Are Social Networking Sites Effective Means of Recruitment - Literature review Example

Are social networking (facebook, twitter etc) sites effective means of recruitment? Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Literature Review 3 Introduction 3 E-Recruitment 4 Recruitment through social networking sites 5 Facebook 6 Twitter 6 LinkedIn 7 Use of social networking sites for initial candidate search and screening 8 Benefits of using social networking sites in the process of recruitment 9 Drawbacks of using social networking sites in recruitment 10 Conclusion and summary 10 References 12 Literature Review The review of empirical literature has been carried out on the effectiveness of social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, etc. as means of recruitment. Introduction The social networking sites like the Facebook, Twitter, etc have changed the ways and style of communication between two or more people and thereby offering a greater reach to the acquaintances and promptness in the delivery of communicated messages. The social networking sites have revolutionized communication in both private and professional spheres. The users of the social networking sites are able to engage in real time communication through text based or cam based or even voice based interaction irrespective of their location. The social networking sites are internet based applications that allow the users to engage into useful communication through the virtual platform that could be accessed with the use of electronic devices like computer terminals, notebooks, mobiles, etc (Zhang, Johnson and Seltzer, 2010, p.81). The social networking have brought about changes in the outlook of the society as they have inclined towards the online mode of communication due to the benefits in terms of time , cost, energy, etc. The young people of the society have shown the greatest interest towards the use of social networking sites (Henderson and Bowley, 2010, p.248). The social networking sites like the Facebook, Twitter, etc. not only form a part of their personal and private lives but also emerged as tools for fulfilling career aspiration. The people have started to increase their online presence in order to pursue the career that they desire (Backstrom, Huttenlocher and Kleinberg, 2006, p.42). Needless to say, the social networking sites have proved to be useful in the process of recruitment of the employers and, therefore, increase the chances of users in getting a job. The social networking sites offer the employers a wide range of information on the candidates who could be eligible for the process of recruitment according to the pre-set criteria. The availability of huge number of profiles which are easily accessible to the employers allows them to filter the apposite candidates to be called for the interview and further stages of recruitment. The social networking sites are also useful to the candidates as it provides wide range of information on the companies through the use of online media applications of Facebook, Twitter, etc (Diani, 2000, p.392). The applicants also get the opportunity to interact with the existing employees who are available on the social networking platforms. The effectiveness of the social networking sites in the process of recruitment, its advantages and disadvantages could be clearly understood with the help of literature review. E-Recruitment The advent of the internet based applications in the form social networking sites have reinvented the ways of communication in which one engages with another and also in the way in which interaction takes place between the individuals and the organizations in the workplace. In order to keep themselves updated with the modern trend, the employers have also been required to embrace the modern communication practices and use the same in the process of recruitment. The growth e-recruitment or the use of virtual platforms in the social networking sites have taken place in order to keep up with the changing trend of communication (Pfeffer, 2008, p.67). Thus the e-recruitment methods have been adopted by the companies in order to aid the traditional process of recruitment. Due to the use of the social networking sites, the employers have been able to hire locally as well as globally, especially in cases of multinational entities. The companies have been able to spread their recruitment notification to the candidates irrespective of the distance between the employers and the applicants. The uses of social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn have allowed the companies to reduce their hiring cycle and achieve efficiency in the manpower management. Apart from the social networking sites, there are other social media tools like the various job portals, career engines which have been used by the companies in the process of e-recruitment (Hopkins and Markham, 2003, p.48). Of all the social media tools, the social networking sites have been an effective means of recruitment till date with several benefits of time saving, cost saving, selection of the appropriate profile, etc. Recruitment through social networking sites The social networking sites allow the users to create online profiles on the web which serves the purpose of identifying acquaintance or provides the scope of knowing each other in the process of web-based communication which is prompt and offers economies of scale for bulk requirements of communication. Although the social networking sites were previously used only for the purpose of interacting in the personal sphere of life, this has gained wider importance with time in the professional sphere as well. The social networking sites offer a virtual medium of communication between the job applicants and the employers. The social networking sites are used by the applicants as a tool for marketing their curriculum vitae in the job market (Macdonald, 2013, p.52). With the use of these social networking platforms, the candidates could display their bio-data to an unlimited number of employers who are able to view their profiles. On the other hand, the employers are also able to gather a wide range of information, both personal and professional, for a large number of candidates at minimal cost and small amount of time. This would not have been possible to achieve through the traditional means of recruitment. By filtering the candidates based on the available information, the employers are able to recruit the right candidate for the job. The increase in the usage of social networking sites by the employers provides evidence to the changing ways of recruitment due to the relative benefits of e-recruitment over the traditional methods (González-Bailón, Borge-Holthoefer and Rivero, 2011, p.4). The social networking features have