Companies are increasingly using social networking site Facebook to find new hires.
According to The Wall Street Journal, growing use of facebook as a recruitment tool is threatening traditional job boards and LinkedIn, the networking site for professionals.
Facebook has recently said that it has over 750 million users worldwide. Several features on the site such as personal data, videos, ‘likes’, referrals and photo tagging has made it reliable for people to use it for background search.
The WSJ said in the report that Facebook hires account for less than 1% of the total hires companies are making, according to Jobs2Web.
Jobs2Web analytics manager Phil Schrader told WSJ, "But if current growth trends continue, Facebook could rival traditional job boards in 2012."
Even Monster.com’s vice-president of product management Matt Mund concurs with the new trend, said International Business Times.
Mund said, "While I wish every company used Monster, social is a solution that many people are using."
However, LinkedIn says that users prefer keeping their personal and professional networks separate.
Adobe Systems vice-president of world-wide talent acquisition Jeff Vijungco said that prospective job candidates do not want to be contacted via Facebook for jobs.
"The antibodies kicked in pretty quickly. They thought it was very invasive," he said.
Vijungco said LinkedIn has given them more success in finding employees.
Recently, new research by market research firm Lab42 found that 32% of the site’s users check the site several times a week and 35% check it daily, according to eMarketer.
Lab42 also found that 42% of users update their profiles regularly and 81% belong to at least one group.
The survey also found entry level employees are using the site mainly for job searching (24%).
