Companies are moving away from job boards and more toward low-cost recruiting through social networking sites. Here’s a tool that could make it easier to find new hires in cyberspace.

Software company Appirio has released an application called MyFriends@Work, which aims to help companies find prospective workers via current employees networks.

Here’s how it works:

The company asks employees to add the application to their Facebook pages. The tool notifies them when the company’s looking to hire and, using information pulled from their friends’ profiles, makes a list of their contacts that might be the right fit.

Appirio’s matching engine uses info like geographic location, job titles and education details to come up with the matches. Employees can use MyFriends@Work to send referrals over Facebook, and employers can use it to track which employees referred new hires.

To allay privacy concerns, Appirio says it only provides the list matches to the employee and doesn’t let employers access information that’s been marked as “private” on Facebook.

To learn more, click here.

Tags: Appirio, Facebook, MyFriends@Work