changed the ways of searching talent and screening them for the purpose of recruitment. Facebook Facebook is one of the most popular social networking sites where the users can create profile and update information with automatic information being provided on the data updated in the respective profiles. The employers have started to use facebook for the purpose of recruitment by using the features provided by the online virtual networking platform. Several companies set up their company Facebook page on this social networking site that helps them to spread important information about the company to the target users who are connected socially (Anand, 2010, p.47). The companies post important notification on the recruitment process, eligibility of the candidates, walk-in drives for interviews, etc. in order to inform the users or the candidates about the recruitment process. The companies like Pets at Home, G4S, etc use their company Facebook page to notify the candidates of the important information on the recruitment process. Several pictures of the company establishments are also posted in order to encourage the candidates to apply for the available vacancies. The employers provide a link on the company Facebook page which navigates to the official career page of the companies and provides the candidates with the details on the company and the recruitment details (Joinson, 2008, p.1035). Twitter Twitter is another popular social networking tool that allows the users to create profile and access the micro blogging service. The micro blogging service enables the users to send and read messages in the form of small blogs up to 140 characters in size, known as tweets. The tweets appear in the profile page of the users and these features is utilised by the companies in the area of recruitment. Several companies like the Pets at Home, G4S and the Monmouthshire County Council have used the Twitter application for the carrying out the process of recruitment. The notification of the recruitment process, related job vacancies and other details are being published by the company, G4S on the Twitter. The company also responds to the queries of the potential applicants through the social networking sites on an instantaneous basis which allows smooth flow of communication (Correa, Hinsley and  Zuniga, 2010, p.252). The Monmouthshire Council believes that this social networking platform provides the company with improved scope of advertisement and the company could take advantage of the rippling effect of the microblogging service. The candidates who are not interested in the job notifications would pass on the message in the form of tweets to their acquaintances those who are fit for the recruitment process (Hartley, 2010, p.27). LinkedIn LinkedIn is a purely business related social networking tool and is used for communicating in the professional sphere by individuals, organizations, etc. The users maintain a list of contacts in their LinkedIn profiles which are known as connections. These connections provide a wider reach to the users in setting up contacts with the various professionals and the business entities and in getting important updates while looking for new job opening in various profiles across the industry (Fenner, Garland and Moore, 2012, p.3). The users of LinkedIn are able to obtain useful information on the various employment opportunities, business events due to the free flow of information among the professionals. This social networking site is mainly used by the companies in order to recruit senior and technical staffs. The companies like Pets at Home consider the pool of professionals in the LinkedIn site as a wide range of target applicants who could be targeted for the job vacancies that have come up. The recruitment teams of the companies are very efficient in using this social networking site as they are able to spend less effort in terms of time and money to search the required talent for the organization. Several employers also get in touch with the recruitment agencies in order to broaden their contact with a wider network of professionals. All these features of LinkedIn enable the employers to search for the right talent (Farmer, Holt and Cook, 2009, p.456). The candidates also get the information on the employer that allows them to choose the right workplace. Use of social networking sites for initial candidate search and screening The social networking sites incorporates various features like the internet videos, podcasting, etc. which attracts the candidates to greater use of these online virtual networks. Thus the increase in the use of social networking sites provides the employers with opportunities to tap the widely available sources of talent and apply further filtering procedures for the purpose of recruitment (Hayes, 2013, p.36). The changing trend in the use of social networking sites for initial search and further screening of candidates have led to the growing prominence of LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, etc. LinkedIn in the most popular among the social the social networking sites which is used by 93% of the employers for the purpose of initial search for candidates and further screening for recruitment. Linked is followed by Facebook which is used by 66% of the employers and then followed by twitter which is used by 54% of the employers. The far extending reach of the social networking sites have created deep level of interest among the candidates all over the world to interact with their employers online in the pre-recruitment stage (Waddill and Marquardt, 2011, p.77). The screening of candidates using the social networking sites for the purpose of recruitment has, however, witnessed a declining trend. This has been largely due to the online frauds, fake accounts and privacy concerns created by the malpractice of a section of the users of social networking platform. Benefits of using social networking sites in the process of recruitment The rise in the usage of the social networking sites by the employers and the candidates who participate in the recruitment process have been majorly due to the benefits of this online communication platform. The employers are able to carry out their initial search for talent from the pool of users who are already available in the social networking sites. The social networking sites allow the employers to set up their company home page where the recruitment details could be notified to the potential candidates (Marsden and Gorman, 2001, p.2). Apart from reaching out to the candidates with details on the job vacancies, the companies could also save on useful time and energy spent as compared to the traditional recruitment techniques. The employers could reduce their cost of recruitment through the use of