Finding New Employees, via Social Networks
ALAN KENNEDY, 54, had never used social networking sites until he was laid off from his job as an engineer last November. Then he did what many job seekers are now advised to do: he set up profiles on Facebook and LinkedIn.
Context & Ripple Effects
Online job hunting had already broadened beyond traditional job boards, while a 2008 survey found that one in five employers used social networks in hiring. By March 2009, job seekers were also being drawn onto Facebook as a professional channel, not only a personal one: job seekers were moving into Facebook.
For Alan Kennedy, creating Facebook and LinkedIn profiles after his layoff makes his professional identity searchable in the same networks employers are beginning to use. The significance is the convergence of candidate discovery and personal-network participation.
First-order effects
- Kennedy gains additional routes to prospective employers through Facebook and LinkedIn, rather than relying solely on conventional online job listings.
- Facebook and LinkedIn become part of the hiring touchpoint between candidates building profiles and employers already using social networks in recruitment.
Second-order effects
- Candidates competing for the same openings face pressure to make their work history, contacts, and professional presentation legible on social platforms.
- Employers using social networks can shift more early-stage candidate discovery into those platforms, increasing the value of searchable profiles and referrals.
Third-order effects
- If employer adoption and job-seeker participation continue together, social networks will evolve from communications services into labor-market intermediaries that shape how candidates are found and evaluated.
The trend: Recruiting is moving from job-board searches toward social-network discovery, where a candidate's profile and connections become part of the hiring infrastructure.