Facebook’s New Jobs Board, Boom or Bust? Small Business Owners Respond to Announcement

Facebook Jobs Board Raises More Questions

Erica Tevis, Owner of e-commerce wedding store Little Things Favors has decidedly taken a more ‘targeted’ view to Facebook’s announcement.

“Our company has used various recruitment companies to advertise employment opportunities, so we understand that higher level positions are better advertised on sites with corresponding demographics,” said Tevis. “I question the overall user base of Facebook to recruit for mid to upper level management positions.”

“I don’t feel Facebook’s job board will adversely affect sites that cater to certain niche industries such as educational professionals or sites such as TheLadders.com, which have historically focused on executive level professionals making six figures or more. I personally may try out the job board when looking to hire customer service representatives, but not when I’m looking for a Director of Marketing.”

The Future Risk and Reward of Social Media Recruitment

Many small businesses are optimistic but plan to take a cautionary approach to Facebooks’ jobs board as questions concerning legal implications of social media recruiting loom.

“Social media sites such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook are valuable resources for identifying qualified candidates and communicating with and recruiting applicants to fill positions,” according to Rob Pickell, senior vice president of customer solutions at HireRight.

“The risk employers need to understand, when using social media as part of their recruiting process, occurs when the process moves from sourcing to screening candidates. Social media is an ideal way to find and recruit candidates. But, the difficulty occurs when information provided on social media sites is used to screen or explicitly eliminate a candidate from consideration. This elimination, when based on data found through social media content, opens the employer to the potential risks of liability, discrimination claims and non-compliance with regulations.”

What do you think about Facebook’s new job board? Let us know in the comments section below.

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Photo: Mango