Dean Whitney has an interesting post about how recruiters advertise job opportunities on social networks such as Facebook and LinkdIn. The Internet's affect on the recruiting process is beginning to come to light, but we still have a lot to learn about employee/employer behavior in a recruiting 2.0 environment. Nevermind the old story about employers "googling" prospective candidates - today, we face a world in which candidates are "facebooking" a prospective employer's employees to see what type of people work there.
I recently came across a great example of how the Internet can affect the recruiting process at WebInno XIV. Oncero, a Boston-based Internet start-up, operates a social network geared towards connecting employers with qualified job seekers through the trusted contacts shared by the users. Essentially, employees post their company's open positions on the site and Oncero tracks how the positions are shared within the community. When a position is filled, all the Oncero members involved in a the referral process receive a fraction of the employee referral bonus offered by the employer.
How it works:
- my company has a $2,000 referral bonus and I post a job opening for a Marketing Associate position on Oncero.
- Oncero-user "Bob", who is already happily employed, spots my posted job opening and sends it to his unemployed friend "Sam".
- "Sam" applies for the Marketing Associate position through Oncero and gets it!
- 90 days after "Sam" is hired, I receive $2,000 referral bonus, a percentage of which goes to "Bob" because he helped locate "Sam".
Oncero is an outstanding idea because it brings the benefits of social networking and word-of-mouth/viral marketing to the recruiting process and then injects it with steroids by offering a monetary incentive to take action.
Oncero is currently invitation-only. If you would like an invite, leave a comment below and I will send you one.
