friends, and optionally LinkedIn contacts that might be a suitable match for the job, and perhaps would be interested in the job details. Once authorized, the app processes Facebook and LinkedIn profile data – education, work history, interests, location, and so on – to suggest the most relevant friends for the job.

Sample job listing posted using Work For Us with suggested friends:

This is the kind of functionality, a matching algorithm based suggestion engine, that social recruiting technology solutions are increasingly adopting in recognition that simply broadcasting links of available jobs to all of one's social connections is not only inefficient but can also be seen as highly annoying. By making the social sharing and referral process simple, easy to use, and more relevant by narrowing and suggesting social contacts to share the job information with, the hope is that the organization will not only just see it's job posting shared widely, but that the likelihood of social discovery of candidates that are good fits for the positions will increase.

More and more organizations are actively pursuing so-called 'social recruiting' strategies, whether it is using blogs, LinkedIn groups, Twitter accounts, and even Facebook to advertise positions, communicate and articulate the company employer brand, and more effectively engage with candidates and prospects. If your organization is starting down this path, or is considering adding a more active Facebook component to the mix, then you should give Work4Labs a look.

The Work For Us application installs to a Facebook page in literally minutes and has a number of pricing plans, ranging from Free (allows posting of one open position at a time), to $799/month that offers unlimited job postings, automatic import from an ATS, and other customization capabilities. All paid plans offer a 30-day free trial period.

So are you actively recruiting on Facebook? Thinking about starting?  Would the Work For Us application work for you?

No I Won't be Your Fan

Paraphrasing some recent comments from a C-suite executive in charge of all the corporate 'support' functions (HR, Finance, Procurement) at a mid-size organization:

We need to be on Facebook, everyone in the organization has a Facebook profile, so I want our group to have a Facebook page.  Let me know when I can see it.

Sound familiar?

Using Facebook, or any other 'external' social platform for 'official' internal communications is an interesting idea, but I wonder if it really makes sense, particularly for corporate support functions like HR or Finance.

Note: I am not talking about using Facebook and the like for recruiting; there are precedents, case studies, even 'summits' that are largely about recruiting on social networks.

I am strictly speaking about classic 'internal' communications, the kind that are typically sent via blast e-mail or posted on an intranet. So should the average organization spend time and effort setting up a Facebook fan page for these purposes?

Reasons why this makes sense

Audience- Everyone is on Facebook. Well, probably not everyone, but the minute you got a friend request from Grandma you got the impression that most all of your employees are on Facebook.

We get it- Setting up a Facebook fan page is free, can be done very quickly, and is a baby step into the new social world. Some organizations may think that setting up the fan page signals to employees that that management 'gets it', and is aware of the growing influence of social networks in business.

Connection - If all the organization relies on mass e-mails and a static intranet for employee communications, any platform or tool that offers the potential for a more vibrant and participatory exchange of information is bound to be an improvement. You might truly generate some positive interaction with your 'fans' and increase the interest in your communications.Flickr - podiluska

Reasons why this is dumb

Tools first -The 'we need to be on Facebook' declaration strongly implies a 'tools first' approach to the problem.  What is the real issue you are trying to solve? What business outcome are you hoping to achieve?  It could be that the answers to those questions may lead you to a different solution, an internal executive blog, a series of podcasts, a 'live' radio show, or good old-fashioned town-hall meetings with the employees.  Yes, creating a Facebook page may be the right answer, but don't begin with the conclusion already determined.

Ownership- You don't own the platform, the terms of service can change at any time, ads run on the sidebars you can't control, basically you have to be comfortable with a 'lack of control' that most organizations frankly are not all that comfortable with. 

Productivity- By setting up an 'official' communications forum on Facebook you will be seen as approving and encouraging the use of social networks on company time.  Are you sure your company understands the implications of that? Are you the kind of company that worries about a drop in productivity if employees are messing about on Facebook all day? When a manager notices someone on Facebook how can they be sure if the employee is listening to the latest video interview from the CEO or playing Mafia Wars?

Apathy- The people that you are targeting may not be interested in being a 'fan'.  In fact, you might find that you have lots of employees that are active users of Facebook that resent the fact that you are trying to 'invade' a social network with official corporate communications. In the example I referred to at the start of the post, several employees told me that there is no way they would become a 'fan' of the official company pages, as they were concerned that somehow the executives would use the platform as a means to 'spy' on the employee's after-hours activities.

