This week (22 February 2022 to be exact) there are some changes to Facebook Jobs coming into effect. In short, the “Jobs” feature will no longer be available on Facebook and Facebook “Jobs” groups will be switched to “General” groups. The function that allows pages and employers to distribute jobs through integration with an Facebook API will also be stopping as Facebook/Meta is shutting down outside of the United States and Canada. Whilst the official word from Facebook is here we are already fielding enquiries from clients who rely heavily on the Facebook Jobs feature in a talent shortage market so we thought an article on what happens next was in order

In short, Facebook’s change to how Facebook Jobs will have a dramatic impact on the visibility of your job postings on this platform. The key difference is, you can still post jobs, but just on your company Facebook Page. But these listings will no longer be rolled up into one searchable location for candidates as has been available before. In the past, job seekers could easily search for and find opportunities in the Facebook Jobs Marketplace. But with the change, a job seeker will need to find your individual company page, navigate to it, click on your jobs or see a job posted on your page, and apply. In our experience we think it will unlikely that many people will take these steps. So if you’ve been reliant on Facebook Jobs for applicants for job vacancies at your workplace for some time, you may have to rethink your approach.

Our advice would be:

1. “Pay to Play” with Boosts or Ads

You can still post jobs to your Facebook page for free. But as we have explained above, that’s likely to get you nowhere. When posting to your page, job seekers that already like and follow your page “might” see the post (about 1-2% of them based on Facebook’s algorithm), but unless you have a large and engaged following on your Facebook Page of prospective candidates (highly unlikely for most businesses) you will not likely get any/many job applications. So what do you need to do?  Well the simple answer is, like everything else on Facebook for some time, you need to “pay to play”. This means you will need to look at either boosting your job posts to gain any visibility or run some kind of ad campaign on Ads Manager to drive traffic to your job postings. When done properly, these can be very effective, but for those that don’t do this or know how to do this, your jobs will virtually disappear from visibility on Facebook. (If you do need help with Job Boosting or targeted Facebook ad campaigns, we’re here!)

2. Build a Stronger Following & Create More Engagement

For those clients we are already contracted by to post and boost on their social media channels, we will always ask if there are jobs to post and if this is a priority in your social media strategy to recruit, we will always post and boost about them as part of our service. Also, for our social media management clients, each and every month we generally aim to grow your audience and create more engagement subject to the objectives you choose when we commence working together and discuss and lock in your overall social media strategy. And the more post engagement you get, the bigger your organic reach (so your brand gets out there) making it easier to solicit people to apply for your jobs when it comes to that as hopefully they have at least heard of you before. But for those of you without professional help, in short you will need to look for ways to make your job posts more engaging. So have some fun with it! Build-in some humour if it is appropriate. Use bold imagery or even better recruitment videos.  Get your team involved in sharing and commenting on the recruitment posts (this will help a lot!) Get your current contract employees to share to their profiles and community groups where the jobs are located. All of these things can drive engagement and use the algorithm to your advantage.

3. Improve your company careers page on your website

When I click on ‘recruitment’ on your website firstly it goes NOWHERE. This is a natural thing for someone to do so that wont help applications. Then the drop down is difficult. I worked out I have to click on ‘EMPLOYMENT’ to see any jobs. Then when I go to apply it is a big long form. Could they do a short form also? In short your whole customer journey here needs an overhaul.

4. Write a better job ad/job description (and make the job sound amazing)

These days it’s simply not good enough to just offer a job with a salary. Think about your value proposition for job seekers – why in the world should they work for you? What perks do you offer? What kind of flexibility do you offer? Can they work from home, in office or hybrid? What are your company values? Many companies are investing in professional copywriting to make their job ads stand out over others (we can help here) as well as creating company videos to showcase their place of work more. It is not enough to just offer a job and a pay. Think of what makes you different as an employer!

5. Post amazing job ads everywhere and anywhere (Forget Facebook!)

Whilst it is a shame Facebook is retiring the Facebook Jobs feature, there are other options out there. Linkedin may be relevant for some. Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter and Tiktok too. We strongly encourage you look to leverage technology to extend the reach and effectiveness of your recruitment marketing budget. Look at tools like https://www.livehire.com/, Job Adder and others to post once, and publish on multiple job platforms. There are many more of these out there. Find a platform which suits your budget and your requirements, subject to the nature of your business and how many jobs you tend to publish and which platforms you tend to publish them on.

We hope this gives you some good ideas to survive without Facebook Jobs in the mix. And remember we are here to help!