This new feature from Facebook will help you find a job
Facebook, the popular social media platform, has decided to go beyond connecting family and friends.
Starting this Wednesday, Facebook users in the United States and Canada will be able to search and apply for jobs directly from the social-media platform, according to a blog post. In other words, it will allow businesses to create job postings natively to their pages in the News Feed, and for job seekers to apply for those openings directly on the social network.
Andrew Bosworth, Facebook’s VP of Ads and Business Platform, told in an interview that the feature is rolling out after a Facebook-commissioned survey of small business owners in the U.S. and Canada showed that the most difficult problem they had is finding the right people to hire. This feature will help businesses reach to people particularly among low-wage, hourly workers who may not have profiles on job-search sites such as LinkedIn or Monster.com.
“We’re taking the work out of hiring by enabling job applications directly on Facebook,” Bosworth said in a statement. “It’s early days but we’re excited to see how people use this simple tool to get the job they want and for businesses to get the help they need.”
Adding further, Bosworth said that Facebook saw an opportunity to capitalize on the behavior that was already happening on its network.
“Pages were already making these posts, they were just doing it ad-hoc,” he said. “We’re bringing a little structure to it… It’s a super lightweight approach to try and connect employers and employees.”
The feature has been in testing for a while now and is already being used by a few small businesses that have reported back success with the platform.
“This was a real opportunity sitting in front of us,” Bosworth said, noting at tests of the tool so far have “exceeded expectations.”
Wendy Grahn, co-owner of the Chicago-based Lakeview Kitchen and Market said in a statement that “It took three minutes to fill out the information and put it out there. Then someone saw the post, we talked, and it was done.”
While businesses can create job openings for free through their profile pages, they must pay to boost postings through targeted campaigns in News Feeds. However, for applicants, job posts might appear in several places: Their News Feed, alongside other posts on business Pages, or in a new jobs bookmark on the site.
“When they click on the Apply Now button, a form will open that’s pre-populated with information from their profile on Facebook,” the blog post noted. “Applicants can always review and edit their information before submitting it.” Submitting the job application then generates a Messenger thread with the business, which can track and review applications.
“A lot of job seeking behavior is casual, and this doesn’t take a huge investment,” Bosworth said. “These are tools that people want and will make their lives easier.”
Facebook users can search for jobs by going to facebook.com/jobs or apply directly from their mobile devices.
The social media platform posted the following video overview about the new feature.
Job post creation flow (desktop)
Geplaatst door Facebook Business op dinsdag 7 februari 2017
In October last year, Facebook had rolled out its workplace-messaging platform called Workplace, an internal chat and collaboration tool for businesses. Currently, more than 1,000 organizations use the tool, which was previously known as “Facebook at Work.”
