Social Media and Recruitment Practices

This assignment delves into the utilization of social media platforms in modern recruitment strategies. It examines how businesses leverage these platforms to identify and engage potential candidates, highlighting both the advantages and challenges associated with this approach. The discussion encompasses various aspects, such as the effectiveness of social media recruitment, ethical considerations surrounding data privacy and online reputation, and the evolving role of social media in shaping employer branding.

Running head: ROLE OF SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES IN HR DECISIONS
Academic Writing
Thesis Statement: Human resource professionals take full advantage of social networking
sites while performing HR functions which result in reducing operating costs and increasing
employees’ efficiency.
P a g e | 0

ROLE OF SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES IN HR DECISIONS
Role of Social Networking Sites in Human Resource Decisions
Advancement in technology and widespread use of social networking sites (SNSs)
have significantly changed business across all industries and dramatically transformed the
way human resource professional perform their job. This essay will critically analyse the
impact of social media sites over human resource decisions in organisations. In recent years,
the role of human resource professional has grown substantially, and they perform more
duties than planning good salary and benefit packages for employees. The human resource
professionals are responsible for different operations such as following and implementing
discrimination laws, establishing privacy protection policies, gaining industry knowledge,
developing employees’ skills and others (Gond, Igalens, Swaen & El Akremi, 2011). Many
experts provide that SNSs should not be acceptable in today’s society because of various
threats that these sites poses such as cyber-attack, internet dependency, privacy issues and
others. Though, social networking sites assist human resource professional in performing
various activities efficiently which result in increasing employees’ productive performance
and reducing company’s overall costs (Brown & Vaughn, 2011). This essay will evaluate
various literature to examine how social media sites influence various HR functions such as
recruitment, training, communication, and others. Further, the essay will argue why the use of
SNSs for HR decisions should be widely accepted in today’s society.
Social media sites can be used as a recruitment tool in organisations since it provides
a wider reach to both employer and candidates and it also reduces overall recruitment cost.
The research of Bicky & Kwok (2011) founded that social media sites are effective
recruitment tool because they establish a two-way communication channel between recruiters
and job candidates. The use of social media sites also reduces company’s recruitment costs
since most SNSs are free to use. Bicky & Kwok (2011) research provided that in the
hospitality industry, social media sites are a significant tool for recruitment since it provides
employers the advantage of instant response from job candidates which assist them in
assessing candidate’s qualification and skills. According to the study of Kroeze (2015), social
media sites reduce the overall cost of recruitment because workload moves from employer to
candidate. The job candidates provide all the necessary information to the employer that
makes it easier for them to analyse and select qualified employees. Henderson & Bowley
(2010) stated that most of the SNSs can be accessed free of cost which also reduces
recruitment cost of recruiters. Video chatting applications enable recruiters to interview
P a g e | 1

ROLE OF SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES IN HR DECISIONS
candidates from foreign countries which provide them a wider reach. Therefore, SNSs should
be acceptable in today’s society as a recruitment tool since it is inexpensive and efficient.
Communication is a key factor in the success of a company, and social media sites
instantly connect HR professional with employees that assist in establishing a positive
working environment. Employees, especially millennial, spend a large amount of time on
social media sites communicating with friends, family, and others. As per Veil, Buehner &
Palenchar (2011), HR professional can use these platforms to their advantage as well. HR
manager can use social media sites to share new policy or provide feedback to employees that
establish a positive and fast communication channel between them. Lack of effective
communication channel also increases job dissatisfaction rate in employees because they find
it difficult to share their issues with top-level management. Macnamara & Zerfass (2012)
mentioned that social media sites enable managers to provide instant feedback to employees
that result in improving their performance. The employees also have the option to directly
send their quarries to top-level management which result in establishing a positive working
environment. HR professional can also use SNSs to communicate with each other while
formulating new human resource policies. According to Roth, Bobko, Van Iddekinge &
Thatcher (2016), various HR functions such as salary issues, bonus, incentive problems and
others can be resolved quickly through instant communication by social media sites.
Therefore, social media sites are an ideal communication channel for HR professional and it
should be accepted in today’s society.
Social media sites assist leaders in effectively managing employees in large
corporations and implementing corporate changes. One of the biggest shortcomings in the
traditional communication process is that it took too long to share information between
different employees and in different division. Sanchez, Levin & Del Riego (2012) provided
that most of the multinational companies find it difficult to implement corporate change in
different branches because it is difficult to share information with each other. Social media
sites allow managers to directly interact with employees that assist them managing the
workers. Managers can use social media sites to manage the performance of a single
employee or a group effectively. Montalvo (2011) stated that any new update or change
policy can be easily circulated between employees and different division through social
media sites even in multinational corporations. SNSs are international platforms, and HR
professional can use them to manage the performance of employees that are not working
inside the country. Senior HR managers can simply post a positive tweet on employee’s
P a g e | 2

