EFFECT OF SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES ON JOB RECRUITMENT

ARITRIKA PAUL

St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata

Email: ariitrika@gmail.com

SUTIRTHA BHAUMIK

St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata

Email: sutirtha.bhaumik@gmail.com

CONTENTS

1. ABSTRACT 3

2. INTRODUCTION 4 2.1. SOCIAL NETWORKING REVOLUTION 4

2.2. JOB RECRUITMENT 4

3. IMPACT OF RECRUITMENT IN SOCIAL NETWORKING CONTEXT 5 3.1. RECENT SURVEYS 5

3.2. FACTORS FOR CHOOSING SOCIAL NETWORKING AS A TOOL 63.3. ANALYSIS ON HUGE DATA IN SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES 7 3.4. LIMITATIONS 8

4. ANALYSIS OF SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES IN RECRUITMENT 9 4.1. TWITTER 9

4.2. FACEBOOK 94.3. LINKEDIN…………………………………………………………………………………………….........9

5. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE SCOPE 10 5.1.CONCLUSION10

5.2. FUTURE SCOPE 11

6. REFERENCES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 11

1. Abstract

The increasing impact of social networking sites in communication and socializing worldwide brings attention to how they affect recruitment processes of graduates in organizations. Many employers are now searching for graduates’ data to complement their assessment of job candidates and hiring decisions. While this still is not developed as a common practice by (HR) practitioners and recruiters, existing research remains underdeveloped from the perspective of graduates’ use of such sites. In this project we have analysed key impacts of cyber personal data of social networking sites for students and graduates’ job opportunities. We have used a combination of activity theory and interpretive analysis of data we obtain from graduates participation in several popular social networking sites, which enabled us to ascertain more clearly the role that sites could play in recruitment. Findings from graduates’ experiences indicate that such sites have been used by a large proportion of them and with a variety of purposes. Graduates use these sites to post their cyber personal data to reflect their daily lives, with no little or no regard for the content and its potential effects on employers. This leads us to suggest the importance for graduates to project an adequate perspective of their daily activity to potential employers on social networking sites and for further clarification on how they can become a common reference for both employers and graduates.

2. INTRODUCTION

The increasing use of technologies like the Internet has pervaded many aspects of life. Nowadays, people are fond of communicating and interacting through online sites to have different, interesting and worldwide experiences.

2.1. SOCIAL NETWORKING REVOLUTIONA social networking service is an online service, platform, or site that focuses on building and reflecting of social networks or social relations among people, who, for example, share interests and/or activities. A social network service essentially consists of a representation of each user (often a profile), his/her social links, and a variety of additional services. Most social network services are web based and provide means for users to interact over the Internet, such as instant messaging. Social networking sites allow users to share ideas, activities, events, and interests within their individual networks. In fact, we are in the midst of a social networking revolution which impacts both our personal and professional lives. The growth of social networking websites like Facebook®, MySpace®, Orkut® and others is now a worldwide phenomenon. These websites have gained more than 100 million worldwide and store large volumes of data of their users. The figure below (Fig. 1) shows the logo of some of the popular social networking sites.

Fig. 1. Logos of popular social networking sites

2.2. JOB RECRUITMENT

Recruitment is the modus operandi of engaging, screening and recruiting a knowledgeable, capable and competent person for a job at a company or for a vacancy in a volunteer-based organization. In today’s ever-changing and dynamic business environment, and the constant need for manpower, the role of professional recruitment agencies in assuming the outsourced functions of

the work of human resource departments of mid and large-size organizations is becoming more and more important.

3. IMPACT OF RECRUITMENT IN SOCIAL NETWORKING CONTEXT Today’s company recruiters are facing a totally different labour market from those 10 years ago. Many firms and recruiters are finding that traditional job advertising and recruitment methods are not effective and attractive any more for getting new and better recruits. Due to the availability and accessibility of abundant personal information of social networking sites, firms are increasingly using the virtual social networking sites as a significant tool which use could improverecruitment practices. A great proportion of recruiters and HR practitioners agree that the social networking sites are effective and useful for recruitment and that they might become essential if not the next generation of recruitment ‘virtual’ organizations. Social networking sites are used as the multi-purpose recruitment tools by recruiters and firms; they are not only used to communicate and attract potential job candidates but also used to help recruiters verify resumes, check background information, assess if candidates could ‘fit’ within the company’s organizational culture, as well as obtaining additional information in order to make a better and informed judgment and decision on their hiring.