Conclusion

Using Facebook (or really any other external social network) for internal organizational communication might be a good idea for some firms, but without really understanding the desired business outcomes, the organization's attitude and cultural position on social networks at work, and the perceptions of the target audience then simply 'setting up shop' on Facebook seems more like a 'check this off the list' activity for someone.  For the group I was talking to, it seemed to me that more personal communication and interaction with the executives was what the employees were really looking for.  A simple internal blog authored by members of the leadership team, and that allows employee comments and discussions in my opinion was a much better solution than a Facebook page.

That requires commitment from leadership, and an expenditure of their time and energy.  But for this organization, an authentic message from leadership would be much more meaningful than the chance to be their 'fan' on Facebook.

If you have any examples or opinions on organizations using Facebook or other external networks for 'internal' communications I would love to hear about them. 

Facebook and LinkedIn for Recruiting - The students speak out

So if you are a breathing, upright HR Professional in 2009 I know you have read countless blog posts, articles, or attended webinars exhorting you that you need to be mining social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn for recruiting purposes.  Whether it is to network with and uncover passive candidates, (the primary use of LinekdIn) or research and background check prospects (primarily what recruiters are doing on Facebook), you have been told over and again that you need to be leveraging these tools in your recruiting efforts.

This post isn't another one of those 'How to recruit on Facebook' pieces.  If you are interested in that sort of thing, check out the HR Tech News blog which ran a fine series of 'Recruiting on Facebook' posts early in 2008.

In my HR Tech Class for this week's discussion assignment I asked the class to offer comments and observations on this new trend in recruiting.  These students are quite likely in the target demographic for many recruiters, mostly young, educated professionals working on an advanced degree.  And they are almost all on Facebook and LinkedIn.  So what do they think about recruiters and employers 'snooping' around their social networking profiles?  Here are a few of the best comments from the class:

The general consensus was 'beware what you post online':

 Even though we might not like it, we have to realize that employers are going to be googling our names and we have to be careful about the type of information we put online, because if we put it there it is fair game for anyone to see. - 'S

On the usefulness of Social Networking in onboarding and relationship building:

If employees can be 'friends' with their manager on facebook then that could help them to have a mentor. It's a safe and informal way for the employees to interact with their managers on a social level where they can learn from each other. - 'A'

One student astutely observes ways in which the progressive organization is starting to leverage these social networks in a more positive manner:

For example, companies and organizations have taken up these social networking sites to create their own business networks as a motivation to maximize interaction and networking among their own employees, even with the CEO. It not only limits to the networking connections, but to more job opportunities. For example, I have noted one CEO posting on Twitter about job opportunities. - 'V'

There were many other comments and observations in the discussion, some students really wishing that their Facebook information would remain strictly personal and never be used in a professional situation. But realistically, they realize that the horse is out of the barn, and anything they post on any site is likely ot one day be scrutinized by employers and recruiters.

A really good discussion, any one have a recommendation for the next HR Tech issue we should discuss?

Friends?

Just about every college student is on Facebook, no?

More and more faculty members are on there as well.

Should faculty members 'friend' students and vice versa?

Facebook profile pic - old folks usually include their kid

Some research from the Gartner Group, The Business Impact of Social Computing on Higher Education makes the following observations: 

1. The current popularity and continued growth of higher education users' (students) participation in social software suggest (these tools) should be added to the existing range of collaboration support options.

 2. Many innovative and interesting intersections exist between institutional structures and  extrainstitutional environments.

If every student in your class is already on Facebook, with at least some of them connected to each other, doesn't it make sense to try and engage them there?  Would possibly some students prefer that to the more sterile, academic course management system?

It is amazingly simple to post content, make comments, recommend sources of information there.  Additionally, the wider audience of past and potentially future students can also be engaged.

I started this blog as a class example of how simple it is to set up and begin a blog.  I (mostly) tailor the content to students and really expected most of the readers would be students. 

The reality is when students do read the blog, they almost always do via a posted item from Facebook (or once in a while from Twitter).  I have had more student interaction on Facebook Wall posts than on Blog comments.

Marketers need to find their target markets, if your target is college students, you'd better start on Facebook.

So to answer my original question, I am not seeking out students to 'Friend', but if one reaches out to me, I will certainly accept. Would some students prefer not to have an Insructor poking around their posted photos from some college party?  Probably, but students also need to understand the same photos they might not want their instructor to see, are probably going to be checked out by a recruiter or hiring manager down the road.

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