Employer Attractiveness through Social Media
Results
Following are the seven themes which emerged after conducting the analysis.
Theme 1: Ease of information
A large number of participants were of the view that social media helps them to gather relevant information about the prospective employers within no time through sources like company's Facebook page, LinkedIn, and YouTube videos. Unlike traditional recruitment techniques or the corporate websites, social media with its global reach and real-time adaptability has the potential to connect the job seekers with the organization in the first stage of their information search process with better and more appropriate information. The ease of long term conversation, constant connectivity and instant feedback by the employers enable the potential applicants to gather all the desired information about the organization and the job.
Through social media it has become very easy for us to interact with the prospective employers from India and abroad and unlike the company's website, it's more of a two-way communication between the employers and job seekers [laughs]. We need not wait to get our query satisfied [...] and fetch the [required] details at any point in time. (Participant from group 2, female, 22 years)
Furthermore, in addition to the information and videos shared by the organization on its Facebook page or YouTube, social media platforms like LinkedIn also allows the job seekers to connect with the recruiters and current employees of the organization and obtain job preview. As a result, the features of social networking sites move beyond the information provision of the corporate websites and help the organization to enhance its image by catering to the informational needs of the job seekers.
Social media based recruitment provides the possibility of getting a sense of a
typical day at work [...] we can get connected with the recruiters and other
employees [currently working in the company] on Facebook, LinkedIn, or
twitter and get all the information we are looking for. (Participant from group
1, male, 24 years)
Theme 2: Navigational Usability and User Friendliness
Majority of the participants opined that the familiarity with the social networking sites makes it convenient for them to navigate through pages in pursuit of information. The participants reported to be scanning through the post, videos and images shared by the company, reading the comments, and keeping in touch with the recruiters without facing any difficulty pertaining to the use of social networking sites. They further stated that social media has enabled them to compare one employer with another just by browsing through the profiles available on the sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Jobster etc. Besides, few participants also reported that availability of videos and images on the social media reduces the boredom and makes the job search process interesting for them.
When I talk about social media recruitment [...] one word which comes to my mind is user friendliness. Searching for job related information on the websites you are not familiar with makes the job search process a tedious one [...] but since the organizations [have] started using social media channels for recruitment, as a job seeker I feel like returning to these pages as and when required. Yeah [...] also just by easily flipping through pages with a few mouse clicks on websites like LinkedIn and jobster.com we [as job seekers] have access to a long list of companies wherein we can apply by checking all the details. (Participant from group 1, male, 25 years)
Theme 3: Person-Job Fit and Person-Organization Fit
Person-job fit and person-organization fit emerged as one of the significant theme under the study. More than 60 % of the participants stated that information provided on the social media, especially, through the blogs where the existing and former employees post about their job experience, helps job seekers to ascertain whether there is a fit between the organization and their own interest. Also, it enables them to appraise the compatibility between their competencies and the task to be performed.
The experiences shared by the existing and former employees of a company
helps in getting a clear picture about the job description, career-related
opportunities and even small details about the organization, [...] which are
generally [in most cases] not available on any company website. Social media
helps us in determining whether the job suits our interest and matches our skill
sets. (Participant from group 4, female, 22 years)
Theme 4: Reliability and Timeliness
The participants opined that social media facilitates in speedy and timely communication and provide a platform to the employer to share relevant, accurate, and timely information with the prospective employees. The chances of any delays in sending or receiving the information are ruled out as the company needs not to communicate with each applicant individually. Moreover, the job seekers are no longer dependent on company's owned website to obtain information, which mostly provides positive insights only. Furthermore, the job seekers reported to be have trust in the information provided by the current employees or acquaintance on the sites like LinkedIn and Facebook which enables them in making an informed decision about job pursuit in a particular organization.
By using social media, resumes and applications can be received from prospective employees within seconds and employers can respond [revert] to the applicants with equal efficiency [...] and [...] these social networking sites will not provide the eye-catching information only but would share the true and reliable picture of an organization too. Hmm [...] it [social media] helps because while checking the blogs posted by existing employees or by consulting them on LinkedIn or Facebook we can get accurate and true information about the job conditions and working environment of the company. (Participant from group 4, female, 26 years)
Theme 5: Positive and Cost Effective Marketing
All the participants were found to share the common belief that social media are the less expensive and cost effective method of recruitment and it also helps in positive marketing for the company as an employer. This belief also supported the earlier definition of social media given by Kaplan and Haenlein (2010). The participants also stated that the continuously flashing links about the job opening or any other events hosted by a company catches their attention while browsing through the social media platforms and creates awareness about the company and the various activities associated with it, which in turn, makes the company popular.
Social media reduces many costs for the company by enabling various campaigns through different social networking sites. Hmm [...] it [social media] also helps us [job seekers] in developing familiarity with the company through various links and pages on Facebook and by subscribing to these pages we can also get latest updates about the company and its events on day to day basis. Yeah [...] it makes the company popular among us [job seekers]. (Participant from group 3, male, 25 years)
Theme 6: Value Creation for the Employers
The participants reported that social media helps to create value, create an image of desirable employer and strengthen the organizational culture-value proposition. Companies make use of blogs, Twitter, Facebook and instant messages so as to continuously keep current and future employees updated with regard to the value proposition of the company including the corporate social performance, non-monetary benefits offered to the employees, career development opportunities, achievements and awards etc. It helps in attracting potential employees towards the organization, and leads to the job pursuit intentions. Moreover, it also helps in retaining the existing employees in a long run.
Organizations [employers] are using the social media to showcase their business ethics, employee friendly policies, […] CSR [corporate social responsibility] initiatives, […] and other awards and achievements […] in addition to the videos that shows us [job seekers] the attractive premises of the company and introduces us [job seekers] to the set of happy employees and customers associated with the company. Such information creates a positive outlook [viewpoint] towards the company [employer] and helps the organizations to attract talent towards them. Hmm […] definitely it helps the employers to build a favorable image in the job market, adding to the number of job seekers applying for the company. (Participant of group 2, male, 14 years)
Theme 7: Privacy Concern
Although, majority of the participants were found to be holding positive views about recruitment through social media, few participants also expressed their privacy concern and reported about the negative impact of social media usage by the employers for screening the candidates. They were of the view that social media should not be used to gather personal information about the candidates for screening and selection purposes. The employers, therefore, should be cautious before selecting or declining the candidates based on the personal details, posts, and pictures on their Facebook and other social media profiles. As reported by the participants, such steps, if taken by the employers, will allow the potential applicants to perceive negatively, which in turn, will adversely affect the image of an organization in the competitive job market. In this regard, findings by García-Izquierdo et al. (2010) also suggested that use of such personal information through online mediums during screening and selection process is discriminatory and unfair, intrusive, and invasive of applicants' privacy.
Attracting potential employees through social media channels has not harm [...] but its usage should be restricted to recruitment and marketing [employer branding] only. I have read about an employee who was fired [terminated] by his employer based on the post he had shared about his working experience on his Facebook profile, [...] there is an instance where an applicant was denied a job due to details of some personal conflict shared by him on social media. This is bad [unethical], the employers are not supposed to dig [probe] into the personal details of their potential or existing employees or peep [spy] into the personal lives of the applicants while selecting them. [...] certainly it will spoil their image as an employer. (Participant of group 3, female, 24 years)