The new Jobvite app allows Facebook users to search their networks for potential matches to available jobs at their companies, privately invite friends to apply, refer friends, and receive credit for those referrals.
From the job seeker side, users can privately request referrals from friends at companies that are hiring, as well as view job listings at friends’ companies, or search all Jobvite listings and determine if any connections exist.
Potential employers “can get employees to download the app, and the app will match jobs to people they know in-network. Users instantly see new jobs they want to check out, and they can apply or share them right on Facebook,” said Jobvite Director of Product Management Carlos Teran, in an interview with AllFacebook.
Push applications for new listings and updates are sent as private messages and not displayed on users’ walls. The notifications include a brief summary of the position, and clicking through to the listing will lead users to the full description and the apply button.
Once a match is found, job seekers can apply completely within Facebook, using a resume as well as their profile. The status of the application can be tracked throughout the process, and users have the option of joining the talent network of a company to learn about new openings first.
The entire process is private, with users deciding whether to publish anything to their newsfeeds. Job seekers can also control which information from their Facebook profiles is passed along to potential employers, and edit and preview that information. Potential employers will not gain access to applicants’ newsfeeds, photos, check-ins, or contacts, and users’ friends will not receive automatic posts.
Teran said the ability for users to track the progress of their applications eliminates the “black-hole syndrome” from job sites such as Monster and CareerBuilder, where applicants are left in the dark after applying for positions.
The new app from Jobvite joins other job-search tools on Facebook, including those from SmartRecruiters and Monster Worldwide.
Jobvite has already signed up Starbucks, Whole Foods, Zappos, Spotify, Living Social, Groupon and Yelp to use the application.
The company describes itself as a “cloud-based, Internet-based platform that companies use to manage all aspects of hiring,” adding that hiring managers can “track candidates throughout the hiring process and follow the evaluation of candidates throughout the interview process, leading up to the offer.”
The company’s Chief Executive Officer Dan Finnigan sums up the company’s history with Facebook: “In February 2009, we were probably one of the first companies to integrate with the Facebook Connect [application programming interface], as well as the LinkedIn and Twitter APIs, to enable any user to share jobs with people on their networks.”
The motivation behind the new Facebook app, according to Finnigan, was to:
help companies improve quality of hires while decreasing the cost. Bigger companies wanted to do employee referrals, but they already had applicant tracking systems. We are launching a new approach to employee referral: Make it super, super easy for any company to do this, and make it super easy for recruiters, heads of staffing, or hiring managers to engage the larger employee base. We want to get employee to engage in the first degree. There are big financial rewards for helping companies find people, but people are not going to do it unless the process is easy.
We took a bet in February 2009 that Facebook users would begin to put work and education information on their profiles and have relationships that went beyond their immediate circles of friends. A total of 43 percent of referral hires on our platform are through Facebook, and 41 percent are through LinkedIn. We have been in constant contact with Facebook since our original app was removed [see below], and since January 2008, we have urged Facebook to make it more clear how to organize friends into work versus personal versus family. Clearly, Facebook is going to own the connection, friendship, and linkages between you and other people and help you manage communications with each group.
On the new timeline profile specifically, Finnigan said, “It would be hard to have the chronological story of your life devoid of work experience. A total of 47 percent of Facebook users now fill out work and education experience. We are not going to try to replicate a professional connection graph on top of Facebook or LinkedIn. Our goal is to make it really easy for all sides of the job transaction to leverage that information and those connections.”
Readers, have you used Facebook as a part of your job search in the past, and would you test out Jobvite’s new app?