Cisco is using Facebook to hunt for graduates to fill potential
vacancies in the company.
The disclosure raises further questions over the value of
recuruitment agencies for filling IT vacancies.
Sedef M Buyukataman, graduate recruitment manager Northern
Europe at Cisco, said that while LinkedIn is widely used for
recruiting professionals, Facebook is better for interacting with
students.
"When we look at graduate recruitment we find that a lot of new
graduates do not have their profiles on LinkedIn but they do use
Facebook every day."
The company set up a Facebook page in the UK and Ireland about a
year ago and has over 200 graduates connected to it.
Buyukataman said that social media allows the firm to cut
recruiting costs and to make contact with a wider number of
appropriate candidates.
Cisco has a recruitment freeze now but has made contact with
people that will be the "first to know about job opportunities"
when they become available, said Buyukataman.
"We did no advertising of the site but we are planning to do
some marketing activities in the future to attract more people,"
she added.
The site gives information to members and allows them to ask
Cisco questions. Members can also communicate with each other.
Microsoft told Computer weekly last week that it
saved about £60,000 by using LinkedIn to recruit technical
staff for a project it was running.
Buyukataman, said that recruitment firms
should be harnessing social media because this is what
jobseekers want to use.
"Sometimes they do it well and other times they are reticent,"
added Buyukataman.
Cisco is planning to build similar sites in other European
regions following its success in the UK
Social media sites in effect make candidate databases public and
can cut out or complement the work of recruitment firms.