How Facebook Recruiting works for 1 Sm. Business #hr #recruiting

While waiting for my pizza last night I was chatting with the owner and her son about nothing when a lady came in to drop of a resume.

“It’s sad, you know. We get so many people looking but we just won’t hire someone like that.” Said pizza place owner  “Like what?” I responded – likely a bit too quickly.  “Off the street.” She said quickly – realizing how what she said could have been taken considering the woman was a minority.  “How do you hire then?” I asked.  “Facebook” she said.

We then started to talk about social media and why they chose to do it via facebook exclusively.

Here are her reasons:

1. How they hear about the opening matters to me – She has each of her employees post a status update of the new opening and sends out a message via the Fan page.
   1. If they hear about it via facebook they know someone who works here directly or indirectly and I can typically get a read on them from other people.
   2. If they hear about it through our “fan” page on facebook – I know they are already a fan of our pizza and understand what type of service we give.  They aren’t walking in blind
2. Its Free – “Why would I pay to advertise for entry level help?”
3. Its Fast – She said that if she ever has an opening or a need – it can be filled in a matter of hours and the person will usually start within a day or so.
4. It Works – She has hired 100% of her candidates off of facebook in the last 12 months.  (My note: Lets be transparent here – they only hire about 10 people a year – not a huge number)
5. It attracts the right type of people – She said the people coming from facebook have less of a learning curve when it comes to things like the computerized point of sale system they use for everything from inventory to time cards to order entry.

Does it all seem pretty basic?  Yes.

Why?  Because it is.

Do people tell me a lot of random stuff freely?  Obviously.

Does this mean if you do this you will get 100% of your hires this way?  No.

Social Network recruiting isn’t rocket science – ESPECIALLY if you have something that is a B2C type of establishment or organization.  This small business is doing it right.