social networking sites. The employers also get the opportunity to set up customized interface with the applicants in order to provide them with rich experience that help to develop a good brand image for the employers in the job market. The candidates also benefit through the use of social networking sites as they could send requests directly to the concerned HR person for interviews or for consideration of their application (Davison, Maraist and Bing, 2011, p.156). The applicants also get to access the customized messages sent by the employers. The social networking sites have been able to integrate the activities of the employer and the applicants through its improved technological features. Drawbacks of using social networking sites in recruitment There are however, some drawbacks of the social networking sites in the process of recruitment. The increase in activities of social networking has also seen a parallel growth in the number of fake profiles among the users. There have been ample instances that accounts have been created in the social networking platform with pseudo-names and false information on the personal and professional details. Thus the initial search of the candidates for the purpose of employment on the basis of information available online may be misleading for the employers (Park, Kee and Valenzuela, 2009, p.731). At the same time, there are security and privacy concerns for the applicants with the rise in the number of fake companies that have started to use the social networking sites to provide recruitment services in exchanges of money. More often than not, these fake recruitment agencies set fraudulent traps for the candidates which may lead to financial losses for the candidates in their aspiration for getting a job (Jasper and Poulsen, 1995, p.493). Conclusion and summary The social networking sites have changed the ways of communication between the individuals, groups, societies, businesses and have revolutionized the personal and professional sphere of life. After raising deep interest levels in the private communication, it has also influenced the professional communication between the people and the organization. This has been witnessed in the growing use of social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. by the employers and the candidates in the process of recruitment. The companies have been forced to embrace the social networking sites in order to keep themselves updated with the modern ways of communication. The social networking sites have been an effective means of recruitment as it enabled the employers to save on the time, cost and energy required in the several stages of recruitment. At the same time, the social networking sites have allowed the recruitment of the right candidate by the employers. The users could also find a simple and easy means of applying to their desired companies and participate in the recruitment process with reduced hassles of paper work. Although the employers have been able to access a large of candidates who have increased their online presence as a part of social lifestyle, the screening of the initially searched candidates is being done carefully by the companies. This is due to the fact there has been several profiles which are fake accounts and either do not have real existence or have pseudo appearance. The candidates also need to be careful about the recruitment agencies which are fraudulent entities and set monetary traps in the underlying offer of job vacancies. Thus ethical considerations in the use of social networking sites play a vital role in determining its effectiveness in the recruitment process. References Anand, R. 2010. Recruiting with Social Media: Social Medias Impact on Recruitment and HR. USA: Pearson Education. Backstrom, L., Huttenlocher, D. and Kleinberg, J. 2006. Group formation in large social networks: membership, growth, and evolution. Proceedings of the 12th ACM SIGKDD international conference on Knowledge discovery and data mining. 1(5), pp. 42-44. Correa, T., Hinsley, A. and  Zuniga, H. 2010. Who interacts on the Web?: The intersection of users personality and social media use. Computers in Human Behavior. 26(2), pp. 247-253. Davison, H., Maraist, C. and Bing, M. 2011. Friend or foe? The promise and pitfalls of using social networking sites for HR decisions. Journal of Business and Psychology. 26, pp. 153-159. Diani, M. 2000. SOCIAL MOVEMENT NETWORKS VIRTUAL AND REAL. Communication & Society. 3(3), pp. 386-401. Farmer, A., Holt, C. and Cook, M. 2009. Social networking sites: a novel portal for communication. Postgraduate medical journal. 85, pp. 455-459. Fenner, Y., Garland, S. and Moore, E. 2012. Web-based recruiting for health research using a social networking site: an exploratory study. Journal of medical research. 14(1), pp. 2-4. González-Bailón, S., Borge-Holthoefer, J. and Rivero, A. 2011. The Dynamics of Protest Recruitment through an Online Network. Scientific Reports. 1(197), pp. 2-4. Hartley, D. 2010. 10 Steps to Successful Social Networking for Business. USA: American Society for Training and Development. Hayes, P. 2013. The benefits and challenges of leveraging social media recruitment practices. Germany: GRIN Verlag. Henderson, A. and Bowley, R. 2010. Authentic dialogue? The role of “friendship” in a social media recruitment campaign. Journal of Communication. 14(3), pp.237-257. Hopkins, B. and Markham, J. 2003. E-HR: Using Intranets to Improve the Effectiveness of Your People. UK: Gower Publishing Ltd. Jasper, J. and Poulsen, J. 1995. Recruiting strangers and friends: Moral shocks and social networks in animal rights and anti-nuclear protests. Social Problems. 42(4), pp. 493. Joinson, A. 2008. Looking at, looking up or keeping up with people?: motives and use of facebook. Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. 11(1), pp. 1027-1036. Macdonald, R. 2013. The Advantages and Disadvantages of E-Recruitment. Germany: GRIN Verlag. Marsden, P. and Gorman, E. 2001. Social networks, job changes, and recruitment. Sourcebook of labor markets. 1(1), pp. 2. Park, N., Kee, K. and Valenzuela, S. 2009. Being Immersed in Social Networking Environment: Facebook Groups, Uses and Gratifications, and Social Outcomes. CyberPsychology & Behavior. 12(6), pp. 729-733. Pfeffer, M. 2008. E-recruitment: Analysis of Current Trends Based on an Empirical Survey Focussing on Online Career Networks. USA: VDM Publishing. Waddill, D. and Marquardt, M. J. 2011. The E-HR Advantage: The Complete Handbook for Technology-Enabled Human Resources. USA: Nicholas Brealey Publishing. Zhang, W., Johnson, T. and Seltzer, T. 2010. The Revolution will be Networked: The Influence of Social Networking Sites on Political Attitudes and Behavior. Social Science Computer Review. 28(1), pp. 75-92. Read More