Social Media Networks in Recruitment

The current changes and advances in technology and the role of internet and social media networks, has provided new opportunities for all organizations to communicate easier and find talented employees with less time and cost. This study is to investigate the impact of using social media networks in recruitment of professional staff at RACK private sector. It will show if the impact of these networks is positive or negative and to what extent does the use of them can lead to effective recruitment to improve the productivity and find highly qualified candidates easily.A axed method is used to collect results about the impact of social media on recruitment. Questionnaires will be administered to human resources directors and managers at RACK private sector companies and random sampling will be utilized. The questionnaires will be distributed randomly among 14 companies and the population will be 40-50 HRS directors/managers. In addition, unstructured Interviews will be used as a second method to emphasize the validity of the results and to increase the sample.Chapter 1 : Study Background Introduction The Emirate of Rasa AAA Kalmia (RACK) Is fast growing and the most northern. RACK has come a destination for many tourist visitors and Investors In the private sector. Many of the light and medium manufacturing as well as service Industries seek on the traditional classified and websites to recruit their employees. At the same time the use of these medium is decreasing as more and more college graduates and researchers are attracted to social media. Private sector employers are now seeing low pool of qualified applicants to fill their Job openings.This resulted in lower performing employees and incompatibility in the workplace. The current changes in technology and the growth in the use of internet and social Edie sites is remarkable. Companies and recruiters, therefore, need to be where the potential candidates are to be able to find the right qualified individuals. This involves engaging with talented people across a wide range of social media networks. Overall, and according to Ponderous, and Olivia, â€Å"social media has improved the recruitment process by making it more democratic and open† (Ponderous & Olives, 2013).Using social media alone however, can negatively impact the relationship building between the companies or HRS professionals and the potential candidates (Raja, 2010). It is therefore difficult to completely replace the traditional recruitment methods by the use of social media in the near future. This paper examines the potential impact which social media may have on the recruitment process. It places emphasis on how private sector corporations and recruitment professionals can benefit from the social media networks to promote their products and services efficiently and target the highly talented and qualified employees.It looks at the role of sites such as Faceable, Linked, and others are playing in the process of re cruiting and hiring professionals. Problem Statement RACK private sector is limited in their recruitment of highly qualified employment by not fully using Social Media as a recruitment tool. Social media can positively influence the recruitment in RACK private sector and can lead to the employment of highly talented and qualified employees. The increase use of social media in other Emirates' may decrease growth in RACK and hinder technological advancement.Most job seekers and employers are using social media so the private sector of RACK needs to address this issue in order to access these Job seekers. Rationale for the Research Many companies seek to find highly qualified employees. As stated by None, companies spend large amount of resources in their recruitment efforts (None, R, 2012). Many of them use various strategies to recruit. Social Media have been successful in many aspects of the career path from networking to marketing specialized goods and services (Ponderous & Olives, 2013).According to Headwords, Social Media is found to be essential among the working population and became the main medium of communication. Many companies, both public and private relied have found success in using social media and have integrate it into their daily operation (Headwords, A. , 2011). This study will show that there will be a significant increase in the recruitment of highly qualified employee in RACK private sector when social media is utilized in the recruitment process. The following research questions will undoubtedly be answered within this research paper: 1 .Which social media sites are mostly used in recruitment in RACK private sector corporations? 2. To what extent does the use of social media networks lead to effective recruitment? 3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using social media in recruiting individuals? Definition of Terms Social Media is any form of online network that encourage social exchange of ideas, views, personal communication and friendship. Some media develop lifelong relationships and individual collaboration that are informal and transparent.These sites include Faceable, Linked, Video, Sing and Twitter (Ponderous, & Olivia, 2013). Private Sector consists of companies or industries that are independently owned and operated without government interference. Highly Qualified employees are those employees that have high skilled qualifications or possess high educational degrees† (None, 2012). Limitation of the Study The impact of social media on recruitment is a new topic and there is a lack of studies about it. In addition, the study is conducted only in the RACK region.Since confidential information is involved, some information is accepted through verbal interview. The definition of highly qualified is relative to the Job requirements and thus may not be standard across all industries. Although candidates can be reached effectively and easily via social media networks, the risk is, if this strateg y is not accompanied with other traditional recruitment search methods, then some talented candidates may not be targeted because still there are many people who do not use these networks and prefer the traditional way of searching and applying for a Job.Furthermore, online profiles don't certainly give an accurate picture of the individuals. Assessing someone's potential and skills based only on an online profile leaves the door open for unethical practices. Summary The study will show that the use of the Social Media in recruitment in the private sector in RACK improves the applicant pool and enhance the application process. Furthermore the study will show that the result of the use of social media improve productivity and meet the demands for highly qualified employees.The study will also show that social media have a positive impact on recruitment. With the era of social media, the approach to work and find Jobs has changed. Social media will not disappear completely; therefore recruiters and employers can take more benefit of this by adopting hiring and recruitment methods that utilize social media networks. Social media, however, has some limitations associated with its use in recruitment process.Although employers