Dive Brief:
- Facebook may be pushing into the jobs space; the company has snatched up new hires — including executives — from the coding interview practice startup Refdash, TechCrunch reported. Members of the company's leadership team have jumped to Facebook to jumpstart a tool that promotes jobs directly on users' Facebook feeds.
- Since the launch of the jobs feature on Facebook in 2017, the focus has primarily been on quick hire, constant turnover jobs in the retail and food service industries, reaching potential employees through their Facebook feeds even when they may not be actively searching for a new job. The addition of the Refdash team could mean the company is looking to advance into other industries like technology, TechCrunch said.
- Refdash, barely 2 years old, started as a feedback platform for technology workers. On the platform, potential applicants perform mock interviews that are graded by Refdash. The results are then shared with potential employers. The company believes the process helps cut down on bias, since the information provided has no biographical data and employers no longer have to rely on "superficial resumes."
Dive Insight:
The job advertising market in the U.S. is huge, and many big players in the industry are challenging LinkedIn's lion share. Facebook Jobs has already been working heavily within local job markets, matching candidates with businesses in their geographic region. Google, another potential disruptor in the space, has been looking to increase its reach in the talent space with a recent expansion of its Cloud Talent Solution to target specific wants of job seekers, like commute times, transit modes and other preferences. Google Hire, generally, sets itself up as an applicant tracking system (ATS) for employers that are smaller or may not believe a traditional ATS is for them —further proof that the recruiting market is heating up.
The use of social media platforms to hire may hold unforeseen challenges. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the American Civil Liberties Union recently filed charges against 10 employers using Facebook to specifically target men in a particular age group — excluding women and non-binary users, the suit claims.
Employers have also been seeking ways to eliminate bias from the recruiting process. Opportunity may lie also in programmatic recruitment marketing, allowing employers to target their ads to the desired job seeker group by focusing entirely on skills, not biographical information. Other tools spot problematic, gendered language in job ads that could be accidentally deterring people of various backgrounds from applying, as well.