3.1. RECENT SURVEYSThe above is also being justified by several recent studies. A survey of consultants from 30 IT staffing firms found that 58% think site such as Facebook®, and MySpace® are more useful for recruitment than printed advertisements; in addition, 49% consider social networking sites more effective then internet banner advertising in finding staff. These sites are becoming more popular in the recruitment industry and used by a numbers of recruitment teams of companies to identify and find out additional information about prospective candidates. LinkedIn® is another good example of application of social networking site in recruitment practices. It is a social network that contains 8 million professionals spread across the world, users include executives from all of the fortune 500 companies, and it is used as the main recruitment tools by a good number of IT companies in both USA and the UK. In the US, a recent survey Robert Half International highlighted that nearly two-thirds (62percent) of 638 executives interviewed believe professional networking websites such as LinkedIn, will be useful recruitment tools.

Fig. 2. Online job recruitment in Reliance mutual fund through Facebook

3.2. FACTORS FOR CHOOSING SOCIAL NETWORKING AS A TOOLCost and effectiveness are two main factors driving networking sites adoption for recruitment. First, their cost of use is much lower than traditional recruitment practices like doing telephone interviews or selecting CVs. Sites help employers to filter out unsuitable candidates prior to their interviewing or CV more detailed screening. This potential benefit has led companies like Ernst & Young® and Cadbury Schweppes PLC® to set up their own company social networking space for recruitment. In the Facebook® site, Ernst & Young has a dedicated section that provides not only basic information about job vacancies, but also a social discussion forum for perspective graduates to ask questions about their potential career in the company. Secondly, through social

networking sites a more dynamic and effective two-way communication process can be established between recruiter and candidate so that firms are able to know the candidates more effectively and help recruiters in conducting required background checks of what candidates decide to include in their applications. Thirdly, social-networking sites gives the possibility to candidates to provide richer (and possibly more impressive) information than what they can include in their CVs or application forms: pictures, videos, messages and other items can portray the daily life, personality, social connections and interests of candidates.

3.3. ANALYSIS ON HUGE DATA IN SOCIAL NETWORKING SITESDifferent researchers are working on the effectiveness of job recruitment through social networking sites. The huge amount of data in the social networking sites are used to recruit talented employees. Based on research papers, some test data and polls are given below and analysed.

Fig. 3.Information Update and Categories

The most-popular posted data is the personal profiles; of the 150 respondents 88.6% are posting personal profiles. The second popular-posted data are photos; three-fourths of respondents have photo posted on social networking sites. 124 out of 150 respondents post personal thoughts; in addition, personal stories and personal privacies also account for a big percentage of posted data of students. The statistic data above shows that the social networking sites contain substantive critical and up-to-date personal data and information of students or graduates. This finding can be further proved by the Stuzman’s research that ‘Over 90% reported their birthday and hometown, over 80% reported their sexual orientation and relationship status, over 70% reported their major and political orientation, and 16.4% reported their mobile telephone numbers.

Fig. 4. Purpose(s) of social networking site use

According to this chart, the most popular user purposes of social networking sites are socializing and sharing personal experiences. 136 (90%) out of 151 respondents use the social networking sites for personal experience sharing; of the total of interviewees (151), 83.4% are socializing virtually through social networking sites. Other two popular purposes are personal dairy writing and memory keeping, which accounts for 72.8% and 72.1% of the respondents respectively.

Fig. 5.Knowledge of Cyber Personal Data Management

As it can be observed from the statistics above, of the 87 respondents, only 6.9% have ideas and knowledge of managing their virtual social networking sites information for the purpose of obtaining employment; however, a great proportion (93.10%) of respondents have no or insufficient knowledge of managing cyber data and virtual social networking space. The lack of management confirms that for the purposes of employment, what seems to be transpiring to employers is negative information from potential job candidates.

3.4. LIMITATIONS LACKS DIVERSITY – Widely varied percentage of users from different

countries. For e.g. 83% of LinkedIn users are Caucasian. TIME CONSUMING – Too much information for companies who want to

conduct a detailed and robust search. This is where recruiters can help.

LACK OF CONTROL – Managing brand outposts is tricky and inevitably negative content will slip through the net.

TRANSPARENCY – How reliable is the candidate information online. DISCRIMINATION – Personal information could lead to employers being

influenced by factors like race, religious views and age. LIMITED – Ultimately the candidate can decide what information they

are willing to share.

