Influence of Social Media on Recruiting - Desklib

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Organizational behavior
Influence of social media on recruiting

Social media to influence recruitment decisions.
Social media recruiting has recently evolved as an extensively practiced form of recruiting
within various organizations (Gibbs, MacDonald & Mackay, 2015). The advent of social
media through various platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter is not unknown.
These websites have provided people with a platform to turn themselves into a brand (Harris
& Rae, 2011). People can share their ideas, communicate with others, voice their opinion and
discuss leading issues inflicting the world today. Every person has leveraged the platform as
it deems necessary for them.
The issue in this case is not rare. In the process of recruiting individuals, an access to their
social media platforms provides the HR personnel with certain additional information that
may or may not work in favour of the candidate (Kaur & Sharma, 2015). But is it really
ethical to gain access to an individual’s personal life while deciding their professional career?
Also, are the details shared by individuals on their social media platforms are really personal?
The first option of seeking permission from candidates before visiting their social media
platforms is surely an ethical move. However, there two risks posed in this process Firstly,
either of the candidates have complete authority to deny the access. This would probably give
the other candidates an unfair advantage. Secondly, there is a strong possibility that the
candidates edit, hide or delete any details that they deem might affect their chances of
selection. In which case, the entire picture would become unclear.
The second option of viewing the information that is public without informing the candidates
seems fair because every individual has an access to public information. However, there is no
surety that the public information provided by the candidates on these platforms truly reflects
on their professional life. Also the three candidates may not have public information to the
same extent. It is likely that one candidate’s profile is entirely accessible while the other
candidate’s profile has security access. Lastly, upon viewing the profile of either of these
candidates, if the HR finds any mutual relationships, then it may affect the HR’s decision
which in turn may lead to a biased judgement (Caers & Castelyns, 2011).
Lastly, the option about not looking at the social media profile of either of the candidates
leaves the organization at a disadvantage of not having any additional details about either of