Social Media in the Hiring Process
- Topics: Business
- Pages: 3
- Words: 671
- Date added: May 4, 2020
Social Media in the workplace can be a powerful tool for recruiters, as well as for potential candidates that are looking to apply. There are two main ways social media can be applied by Talent Managers to effectively seek out future employees: Social media recruiting, and screening potential hires.
First, social media recruiting has become more and more popular in recent years. As technology advances, so do the opportunities for a company who holds a solid and active social media presence. With obtaining a pool of candidates from Social Media, you get a higher quality of applicants. Potential hires that are found online are most likely going to be somewhat tech savvy, and know more information about current trends in business. Social Media also allows companies to reach out to productive, loyal candidates who may not be thinking about parting from their current job, but are not opposed to leaving if the right opportunity comes along. Another upside to social media recruiting is that it is more cost effective than traditional recruitment strategies. Setting up on sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are all free, and running ads on these websites is normally inexpensive.
The second reason social media in the workplace can be a good tool used for recruitment is that you can screen new potential hires, however, this has more cons than the previous paragraph. Screening potential hires on their personal social media profiles can give hiring managers insight to what kind of person you are, what you do with your free time, if you will be able to represent the company in a positive way, etc. All of the things listed in the previous sentence can potentially backfire because viewing a person’s private social media pages can open management up to demographic information that is off limits during an official interview. They can find out marital status, how many children you have, religion, national origin, and so on. Having knowledge of these details about candidates, and not hiring them after an investigation is done, could possibly turn into discrimination charges if employers are not careful.
In class we discussed about how effective having an account on sites like LinkedIn can be. It speeds up the hiring process for the company, as well as the application process for candidates who are searching for employment. It is much easier to digitally submit a resume than having to drive around and turn one in, or mail it. We also discussed that future employers reserve the right to view your private social media accounts. If they see you as someone who could potentially be a representation of their company if you are hired, they have some say in what goes on your accounts that can be seen by the public.
As many issues were discussed in the last paragraph, it is becoming more and more risky to view personal social media profiles of people from your pool of candidates. We discussed in a Business Administrations meeting in the construction building with three speakers, that discrimination charges can easily come up if social media accounts are looked at. Although, all three of the speakers did say they look at potential candidates’ profiles during the hiring process.
Personally, I believe that employers do have a right to look at what you are posting, as an employee is an extension of the company they work for. I would not want to be the owner of a company, and see my employees posting offensive, explicit content on Facebook or Instagram. If this were to happen, it could look bad on my part for having employed someone who would post such vulgar things, and it could potentially be bad for business. I also think social media used in the recruitment process is an excellent tool. It speeds up the process by giving employers a chance to immediately communicate with potential candidates and vice versa. It is much cheaper than traditional methods of recruitment. Lastly, it may get you more qualified, and loyal candidates to fill positions.