Giant Disruption: Quietly, Facebook opens a job portal

In a move that already has online portals predicting the death of LinkedIn, Facebook quietly launched its ‘social jobs app’ which will allow US job hunters to find jobs via the social networking behemoth. The jobs app which has been launched in collaboration with the US Department of Labor, the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), DirectEmployers Association, and the National Association of State Workforce Agencies (NASWA), will allow job seekers to trawl through over 1.7 million job listings on the site. [caption id=“attachment_525330” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Is this the future of hiring?[/caption] In a statement announcing the move Facebook said the app was launched “to tap into the growing trend of talent acquisition through social media. A recent NACE survey found that Facebook is emerging as an important factor in linking qualified jobs with qualified candidates.” Now despite its quiet arrival, the move by Facebook is significant for two clear reasons: * It gives Facebook the opportunity to build a revenue stream: Ever since the continuing debacle of its IPO and falling stocks, Facebook has been desperately looking for ways to monetize its huge user base without compromising user experience. The site has already launched an app store, tried to increase mobile advertising, acquired several properties such as Instagram and also introduced a ‘promoted posts’ feature that allows users and pages to broadcast their status updates/photographs etc to a wider base of people by paying a small sum of money. Having potential employers pay a nominal fee to advertise openings on the site would be another great way for the company to make more money, without compromising the way many of use Facebook in our day to day lives. * This could well be the future of job search LinkedIn has been selling the ‘online professional social network’ for some time now, but the reasons given by Facebook justifying its decision to launch its social jobs app could very well be indicative of a larger trend in hiring and job seeking mentality. Facebook cited the following findings from a survey in this regard: * Half of employers (50 percent) are using Facebook in their hiring process. A majority (54 percent) already using the social network anticipates Facebook becoming a more important part of the talent acquisition process in the near future. * Nearly 90 percent of companies stated that Facebook has decreased the amount of print advertising needed with regards to their recruiting efforts, making Facebook a cost effective way to find new talent. * Of companies using Facebook to acquire new potential employees, more than half state the importance of networking and referrals. The number one suggestion by recruiters (87 percent) is for candidates using Facebook to ‘Like’ a desired company’s Facebook page, followed by using Facebook as a networking tool. What this could indicate is that we are no longer keeping our professional and private selves separate online. As individuals spend more and more time online and become more comfortable with using social media to reach out to others, express themselves and share experiences, it makes sense that we use our primary social media account (which is in the case of a lot of people, Facebook) to also share details about our professional lives. Therefore the need for a completely separate ‘professional social network’ ceases to exist. So should LinkedIn be worried? Not just yet, given the fact that the Facebook move is very US-centric, and seems more an experiment at this stage. However it should definitely be sitting up and taking notice.