Using E-portfolio in Recruitment - Essay Example

An ePortfolio is an electronically archived collection of a graduate’s or student’s experiences, artifacts and achievements, as well as their reflections on learning. In this essay, I reflect on the legal and ethical implications of using ePortfolios and on the implications of the increasing use of digital and social media in recruitment. My reflection is based on Strohmeier’s (2010, p. 268) idea that electronic portfolios, also referred to as virtual, digital, online or web portfolios, have been constituting an outstanding educational innovation which focuses on the systematic self-development of qualifications. In deed, I have noted that preparing an ePortfolio is done in much the same way as preparing a professional résumé but the portfolio is more detailed as it allows uploading of other files, images and videos – which can only be mentioned in a conventional résumé. The fact that the information is uploaded online for others to see can also raise questions as to who actually owns the information since it may take some time to verify the authenticity of the information contained in a person’s ePortfolio. There are ethical and legal implications of using ePortfolio in recruitment. Ethically, it is argued on one hand that an ePortfolio increases a student’s or graduate’s reflection and also reveals information that is not made known by other methods of assessment. This method of evaluation also makes students more active and playing a greater role in assessment and their entire learning process. EPortfolios also give students and graduates ways to demonstrate their knowledge and make longitudinal studies possible (Madden, 2007, p. 10). On the other hand, the use of ePortfolios presents challenges such as authenticating the work presented by graduates or student and deciding on what constitutes good work. It is also notable that a lot of time is required to read and assess the work presented in various students’ portfolios and it may be difficult to determine how to score evidence. Additionally, it is not easy to determine whether the credit awarded to a student is proportionate to the time invested in preparing and assessing the ePortfolio. Finally, assessors may not be able to ascertain whether the assessment is unduly influenced by the student’s technical skills or lack of such skills (Madden, 2007, p. 11). On the legal aspect, the contents of ePortfolios are protected by copyright. Individuals own the copyright to works that they create (James Cook University, 2012). However, it is an infringement of copyright to upload the works of others in an ePortfolio. The employer or assessor thus has another task of verifying that the graduate or applicant has not infringed the copyright law in the process of preparing his or her ePortfolio. According to Bartels and Parker (2011, p. 171), using the contents of ePortfolios raises questions of privacy and ownership of the content that students present as their own. The job recruitment market has been intrigued by the expansion of interactive social media and virtual technologies. The reality is that the increase in the use of social media networks in recruitment is proving to be inevitable. With the use of ePortfolio in recruitment, employers can now use a wide range of other digital mechanisms such as social media to recruit their workforce. There are several implications of this. To begin with, it is possible to capture the interest of many young people since many of them use social media applications such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. According to Wankel, Marovich and Stanaityte (2010, p. 317), there is a widespread use of social media across all age groups, and students joining college have indubitably had some prior exposure to their peers who use social media. Such students also influence others to join them and therefore the best place to get them is in the social media sites as opposed to the conventional methods of talent search such as newspaper postings. As pointed out by Redding, Murphy and Sheley (2011, p. 95), savvy job seekers use social media to find companies that they wish to work for, appraise company websites, read Twitter and Facebook updates from current and former employees, and read LinkedIn profiles. Employers can target people on social media and job boards for their workforce and this can lead to significant time and cost savings since the recruitment process is done online rather than using papers (Waddill & Marquardt, 2011, p. 112; Swain, 2012, p. 29). They can also get a diverse pool of knowledgeable and individuals online. But there is a drawback in this respect in that failure to assess and map out the whole recruitment process, including how to scrutinize résumés to screen out unsuitable candidates and so on can result in more paperwork rather than less – thus meaning that even more time will be spent in the process (Waddill & Marquardt, 2011, p. 112). It is also possible that people who research jobs online (i.e. those who use ePortfolios) may have less attractive backgrounds (implying perhaps that they may have something to hide than those recruited through face-to-face procedures) (Waddill & Marquardt, 2011, p. 115). Such people may also stay on the job for a shorter period of time (Waddill & Marquardt, 2011, p. 115), meaning that they employers would have to recruit new employees again. In conclusion, creating an ePortfolio is an important step in presenting one’s qualifications to a prospective employer. Learners, graduates and employees alike can record their qualifications and achievements in detailed portfolios as a way of marketing themselves to employees who need their talents. Employers can save significantly on time and cost if they search for prospective employees online. The downside of reliance on ePortfolios and social media to recruit is that the process may be costly if the electronic portfolios are not sufficiently scrutinized to screen unsuitable candidates. In addition, the process may result into selection of unqualified candidates or those who do not intend to stay in the job for a long period. Further, employers need to scrutinize ePortfolios to ascertain that their owners have not infringed copyright by uploading works that are not their own. References Bartels, K A & Parker, K A 2011, Teaching sustainability, Stylus Publishing, LLC., New York. James Cook University 2012, ‘ePortfolios & Copyright,’ viewed 18 August 2012, Madden, T 2007, ‘Supporting student e-Portfolios’, The Higher Physical Education Sciences Academy Centre, viewed 19 August 2011 Redding, S, Murphy, M & Sheley, P 2011, Handbook on family and community engagement, IAP, New York. Strohmeier, S 2010, ‘Electronic portfolios in recruiting? A conceptual analysis of usage,’ Journal of Electronic Commerce Research, Vol. 11, No. 4, pp. 268-280, viewed 18 August 2012, Swain, A 2012, The professional recruiter's handbook: Delivering excellence in recruitment practice, 2nd edn, Kogan Page Publishers, London. Waddill, D & Marquardt, M J 2011, The e-HR advantage: The complete handbook for technology-enabled human resources, Nicholas Brealey Publishing, New York. Wankel, C, Marovich, M & Stanaityte, J 2010, Cutting-edge social media approaches to business education: Teaching with LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, second life, and blogs, IAP, New York. Read More