Social Networking and Recruitment

Running head: SOCIAL NETWORKING AND RECRUITMENT
Social Networking and Recruitment
Name of the student
Name of the University
Author note

SOCIAL NETWORKING AND RECRUITMENT1
Social media phenomenon have opened the new paths of the engagement and it has
revolutionised the exchange of the information. The people in the present age interact over
the platform of the social media and its significance in the recruitment process is of
paramount importance in the present age. Social media helps the employers in knowing about
the backgrounds of the employees with the help of the various kind of social media platforms
like Facebook and the Twitter (Ladkin & Buhalis, 2016). The new technological
advancements have helped in altering social space where the employers can carry out
communication with the prospective employees. This report discusses whether it is
acceptable for the recruiters to search the profile of the candidates on the social networking
sites. The report states regarding whether it is the responsibility of the candidates of
maintaining the favourable character on the sites like the Face Book along with the Twitter.
The recruiters should not actively search the profile of the candidates in the social
networking sites. In today’s date where every daily whereabouts is shifting into the digital
world, social media has become a great platform for communication. Literally anyone can
form a virtual connection with anyone over social media or find information about them just
by a search which may not be available otherwise (Zhang & Leung, 2015.) At present, social
media is playing another big role in the process of recruitment for different sorts of
companies all around the globe. The social media platform allows everyone to utilize it in
different forms. Previously they we known for mostly connecting with friends and family but
now they have also started to play an important role in the process of recruitments for the
companies. The hirers go through the social media accounts of candidates to gain more
information about them than what is already given in the curriculum vitae by them. Social
media sites like Facbeook, Twitter and especially LinkedIn are the platforms where recruiters
search for the applied candidates before hiring. The question here arises that do they people
are aware that their informal accounts are being looked for by the recruiters of those

SOCIAL NETWORKING AND RECRUITMENT2
companies they want to work with. The people of business are progressively using the social
networking sites or SNS via either their own corporate platforms or websites like LinkedIn,
Facebook and Twitter. As it happens to be one of a recent phenomenon, the benefits, risks
and potentialities of such kind of tools has not been addressed properly in the organizations
yet (Mosteller & Poddar, 2017.)
The human resource or HR denotes the policies and practices adopted by corporate or
any other companies for carrying out the personal facets of work but there are some
organizations those are reluctant to permit the access of SNS and form boundaries within the
workplace. It is imperative to recognize use of SNS in the form of an extension for social
activities of the people and behalf of restrictions but again that is very self-centered for the
company (Yokoyama, 2016.) Invading an individual’s privacy be it in physical form or into
the digital world is considered as an act of breach. When a person is applying in a company,
he or she is going there with a professional purpose that has got nothing to do with their
personal life. Now when the company wants to gain some more information about the
employee beyond the curriculum vitae then the human resource manager or any other suitable
recruiter goes to social media platform with their corporate profile to go and stalk the
employee’s social media sites. Sometimes instead of the corporate sites, the recruiters use
their own personal social media sites too for gathering more information about the candidate.
This not only violates the privacy of the candidate but also leaves no space for difference in
the personal and professional life of an individual. Having a space between the personal and
professional life of both the recruiter and the candidate is very important but using them to
gather information about the candidate before hiring them is not only violation of privacy but
also unhealthy for both of them too.
The individual candidates are not endowed with the responsibility of creating a
favourable character on the social media sites like the Facebook along with the Twitter. The