Influence and Biases of Social Network Sites on Recruitment and Selection in Maldives

This paper analyzes the influence and biases of social network sites on recruitment and selection in the context of Maldives. It explores the use of e-recruitment and social media recruitment strategies to overcome the labor crisis in the country.

Running head: RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION
Recruitment and Selection
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

1RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION
As opined by Spence, Lachlan and Rainear (2016), the process of globalization or
internationalization and the extensive usage of the different kinds of innovative technological
developments have drastically changed the nature of the contemporary business world.
Ployhart, Schmitt and Tippins (2017) are of the viewpoint these factors have not changed the
present business world but at the same time had made it completely different from that of the
earlier times. For example, these factors have not only changed the manner in which the
different business operations or functions are being carried out by the business firms but at
the same time the manner in which these entities are being managed (Boxman & Flap, 2017).
More importantly, it is seen that the focus of the majority of the contemporary business firms
is on the enhancement of the individual employee performance and also on the improvement
of the overall performance of their firms as well (Nikolaou, Bauer & Truxillo, 2015).
However, the wicked problem of labor crisis that the majority of the nations are presently
facing is adversely affecting the business or the organizational prospects of the different
firms.
Derous, Pepermans and Ryan (2017) have articulated the viewpoint that the
traditional approaches to recruitment and selection had failed to yield any significant results
and also to meet the increasing labor demands of the business firms. The net result of this is
that the business firms and the HR professionals who are related to them are increasingly
resorting to the usage of different forms of innovative recruitment and selection strategies
like e-recruitment, recruiting from online job portals, social media recruitment and others
(McCarthy et al., 2017). The extensive usage of these innovative recruitment and selection
have not only enabled the different business firms to overcome the labor issues that they are
facing in an effective manner but also helped to recruit the right kind of qualified
professionals for their business as well. This paper will analyze the influence and biases of
social network sites on recruitment and selection in the particular context of Maldives. This
topic is of special interest to me because of the fact an analysis of this innovative strategy will
enable me to understand the key trends within the framework of the contemporary Maldivian
business world and also the manner in which the firms and HRs are using these strategies for
the resolution of the labor crisis that they are facing.
Maldives, an Asian island nation, is located to the south of the nation of India in the
Indian Ocean (Maldivesinfo.gov.mv, 2019). More importantly, the nation has a land area of
only 286 sq. km and is known for its picturesque beauty which is one of the major reasons for
the large number of Asian as well as international tourists that the nation is being able to get

2RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION
on an yearly basis (Maldivesinfo.gov.mv, 2019). Ladkin and Buhalis (2016) are of the
viewpoint that despite the geographical as well as political challenges that the nation faces, it
had been able to make a significant amount of advancement in terms of trade and commerce.
For example, it is seen that the tourism and the hospitality industry forms the backbone of the
national economy of the concerned nation. In addition to this, the nation is also the home to
some of the most reputed business firms of the world like “Allied Insurance Company”,
“Maldives Gas Pvt. Ltd”, “Fuel Supplies Maldives Pvt. Ltd”, “Lafarge Maldives Cement Pvt.
Ltd”, “STO Hotels and Resorts Pvt. Ltd” and others (Maldivesinfo.gov.mv, 2019). However,
at the same time it needs to be said that one of the most important problems that these firms
are currently facing and which in turn had greatly limited the success made by them is the
labor crisis that the nation is presently facing (Maldivesindependent.com, 2019). In this
regard, it needs to be said that the relatively small population of the nation, that is, 427,756 as
of 2016, had greatly contributed towards this problem (Maldivesinfo.gov.mv, 2019).
According to Maldivesindependent.com (2019), although the unemployment rate of the
nation is only 5% yet it is seen that there are more than 70,000 new job openings in the
concerned nation for which the firms cannot get suitable candidates. Another important factor
which accounts for the inability of the business firms of the concerned nation to get the right
number as well as kind of candidates for their firms is the fact that they are still taking the
help of the traditional methods of recruitment and selection for the hiring of candidates
(Melanthiou, Pavlou & Constantinou, 2015). This in turn had given rise to the situation
wherein the work of these firms is greatly adversely hampered because of the shortage of
labor that they have within their framework. It is precisely here that the construct of e-
recruitment, social media recruitment and others become especially important in the
particular context of Maldives.
El Ouirdi et al. (2016) are of the viewpoint that one of the most important job roles of
the different HR professionals within the framework of any firm is the recruitment as well as
the selection of new candidates who would in turn enable the firm to complete the work of
the firm in an adequate manner. More importantly, the HR professionals for the recruitment
and selection generally conduct interviews with the candidates who had responded to the job
advertisements placed by them in the traditional media tools like newspapers, radio,
television and others (Jeske & Shultz, 2016). However, it is seen that this process takes a
significant amount of time as well as other resources of the firms and too often it is seen that
the firms fail to get the kind of candidates that they are looking for. This in turn had given

3RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION
rise to the need on the part of the firms to drastically modify or amend the recruitment and
selection that they have been using and integrate the usage of social media, online job portals
and other innovative technologies with in the same (Sameen & Cornelius, 2015).
As opined by Kissel and Büttgen (2015), the emergence as well as the extensive usage
of these technologies for the recruitment of candidates can be seen as an attempt on the part
of the firms to adjust to the recent developments within the framework of the business world
and also the ever changing nature of the same. In addition to these, it is likely that the
different business firms through the effective usage of these technologies for the recruitment
of candidates would be able to overcome the problem of labor crisis in an effective manner
and thereby attain a higher level of growth (Khatri et al., 2015). This is important not only
from the perspective of the business firms but at the same time from the perspective of the
national economy of the nation in which the firms are operational as well.
Roth et al. (2016) have articulated that the viewpoint that two of the most important
trends which are being seen with the process of recruitment and selection used by the HR
professionals in the nation of Maldives are e-recruitment and social media recruitment. As
opined by Buettner (2016), one of the most important strength points of these strategies of
recruitment and selection is the fact that they are not only cost effective manner but at the
same time save a significant amount of other resources of the business firms as well. This can
be explained on the basis of the fact that the Maldivian business firms like “STO Hotels and
Resorts Pvt. Ltd”, “Fuel Supplies Maldives Pvt. Ltd” and other in the past used to invest a
significant amount of capital for placing advertisements in the newspapers, magazines, radio,
television and others (Maldivesindependent.com, 2019). In addition to this, the physical
method of interviews that they used to take the help of needed the use of different resources
of their firms like conference rooms, the presence of managers and others. It was seen that
despite investing a large amount of capital and resources for the process the firms often failed
to get the right kind or number of professional candidates as per their requirements. However,
this is not the case with the use of the strategies of e-recruitment, social media recruitment
and others since the firms and the HR related to them had to invest minimal amount of capital
or resources for placing their job advertisements on the online job portals (Monster.com,
LinkedIn and others), social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and others (Van
Iddekinge et al., 2016). In this regard, it needs to be said that all the organizations had to do is
to create an online profile of their firm over these websites and offer the required information

4RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION
regarding the job role for which they are hiring and also the job roles that these individuals
would be required to perform.
According to McCarthy et al. (2017), an important aspect of the use of social media
for the process of recruitment and selection is the fact that it saves a lot of valuable time of
the HR professionals and also enables them to get the right kind of candidates. For example,
once the HRs place a job advertisement the candidates can look at the specification to check
whether they are suitable for it or not and thereby get in touch with them to apply for job.
More importantly, the HRs can themselves follow different candidates over these social
media platforms and message them directly in cases of vacancy. It is pertinent to note that
this is completely different from the earlier times when a lot of candidates used to apply for
the same job irrespective of the fact whether they have the right qualifications or not and the
HRs had to select the right candidates from the plethora of candidates who used to apply
(Derous, Pepermans & Ryan, 2017). Thus, it can be said that the use of these tools not only
saves a valuable amount of time of the HRs but at the same time enables them to get the right
sort of candidates as well.
Nikolaou, Bauer and Truxillo (2015) have articulated the viewpoint that with the
changes in the recruitment strategy, the manner in which interviews are being conducted by
the firms and HRs had also undergone a significant amount of change. For example, in the
earlier times it was seen that the HRs used to conduct face-to-face interviews and this used to
take a significant amount of time and used to require the involvement of the management
team of the firm as well (Boxman & Flap, 2017). However, in the recent times it is seen that
the firms like “STO Hotels and Resorts Pvt. Ltd” and others are resorting to the usage of
video interviews or conference call interviews so as to save not only time but also the
resources of their firm as well (Maldivesindependent.com, 2019). More importantly, the
effective usage of this method enables the firms to shortlist the candidates and conduct face-
to-face interviews with the desired candidates only. This is especially important from the
perspective of the travel and hospitality related firms because of the fact that they are ones
who need the maximum amount of labor or workforce. Thus, the effective usage of the e-
recruitment and social media recruitment have enabled these firms to get the right kind of
candidates for their firms in a cost effective as well as time saving manner.
Two of the most important tools which are being used by the recruiters as well as the
HR professionals for the process of recruitment and selection are Facebook and LinkedIn

5RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION
(Ladkin & Buhalis, 2016). Ployhart, Schmitt and Tippins (2017) are of the viewpoint that two
of the most important reasons for the widespread usage of these two platforms not only
enables the HRs and the firms to reach out to a much larger number of people but at the same
time are very cost effective as well. More importantly, the HRs have to option to view the
profile of the different individuals, match the qualifications of these individuals with the ones
that they are looking for within their firm and then make the call to schedule the interview
(Boxman & Flap, 2017). This as a matter of fact shortens the actual process of recruitment
and selection and thereby saves the resources and the capital of the firms. This is perhaps one
of the major reasons why the majority of the Maldivian firms related to the tourism and
hospitality sector like “STO Hotels and Resorts Pvt. Ltd” and others.
Spence, Lachlan and Rainear (2016) have articulated the viewpoint that the usage of
e-recruitment and social media recruitment offers various advantages or benefits to the HRs
or the firms which were not being offered to them by the traditional strategies of recruitment
and selection. For example, it is commonly agreed that one of the most important benefits of
the usage of these strategies of recruitment and selection is the fact that they are not only cost
effective for the business firms but at the same time saves a valuable amount of their time and
resources as well (Derous, Pepermans & Ryan, 2017). Furthermore, another important
advantage of the usage of these recruitment and selection strategies is the fact that they
enable the firms to get the candidates as per their requirements and expectations. This is
especially important from the perspective of the nation of Maldives wherein it is seen that
there is a shortage of labor resources and also the firms are finding it very hard to get suitable
candidates. More importantly, getting the right kind of candidates is important for these firms
because of the fact that in the absence of adequate number of qualified employees their
productivity is getting adversely affected and this in turn is taking a toll on their financial
performance or profitability as well (Sameen & Cornelius, 2015). Thus, it can be said that the
extensive usage of these strategies have not only enabled the Maldivian firms to get the right
kind as well as number of candidates which in turn had enhanced their performance and
profitability.
There are various challenges that the Maldivian firms are currently facing related to
the usage of e-recruitment and social media recruitment for the hiring of the right number and
kind of candidates. For example, one of the most important challenges that the firms face
related to the usage of these strategies is the fact that Maldives is still a developing nation and
usage of internet is still very limited in the nation, as a matter of fact it is seen that only a

6RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION
limited number of people in the nation use internet on a regular basis (El Ouirdi et al., 2016).
This in significantly reduces the number of responses that the HRs get from the candidates
regarding the job advertisements that they have posted over the online platforms. Another
important challenge that the HRs and the firms face related to the effective usage of these
strategies is the fact that there still exists a significant amount of bias in the nation regarding
the usage of social media (Van Iddekinge et al., 2016). In this regard, it needs to be said that
even in the present times the idea that social media and other similar online platforms are
being used solely for entertainment and socializing predominates in the nation and the net
result of this is that the people when they see any job advertisements over these platforms do
not take them in a serious manner. This in turn greatly reduces the number of candidates that
the HRs and the different business firms to which they are related get. These in short are
some of the major challenges that the HRs and the business firms face for the usage of these
strategies when it comes to the recruitment and selection of new candidates.
The different challenges that the HRs face for the use of these innovative strategies of
recruitment and selection in turn gives rise to many questions regarding the employability
sector of Maldives. For example, one of the most important questions in this regard is that
when the majority of the global business firms are using these strategies for the recruitment
of new candidates and also getting significant amount of success through the usage of the
same then why are the people in Maldives reluctant to do the same. This in turn indicates the
various unclear parts of the nation of Maldives like why are the business firms of the nation
not being able to use these innovative strategies and others. In this regard, I would like to add
some personal comments or advices through which the firms can improve the clarity,
relevancy, appropriateness and rationality of these strategies. Firstly, the firms can initially
begin by using a combination of both the traditional approach and these modern approaches
of recruitment and selection. Secondly, they can try to change the perception of the people
through the extensive usage of the social media for various purposes like marketing,
promotion and others. Thirdly, they can offer lectures in the colleges and other educational
institutions for a day or two and acquaint them with this trend in the employability sector and
others.
To conclude, the change that the business world had undergone in the recent times
becomes apparent from the innovative recruitment and selection strategies which are being
used by the different firms. In this regard, mention needs to be made of the e-recruitment and
social media recruitment strategies which are being commonly used by the different

7RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION
contemporary business firms. This important especially important from the perspective that
one of the most important wicked problems that the world is currently is that of labor crisis
and the effective usage of these strategies enables the firms to not only get the right kind or
number of qualified professional candidates as well. These aspects become apparent from the
usage of these strategies of recruitment and selection in the nation of Maldives by the
different business firms and the HRs related to them. I believe that this paper will be an
important one for the HRs and firms in Maldives because of the fact that it will offer them a
working idea regarding the manner in which they need to use e-recruitment and social media
recruitment strategies and also the measures that they need to take for the mitigation or
resolution of the challenges that they are facing related to the usage of the same.

8RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION
References
Boxman, E., & Flap, H. (2017). Getting started: the influence of social capital on the start of
the occupational career. In Social capital (pp. 159-181). Routledge.
Buettner, R. (2016, January). Getting a job via career-oriented social networking sites: The
weakness of ties. In 2016 49th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences
(HICSS)(pp. 2156-2165). IEEE.
Derous, E., Pepermans, R., & Ryan, A. M. (2017). Ethnic discrimination during résumé
screening: Interactive effects of applicants’ ethnic salience with job context. Human
Relations, 70(7), 860-882.
El Ouirdi, M., Pais, I., Segers, J., & El Ouirdi, A. (2016). The relationship between recruiter
characteristics and applicant assessment on social media. Computers in Human
Behavior, 62, 415-422.
Jeske, D., & Shultz, K. S. (2016). Using social media content for screening in recruitment and
selection: pros and cons. Work, employment and society, 30(3), 535-546.
Khatri, C., Chapman, S. J., Glasbey, J., Kelly, M., Nepogodiev, D., Bhangu, A., (2015).
Social media and internet driven study recruitment: evaluating a new model for
promoting collaborator engagement and participation. PloS one, 10(3), e0118899.
Kissel, P., & Büttgen, M. (2015). Using social media to communicate employer brand
identity: The impact on corporate image and employer attractiveness. Journal of
Brand Management, 22(9), 755-777.
Ladkin, A., & Buhalis, D. (2016). Online and social media recruitment: Hospitality employer
and prospective employee considerations. International Journal of Contemporary
Hospitality Management, 28(2), 327-345.
Maldivesindependent.com, (2019). Quarter of Maldives youth unemployed: World Bank.
Retrieved from https://maldivesindependent.com/business/quarter-of-maldives-youth-
unemployed-world-bank-133111
Maldivesinfo.gov.mv, (2019). Maldives official website. Retrieved from
http://www.maldivesinfo.gov.mv/home/

9RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION
McCarthy, J. M., Bauer, T. N., Truxillo, D. M., Anderson, N. R., Costa, A. C., & Ahmed, S.
M. (2017). Applicant perspectives during selection: A review addressing “So
what?,”“what’s new?,” and “where to next?”. Journal of Management, 43(6), 1693-
1725.
Melanthiou, Y., Pavlou, F., & Constantinou, E. (2015). The use of social network sites as an
e-recruitment tool. Journal of Transnational Management, 20(1), 31-49.
Nikolaou, I., Bauer, T. N., & Truxillo, D. M. (2015). Applicant reactions to selection
methods: An overview of recent research and suggestions for the future. Employee
recruitment, selection, and assessment. Contemporary Issues for Theory and Practice,
80-96.
Ployhart, R. E., Schmitt, N., & Tippins, N. T. (2017). Solving the Supreme Problem: 100
years of selection and recruitment at the Journal of Applied Psychology. Journal of
Applied Psychology, 102(3), 291.
Roth, P. L., Bobko, P., Van Iddekinge, C. H., & Thatcher, J. B. (2016). Social media in
employee-selection-related decisions: A research agenda for uncharted
territory. Journal of Management, 42(1), 269-298.
Sameen, S., & Cornelius, S. (2015). Social networking sites and hiring: How social media
profiles influence hiring decisions. Journal of Business Studies Quarterly, 7(1), 27.
Spence, P. R., Lachlan, K. A., & Rainear, A. M. (2016). Social media and crisis research:
Data collection and directions. Computers in Human Behavior, 54, 667-672.
Van Iddekinge, C. H., Lanivich, S. E., Roth, P. L., & Junco, E. (2016). Social media for
selection? Validity and adverse impact potential of a Facebook-based
assessment. Journal of Management, 42(7), 1811-1835.