The New Face of Municipal Business

When the put a job listing on their Facebook page Wednesday, it took less than an hour for them to get their first inquiry and request for an application.

From more several hundred miles away at a college in Maine, a former local resident who follows the site had seen the advertisement on Facebook and was interested in the position, said Southington Police Sgt. Lowell DePalma. The student, whose name was not released, is now applying to join the department as a new recruit.

Changing technology and the widespread reach of social networking sites including Facebook and Twitter are changing the way businesses are looking at recruiting and hiring new employees, and municipal entities are no exception.

“Things have changed. Technology is far more advanced and generational changes have affected the way younger people are gathering their information,” DePalma said. “Tools like Facebook help us reach a younger audience and it spreads the word to prospective employees we would not have otherwise reached.”

The Southington Police Department isn’t new to the Facebook universe and has maintained a page since November 2009. The primary function of the page has been to provide information to both the press and the public regarding emergencies such as the October snowstorm, police educational and fundraising events, arrest logs and more.

But after using the page to successfully advertise and fill an employment need in 2010, DePalma said Police Chief Jack Daly is comfortable in using it to inform the public of job opportunities and how they can apply.

In November, the department posted an opening for interested full- or part-time Animal Control Officers and in the past week, the department has put out advertisements for an open dispatcher position and new full-time patrol officer, as well as assisting the fire department in its call for volunteers.

It’s not something the town has used to this point, Garry Brumback said, but it’s a unique, creative an inexpensive way to reach a wider audience in a shorter period of time.

Brumback said he hasn’t spent much time thinking about it, but also has not eliminated the possibility of using technology and social networking sites to fill needs at Town Hall or within departments outside of public safety in the future.

“Any opportunity to better communicate with the public and share these employment listings is an opportunity we have to consider,” he said. “We need to adjust to the changing culture. Our constituency is getting younger and they are not going to adapt their culture to ours, so we need to adapt to them.”

Other towns have also considered similar methods in the future as well. Avon officials recently established a Twitter page to communicate with their residents and Meriden City Manager Lawrence Kendzior has committed to using social networking to provide emergency updates in the future. Kendzior said he has also not eliminated the possibility of using it to post job listings either.

While the new technology has provided an excellent way of reaching certain groups, DePalma said officials realize that not everyone is on Facebook and Twitter either. The department still uses traditional methods including local newspapers advertisements to reach a broader base and they don’t intend to stop using those outlets anytime soon.

“Both are still used regularly and utilizing both allows us to reach a more widespread audience,” DePalma said. “If it seemed like people were straying away from newspapers or the Internet, we’d have to consider a change then. Right now, we are in combination mode.”