4. ANALYSIS OF SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES IN RECRUITMENT

4.1. TWITTERBetween December 2009 and December 2010 Twitter has added 100 million people, doubling its user base. It claims that more that 95 million tweets are now sent every day. Twitter is also gaining traction as a job search and hiring tool. Studies highlight that many employers, large and small, value Twitter as a source of information about candidates. Spin-off sites such as twitjobsearch.com and search tools such as ‘Tweet Deck’ assist employers and recruiters trying to tap into the twittersphere to source candidates or plug into the conversations people are having about their organisations and industries. Similar to text messages, hiring managers have had some success in ‘tweeting’ jobs and getting an immediate response. In the last 18 months however, some reports have highlighted the limitations of Twitter. A Canadian based analytics company scanned1.2 billion messages that were sent in August and September 2009. They discovered that 71% of tweets are essentially ignored’ as they don’t get any kind of reaction. Similarly, another report highlighted the fact that 90% of the content on Twitter is created by the same 10% of users.

4.2. FACEBOOKFacebook has more than 500 million users, of which 50% log into the site every day. Around 33% of all internet users visit Facebook at least once per month. Open networks such as Twitter and LinkedIn, it is assumed, are the most useful tools for professional networking and recruitment rather than closed networks such as Facebook. Although companies are engaging with Facebook for hiring purposes, they do it significantly less than via the other popular social media channels. The reality is that if Facebook could persuade more people to use the site in a professional way, it could start to compete with sites such as LinkedIn for professional demographic.

4.3. LINKEDINThe latest statistics indicate that there are over 20 millionprofessionals on LinkedIn across Europe and the networkhas over 85 million members

worldwide. Between Juneand December 2010, one million people signed up withinthe UK taking the country total to five million users overall.Site demographics reveal that 38% earn more than £50,000 per yearand 31% earn between £30,000 and £50,000 per year (Quantcast,2010). 25% of FTSE 100 companies hire through LinkedIn and thereare around 700,000 LinkedIn networking groups. IT, financial servicesand media, are the main sectors recruiting through LinkedIn. Onlybetween 10% and 20% of LinkedIn members are actively looking forwork.The countries in the list to the right are responsible for the highest percentage of site traffic(June 2010). Obviously population size is afactor here and the Netherlands (with a population of 16.5 millionpeople) has the highest adoption rate per capita outside the USA. This corresponds with our own experience of developing businesswithin the Benelux region, being that networking and relationshipbuilding are a key part of business transactions. LinkedIn also featuresin the top 20 most visited websites in The Netherlands, UK, Irelandand Denmark.LinkedIn is very open about its ambition to continue to support,rather than replace, the recruitment industry. Its latest product ‘Talent Advantage’ is designed for recruiters who seek to get the most out of LinkedIn’s functionality, providing subscribers with apersonal dashboard and improved search capability. It has also recently announced a new CV template service and releases relevantjob seeking data such as ‘most popular CV buzz words’ used byLinkedIn users.

5. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE SCOPE5.1. CONCLUSIONWith the advent of social media, the world of work and jobs haschanged forever. Social media is here to stay and employers cangain a significant advantage by adopting hiring methods that havea social media element.Social media, however, isn’t for everyone. As we have seen in this project, there are a number of limitations associated with its use within a recruitment context. Although, as an employer, some quick gains can be achieved; using this method exclusively for recruitment, particularly at the executive level, misses out the relationship building and the robust selection and assessment of individuals, which, if overlooked, undermine the process overall.There is no doubt that social media has improved the recruitmentprocess by making it more open and democratic; increasing thevisible talent pool from which to engage and recruit. Having anintimate knowledge of someone’s capabilities or knowing who thebest person for a role is, however, can only be

gained throughpersonal knowledge of an individual and of a particular industrysector. You can’t simply rely on who may or may not have an online profile and also that the information contained on it is true.

5.2. FUTURE SCOPESocial networking is no doubt beginning to transform the future of the recruitment industry and is opening new doors for employers and job seekers to connect in ways not possible before. Social networking will continue to be mainstream and a popular way to interact and network in an online environment.Similar to niche job boards, it is expected for social networking sites to evolve to appeal to a more targeted audience in the future. More and more people will look for sites that are specifically targeted to their wants and needs versus some of the more generic social networking sites today.

6. REFERENCES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTWe are grateful to our professors for assigning us such an interesting topic and giving us constant encouragement to continue the project. Our thanks also go to the following research papers and websites from where we have collected the various tools for doing the project.

1. Social Networking Sites and Graduate Recruitment: Sharing Online Activities?,YueTeng and José-Rodrigo Córdoba-Pachón, March 2010, School of Management, Royal Holloway University of London.

2. Nigel Wright Recruitment : Report 20113. www.aftertoomany.org4. www.hrnet.com.au/social-and-professional-websites-impact-

employment-outcomes/5. http://www.mastermindesigns.com/social-networking-and-its-impact-

on-online-recruitment6. http://www.hrmreport.com/article/The-Social-Networking-Revolution/