“Virgin Atlantic sacks 13 crew members over Facebook Posts”. ..”Cisco retracts job offer on Twitter”….These headlines would have seemed fictitious a couple of years back but as of now they are very real and here to stay. If you’re thinking of uploading an opinionated video on your Facebook page, you should think again. It might lead to the loss of a job opportunity.
As per a report released in May 2011 by Jobvite, an applicant tracking system (ATS) and social sourcing provider, 80% of the 600 employers surveyed, answered “Yes” to the question, “Do you use social media for recruiting?” Further research indicates that approximately 87% of those recruiters rely on Linkedin, 55% on Facebook and 47% on Twitter for their information. Social recruiting as it is now popularly termed is the process of using social media profiles, blogs, and online communities as a talent database to find and search for passive candidate data and information. It also uses social media to advertise jobs either through HR vendors or through crowdsourcing where job seekers and others share job openings within their online social networks. Hence, Facebook, Twitter or Google+ have come a long way from being a place which you visit to stay in touch with the latest trends to now becoming the newest recruitment tool for Human Resources divisions in organizations.
SMAC or Social Media, Mobile, Analytics and the Cloud (SMAC) are strong waves that have cut across all industries and cannot be ignored. A couple of important statistics that make these trends even more important from an Indian perspective are:
- Most major social media networks have substantial Indian presence.
- Mobile growth in India is among the highest in the world.
- Networks like the cross-platform WhatsApp have dominant presence in India.
Companies claim that the possibility of penetration as well as increased usage of social media is one of the primary factors behind the massive surge for it to be steadily adopted as a recruitment tool. Besides this, the immediacy of the communication as well as the possibility of being spotted by potential hires adds up to the appeal.
One of the most prominent examples of companies which have revolutionized the concept of hiring online is Heineken and Marriott Hotels. Heineken conceptualized a video called “The Candidate” when on May 25th, 2013 they needed to hire an intern for its Event & Sponsorship Marketing team to prepare for the Champions League final. Heineken received a staggering 1,734 applications for this position. They faced the question of choosing the right talent amongst all the candidates and finally decided not to follow a very strict hiring policy and select the person who could handle this responsibility and who could take an unconventional route. They filmed the entire interviewing experience in a video titled “The Candidate”. This campaign was so successful in grabbing the interest of future employees that there was a 279% traffic increase to their HR sites and a 317% increase in CV’s submitted after the campaign launch. Furthermore, this campaign also positively influenced the current employees such that 91% of Heineken employees who watched the video found it stimulating for their job.
Similarly Marriott hotels have utilized the Gamification concept effectively to tap into hiring the right talent for the Hotel industry. With the game titled “My Marriott Hotel” on Facebook, interested candidates are asked to manage a “virtual” hotel restaurant kitchen before moving on to other areas of hotel operations. They earn points for happy customers and lose points for poor service. David Rodriguez, Executive Vice President of Global Human Resources, Marriott International states that “As Marriott expands in growth markets outside the U.S., and as we seek to attract more Millennials – those between the ages 18 and 27-to our workforce, we must find new ways to interest them in hospitality careers. This game allows us to showcase the world of opportunities and the growth potential attainable in hospitality careers, especially in cultures where the service industry might be less established or prestigious.”
Even though social recruiting has made its presence felt and is here to stay, there are instances when they can put organizations in disadvantageous positions. This can occur when the data on social media sites may be misleading to a new recruit, or on the other hand, to an HR executive looking for a new employee. Besides this some other problems can be:
- Specific resources could be a hard target
- Quality of talent may be suspect
- New geographies and new cultures could be problematic
Also if one looks at the flip side and takes into consideration the candidates’ perspective, there are another set of issues which can crop up such as:
- Lack of Trust: Candidates may not trust the job details published by certain companies
- Unavailability of genuine content: Corporate news and shared/re-tweeted articles are also available on other websites, not related to the original social media property of a company. The potential candidate may lose interest because of the lack of genuine, insightful and original content
- Lack of Discretion: As social media sites are free and easily accessible to public, there is always a possibility of employers to ignore the importance of appropriate contact details for candidate reference
- Transparency Issues: Advertising jobs on social media sites lack transparency and may contain partial information about the job role which could lead to confusion in the minds of potential candidates.
Therefore the time has now come for companies to look into the effectiveness and up gradation of Social recruitment as a tool by focusing on the utilization of the correct metrics for analysis and research. Rapid changes in technology is also paving the way for further innovative ways to use social media in organizations and hence Human Resources professionals need to be updated about these radical changes so as to be able to implement the same at the right time in the workplace.
Author: Navashree Bharadwaj
Author Information:
Navashree Bharadwaj is a second Year student pursuing her Master’s degree in Human Resources Management & Labour Relations from TISS, Mumbai.
