In this talk, Tod Maffin argues that the so‑called “Facebook generation” no longer needs to be recruited in the traditional sense; they actively seek out employers whose purpose resonates with their own desire to change the world. Money and conventional perks are merely commodities for them. Their work ethic is rooted in meaning, teamwork, and social interaction, cultivated through university group projects and constant online connectivity. Maffin outlines four key arenas where this cohort spends time—Facebook, YouTube, employer‑produced recruitment videos, and digital background checks (what he calls “counter‑Googling”). He advises recruiters to (1) articulate a genuine, mission‑driven narrative; (2) use social platforms to broadcast that narrative; (3) equip employees with tools to become brand ambassadors; and (4) gather as much online information about candidates because they are doing the same. The talk blends anecdotal experiences (e.g., an aromatherapy room that missed the mark) with concrete tactics for modern employer branding and candidate vetting.
Chapters
First thing you need to know, by the way, the title's wrong. Recruiting the Facebook generation? You don't recruit them anymore. They recruit you. You're the one going to the interview. It just happens to happen in your office. The spirit is what these people tap into. Not what you can offer. Not your benefits. Not your salaries. Money is a commodity to these people. They want to feel like they're achieving something. That they are partnering with you to get something out of the world and give back something out of the world. These people are immune to traditional business process. Like PowerPoint. Thank God. I mean, power— you put PowerPoint in front of any of this generation and they will phase completely out because they want to talk. It's social interaction. This is how these people work in school, right? They do things in teams and groups. When I went to school, it was all individual. Here's your assignment, do the assignment, bring it back. You know, now everything is team-based. It's put up on the web. It's shared with other universities, people taking classes in other universities in different cities. They view the world through a set of values that are reinforced by their peers. Again, another key distinction. In the past, my generation, your generation, We got our sense of values from the media largely. That's not happening anymore. They're getting their sense of value and it's shared and it's evolving and it's organic from the people around them because of that connection. Increasingly, they perceive themselves responsible for those value shifts. And as a result, one of the most overriding work ethics in this group is that they want to change the world. The Facebook generation needs meaning. Meaning in what they do. And if you want to get them, it is your job to articulate the meaning in your company. I used to own a dot-com company. We took it public in 18 months back in the dot-com age. And you know when they said, "We want balance in our work." You know what I did? I made an aromatherapy room for them. No, really. It's like we painted it all black. We put those glow-in-the-dark stars on. Big huge beanbag chairs. And what I didn't fully understand but they got instinctively is that that wasn't a sense of balance. That wasn't giving them anything back. In fact, what it was doing was encouraging them to work more. So we missed the ball on balance. We thought we were doing it when in fact what everyone was searching for wasn't balance at all. It was what balance gives us. And that's meaning. So to understand the Facebook generation, you have to explain how they're changing the world. So let's talk specifically about the areas that they hang out in. There's 4 that I wanna talk about, obviously. The first is Facebook. How many of you have a Facebook account, by the way? Yeah. So here's something you need to know. Everybody is on Facebook. You heard a little bit about the dorm room. Facebook started at Harvard. They used it by this fellow, Mark Zuckerberg, who is indeed 12. Mark Zuckerberg had— Harvard basically had this physical book called a face book. And it was like a yearbook, but it was published at the beginning of the year. And really all it was was a name and a photograph of someone. He registered the domain thefacebook.com back then. And he put it online. And it became an enormous, enormous hit. Over time, they opened it up beyond campuses, or beyond Harvard. They let campuses in. They let other universities. They let nonprofits in. And then they let everyone in. Counter-Googling is used quite a bit in the boutique hotel industry. You know it as checking up on your interviewees before they show up. Right? So what the boutique hotels will do, or regular hotel chains, it's sort of their top client base, is they will Google the person's name and find out about them. And so they will, they'll realize that this particular person seems to be in a lot of golf tournaments because that's what Google tells them, right? So suddenly they, when they check in, they say, "We understand you like golf. Here's a list of the golf stuff." Employers are beginning to do this now with their, with people that are coming in for interviews. And you know what? I'm all for it, actually. There's a big ethical debate about whether or not you should do this. But arm yourself with as much information as you can because they're doing the same thing for you. CIA has recruitment videos online. So does IBM. So does Sun. Home Depot splits them out into different demographics. They've got recruitment videos both for young people and for retired people because that's where Home Depot gets a lot of their folks from as well. Because remember, YouTube is exceptionally good at viral contact. You just click the share button down there and you can send it out to everyone. You can add it to your subscription list and so forth. Again, teamwork is how these people are raised through university. The best picture I ever saw that illustrates more than anything— picture tells a thousand words, right?— of not my job mentality is this. If you pick up nothing else from this presentation, I want you to remember that you've gotta give people something to believe in, right? Figure out if your mission statement has any bloody relevance to the real world. If it doesn't, kill it and develop a mantra. Simple statement of what actually these things mean. Give your employees tools to tell other people. So if you've got something really exciting, first of all, tell your employees. Don't just send it out to the shareholders. Don't just send it out to me. Tell your employees first. Then give them tools to spread that word because they're communicators. They want to spread it. They are interconnected. Put it up on Facebook and point them to the— and say in your email to them, by the way, here's a link to the Facebook page. Just click share if you want to send it to your friends. They'll do it if you give them that opportunity.