ROLE OF SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES IN HR DECISIONS
performance that motivates him to perform even better. HR professional can effectively
engage with workers through social media sites and encourage them to improve their
performance which results in increasing company’s profitability.
Training is a crucial HR function which assists in the overall development of
employees, and due to the popularity of SNSs, HR professional can use them to create
customisable training programs that focus on workers’ development. In recent years, HR
professionals did not provide training through educational material instead they use social
media sites to create customisable software training programs that employees can easily
access through different devices. Van den Bossche, Segers & Jansen (2010) provided that
modern corporations use social media sites, third party websites or company’s own internal
social platform to train their employees collaboratively. Social media sites enable
multinational companies to train their employees overseas which blurs their boundaries
between different departments and establish a collaborate environment in the corporation.
Online training connects employees throughout the world with each other which is one of its
primary benefits. The firms can hire highly qualified trainers and use SNSs to connect them
with their employees’ worldwide which increase their performance and establish a
collaborative working environment in the enterprise (Bingham & Conner, 2010). The online
training exercise includes video lectures, online games, tailored online courses for specific
students, and others. Training is crucial in modern organisations since it increases employees’
productive performance and provides corporations a competitive advantage, therefore, use of
SNSs should be widely accepted in society.
In conclusion, SNSs should be widely accepted in society since it provides various
advantages to HR professional while taking human capital related decisions. The HR
professional can use SNSs to recruit employees from all around the world, provide training,
establish effective communication channels between workers and manage them effectively.
SNSs connect people around the world with each other and HR professional can use these
platforms to monitor the performance of employees and provide them instant feedbacks
which increase their productivity. HR professionals can use SNSs to easily monitor
employees’ performance even in different countries, and they can also provide them instant
feedback on their good or bad performance. Edosomwan, Prakasan, Kouame, Watson &
Seymour (2011) provided that the feedbacks or comments assist employees in assessing their
work and improve it as per company’s requirements. Similarly, employees can also monitor
new changes in corporation’s policies, and they can also provide their feedbacks and quarries
P a g e | 3

ROLE OF SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES IN HR DECISIONS
about the same. The SNSs should be widely accepted in today’s society because its
advantages overcome its shortcomings, and it sustains company’s future development.
P a g e | 4

ROLE OF SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES IN HR DECISIONS
References
Bicky, S. L., & Kwok, L. (2011). Social media as an employee recruitment tool. Graduate
Student Research Conference in hospitality and tourism. Retrieved from
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://
www.google.co.in/&httpsredir=1&article=1119&context=gradconf_hospitality
Kroeze, A. M. A. (2015). Recruitment via Social Media Sites: A critical Review and
Research Agenda (Bachelor's thesis, University of Twente). Retrieved from
http://essay.utwente.nl/68499/1/Kroeze_BA_BMS.pdf
Brown, V. R., & Vaughn, E. D. (2011). The writing on the (Facebook) wall: The use of social
networking sites in hiring decisions. Journal of Business and psychology, 26(2), 219.
Gond, J. P., Igalens, J., Swaen, V., & El Akremi, A. (2011). The human resources
contribution to responsible leadership: An exploration of the CSR–HR
interface. Journal of business ethics, 98(1), 115-132.
Henderson, A., & Bowley, R. (2010). Authentic dialogue? The role of “friendship” in a social
media recruitment campaign. Journal of Communication Management, 14(3), 237-
257.
Veil, S. R., Buehner, T., & Palenchar, M. J. (2011). A work‐in‐process literature review:
Incorporating social media in risk and crisis communication. Journal of contingencies
and crisis management, 19(2), 110-122.
Macnamara, J., & Zerfass, A. (2012). Social media communication in organizations: The
challenges of balancing openness, strategy, and management. International Journal of
Strategic Communication, 6(4), 287-308.
Sánchez Abril, P., Levin, A., & Del Riego, A. (2012). Blurred boundaries: Social media
privacy and the twenty‐first‐century employee. American Business Law
Journal, 49(1), 63-124.
Montalvo, R. E. (2011). Social media management. International Journal of Management &
Information Systems (IJMIS), 15(3), 91-96.
P a g e | 5

ROLE OF SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES IN HR DECISIONS
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.
Edosomwan, S., Prakasan, S. K., Kouame, D., Watson, J., & Seymour, T. (2011). The history
of social media and its impact on business. Journal of Applied Management and
entrepreneurship, 16(3), 79.
Van den Bossche, P., Segers, M., & Jansen, N. (2010). Transfer of training: the role of
feedback in supportive social networks. International Journal of Training and
Development, 14(2), 81-94.
Bingham, T., & Conner, M. (2010). The new social learning: A guide to transforming
organizations through social media. California: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
P a g e | 6