Class Social Media Discussion: What is Persuasive?

Human Resource Mangement

M2 Team Written Assignment on Social Media Position

PRO Team - Crystal Black, Jamie Botsford, Scott Dean, Patricia Demarsh, Charity Ferguson, Jennifer Kilts, Tameka Murphy, Kimberly O’Halloran, Scott Piccolo, Jason Severance

After doing some research on the use of social media in the job recruitment process, our team was able to find several pros of using social media for recruitment and employment decisions:

· Employers can reach 48% of job seekers, and putting a job posting on social media can increase candidate applications by between 30 and 50 percent! Social Media is an important method of communication for a growing portion of the workforce, particularly employees now joining it (it’s a part of most millennial’s daily lives).

· Use of social media for recruiting is quick and cost effective allowing the company to save time and money that could be used elsewhere.

· Social media allows for a longer, broader reach to potential candidates outside a geographic area that may not have been aware of a job opening that are looking to relocate, adding to potential diversity. 

· Using social media for recruiting is the best way for recruiters to stay ahead of the hiring game in an “ever-tightening and more competitive drive for candidates in 2015.” 73% of recruiters plan to invest more in social recruiting, versus 63% in referrals (Biro, 2015).

· Recruiters can gain a better perspective of character, personality, consistency of claims of experience, and professionalism, and screen out potential candidates for remarks against race, religion, age and sex. Using social media to learn more about a potential hire can take hiring fails out of the equation by giving recruiters an inside look into potential candidates lives. Biro points out that 61% of hiring managers have found something on a potential candidate’s social media account, and that 55% of hiring managers reconsidered the hire based on what they had found (Biro, 2015).

· Few people feel as free to share information in an interview as they do on a social media site, so recruiters can use it as an additional way to learn about a candidate. Social media can help determine if a candidate’s personality will be a good fit for the company as well as if there is any specific area they think they might excel in, and how they communicate overall. A candidate might have amazing communication and written skills that a recruiter isn’t able to see in a traditional interview.

· HR professionals can gain a greater insight into an applicant’s abilities. Resumes can be static in regards to one’s work experience and qualifications. Social media platforms give one the opportunity to exhibit their work. For example, creative professionals use social media to create an informal portfolio of their works. Employers can use their posts to get a sense of tact, voice, and professionalism of the candidate (Webster, 2014).

· In some cases, social media screening is a bonus for the prospective employee. Research has indicated that approximately 30 percent of HR professionals who use social media to screen candidates found that the content on their social media pages increased their chances of hiring them. Sometimes, social media could be one’s best advocate! If they practice professionalism and have a respectable profile, job seekers can use social media as a sort of reference, and this provides the perfect nonbiased reference to their character. Social media contains a candidate’s unfiltered personality, and if the information is good, it indicates that the candidate is fit for the job and will complement the company’s organizational culture.

References:

Abril, S. (2015). Blurred boundaries: Social media privacy and the twenty‐first‐century employee. American Business Law, 52-53.

Biro, M. (2015, November). 4 Reasons Social Media Is A Critical Recruiting Tool. Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/meghanbiro/2015/11/25/4-reasons-social-media-is-a-critical-recruiting-tool/#1782c7347f02

Brown, V. (2013). The writing on the (Facebook) wall: The use of social networking sites in hiring decisions. Journal of Business and Psychology, 89-90.

Global HR Research. (2015, November 13). Retrieved from http://www.ghrr.com/blog/2015/11/13/the-pros-and-cons-of-social-media-screening/

Segal, J. A. (2016, September). When it comes to using social media for hiring, it’s all about balancing risk. Society for Human Resource Management. Retrieved from Society for Human Resource Management.

Smith, J. (2013, April). How Social Media Can Help (Or Hurt) You In Your Job Search. Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmith/2013/04/16/how-social-media-can-help-or-hurt-your-job-search/#7ffa235724fd

Society For Human Resource Management. (n.d.). Retrieved from www.shrm.org/social media legal trends

US Equal Employment Opportunity Commision. (2015 13). Retrieved from https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/practices/index.cfm

Webster, J. (2014). Social Media in Employment Decisions. Academy of Management Journal, 56-57.