Use page job posts for local hiring, name one person to answer every application within two days, protect what applicants send, and keep the careers page on your website.

What Facebook added this week

Since yesterday, business pages in Canada and the United States can post job openings. The post appears on the page, in followers' news feeds, and in a jobs section where people can browse openings near them.

Applicants tap a button and send a short application, filled in from their Facebook profile, which they can edit. It arrives as a message in the page's inbox.

Posting is free. Paying to boost the post, to reach people beyond the page's followers, is optional.

When it suits a small business

The fourth is the one that decides whether it works. Applications arrive as messages, and people applying for hourly work usually apply to several places at once. A reply in a week reaches someone already working elsewhere.

Writing the post

Use the job title applicants would search for: line cook, server, dishwasher. A creative title hides the job from the people looking for it.

Give the location, the hours and the shifts, including weekends and late nights, and the pay or a pay range. Leaving pay out invites applicants who will turn the job down later.

Describe the work in a few lines, say what experience or certificates are needed, and say when you will reply.

What applicants look at first

Before applying, many people tap through to the page itself. They see the cover photo, the latest posts, the reviews and whether anyone answers comments.

A page last updated in the summer, with questions left unanswered, tells an applicant how the business treats the people it deals with.

A few recent posts showing the team and the kitchen at work do more for a job post than any line about a great place to work.

What a post must not ask

Human rights law limits what a job post may ask for or prefer. Leave out age, family status, religion and where someone was born, unless the job genuinely requires it.

Messenger shows each applicant's profile picture anyway, which is one more reason to judge applications only on what the job needs.

Handling what arrives

Applications land in the same inbox as reservations, questions and the occasional complaint. Decide who reads them, and make sure that person has a role on the page.

Reply to every applicant, including a short no. Applicants are often customers too, and they remember being ignored.

Move promising applicants to a phone call or an interview quickly. A chat thread is a poor place to make a hiring decision.

Applications are personal information

An application holds a name, phone number, work history and availability, and sometimes much more. Privacy law expects a business to collect only what it needs, use it only for hiring, and keep it secure.

In practice: do not forward applications to a personal phone or screenshot them into a group chat, and do not ask for anything the job does not need.

Decide how long you keep applications from people you did not hire, tell applicants, and delete them when that time is up.

A worked example

A noodle house with about thirty seats hires kitchen helpers and part-time servers several times a year, usually through a sign in the window and a careers page with an email address.

For months people had already been messaging the Facebook page to ask whether it was hiring. The messages went to whoever saw them first, and some were never answered.

Resumes arrived as photographs in Messenger and ended up on the owner's personal phone, mixed in with family pictures.

This week, with job posts available, the owner set out how hiring through the page will work. The manager now holds an editor role and answers every application within two days.

Applications are deleted after six months, a rule stated in the post. The careers page carries the same details, plus a way to apply by email for anyone not on Facebook.

Keep the careers page on your website

Not everyone looking for work uses Facebook, and a post slides down the page within days. The careers page stays where you put it.

It can say more than a job post: what working there is like, what training is given, how scheduling works, and how to apply without a Facebook account.

Link it from the job post, the window sign and the bottom of every page. When a role is filled, update it the same day.

Boosting a job post

Organic reach for pages is low, so an unboosted post may reach only a fraction of the page's followers. A small paid boost, aimed at people within a short distance, can widen it.

Set the area to a realistic commute, run it for a few days, and stop once enough applications are in.

When the job is filled

Close the post once the role is filled, or applications keep arriving for a job that no longer exists.

Send a short reply to everyone still waiting, update the careers page, and delete what you said you would delete, on the date you said.

The counter-case

Some roles are better found elsewhere: a licensed technician, a manager, anything needing a wider search or a specialist network.

A page with few local followers will get little from an unboosted post, and a business that cannot answer messages promptly is better served by email and a careers page.

For local, frequent hiring with someone ready to reply, the page is worth using, alongside the website rather than instead of it.

Before you post

  1. Check who holds admin and editor roles.
  2. Use the job title applicants search for.
  3. State the pay, hours and location.
  4. Name one person to answer applications.
  5. Reply to every applicant within two days.
  6. Set a date to delete old applications.
  7. Update the careers page on your website.

Step four holds the rest together. A job post with nobody assigned to the replies fills an inbox, and the applicants it was meant to reach take the first offer that answers.

Who can read those applications depends on the page roles covered in a Facebook page only one person can manage.

Frequently asked questions

What did Facebook launch for hiring?

Business pages in Canada and the United States can now post job openings. Applicants apply with a short form filled from their profile, and it arrives through Messenger.

Does it cost anything to post a job?

Posting is free. Boosting the post to reach people beyond your followers is paid, and is worth considering when the page has few local followers.

Which jobs suit a Facebook job post?

Local, hourly roles that turn over often, such as kitchen, floor, front desk or cleaning work, where applicants live nearby and already follow local businesses.

How quickly should applicants get a reply?

Within a day or two. People applying for hourly work usually apply to several places at once, and a slow reply reaches someone already hired elsewhere.

How should applications be stored?

Securely and only as long as needed. Keep them off personal phones and group chats, ask only what the job requires, and delete unsuccessful ones on schedule.

Do I still need a careers page?

Yes. Not every applicant uses Facebook, posts slide out of view within days, and the careers page can explain more and offer another way to apply.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Hiring this spring through your Facebook page?

We can set up the careers page on your website so it works alongside the job post.

Start a Conversation