can get some benefits; using social individuals and professionals as well as the impact on the selection criteria of individuals. Instead of identifying social media as a recruitment solution, employers should realize and understand that they need to work more closely with the professionals to be able to get the right candidates they are looking for, rather than spending time, money and other resources without any return or benefit. I personally believe that social media cannot solely replace the traditional recruitment methods in the near future.Chapter 2: Literature review According to Molar (201 1), recruitment can be defined as the process of finding, selecting, attracting and hiring qualified personnel to be employed within an organizatio n and contribute to the achievement of its goals and objectives (Molar, 2011, p. 56). Philips (1999) believes that the recruitment process may involve trying to attract highly qualified and talented individuals, screening the applications, and selecting the right applicant for the Job (Philips, 1999, p. ). He argues that the Recruitment and selection of personnel is considered a very critical component of unman resources functions which drives the organizations' success and development (Philips, 1999, p. 10). Most organizations and companies worldwide use the traditional way of recruiting and some tend to use a mixture of both traditional ways and online recruiting with the use of social media networks (Molar, 2011, p. 68).According to Ponderous and Olives (2013), â€Å"Recruiting e-recruitment, or recruiting via the use of social media networks and internet, is a phenomenon that has led to the appearance of a new market in which there is an unprecedented level of interaction betwe en employers ND potential employees† (Ponderous& Olivia, 2013, p. 33). None (2012), believes that â€Å"online technology and the use of social media in recruiting are crucial to companies that compete for the best talented candidates in a high speed Job market† (None, 2012, p. 77). This is because the use of the social media can save a lot of time, cost and efforts and also allow organizations to target more qualified candidates all over the world (None, 2012, p. 161). This paper aims to discuss the impact of using social media networks in the recruitment and selection process at RACK private sector. Examples of the online social media networks which are used heavily are the use Linked, Faceable, Twitter, What's, etc†¦According to Media (201 1), these social network sites can be defined as â€Å"web-based services that allow individuals to construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, articulate a list of other users with whom they share a co nnection, and view their list of connections† (Media, 2011, p. 13). These network sites nowadays has connected the people all over the world and most individuals are using these sites to search for Jobs besides the other purposes of entertainment and injection with other people (Media, 2011, p. 93).Some organizations had already planned and used these networks in their recruitment process in order to target more qualified individuals worldwide and minimize the cost. These organizations use the social media networks to advertise for their Job openings and at the same Using the social media networks in recruiting employees at RACK private companies may reduce the huge cost that is used in advertising for the Job postings and it can also help RACK private companies to brand their business processes through the use of these sites to market their products and services.RACK private companies nowadays face the challenge of finding the top talented candidates that they need to hire in order to meet the requirement of the business. As suggested by Philips (1999), this problem of finding the right candidates can be solved by finding other strategies of recruiting such as the use of social media networks (Philips, 1999, p. 24). According to Molar (201 1), there is an increase trend internationally to use the corporate websites and social networks in recruiting and selecting individuals.This can open the chances for RACK private companies to target more international antedates from all over the world with the availability of these sites that connect all people at a minimum cost (Molar, 2011, p. 256). Furthermore, by using these social media sites, the vacancies can be filled faster and therefore save the time that can be spent in searching for qualified candidates through the uses of traditional methods of advertising and Job posting (Headwords, 2011, p. 11).Headwords (2011) argues that these sites can also help organizations to increase their brand visibility onlin e which can establish an excellent image and brand for these organizations. (Headwords, 2011, p. 118). Therefore, RACK private companies can use the social media networks to brand their products and services and brand the companies' image worldwide. By using these sites private companies at RACK can post their vacancies to a larger community and their postings can be accessed by a larger number of qualified candidates (Headwords, 2011, p. 45). This can help private companies at RACK to increase the quality of their hires by attracting the right people for the right Jobs through these social media networks (Sweeney, 2011, p. 58). In addition, there are other benefits of using social media and according to Ponderous and Olivia (2013), â€Å"social media has improved the recruitment process by making it more democratic and open† (Ponderous & Olives, 2013, p. 74).So, private companies at RACK can benefit from the use of these social networks to make its vacancies and Job posting open internationally to all people and this will help immensely to have a wide pool of applicants where it will be easier to find talented potentials. Method This study intends to investigate the impact of using social media on recruitment process and the perception of the HRS professionals at RACK private sector about the SE of these social networks in hiring and selecting personnel.A mixed method will be utilized for this research which consists of both quantitative and qualitative data collection tools in order to provide more in depth data collection and ensure more accurate result of the impact of social media on recruitment process. Participants The population of this study consists of all directors and HRS managers of private companies in Rasa AAA Shaman. In order to answer the research questions, a total of 40-50 respondents from 20 companies in Rasa AAA Shaman private sector were elected based on a random or probability sampling, so all participants will have equal opportun ity to take part in this research.Selected participants will answer a questionnaire structured in Liker format to ask about the use and the impact of social media on recruitment process. The data that will be collected from the respondents will be calculated for clarification and analysis. Instruments A survey questionnaire using the Liker format will be used in this research . The scale below will be used to analyses the answers of all the respondents for each question by calculating the weighted mean: Range Interpretation 3. 01 – 4. 00 Agree 1. 01 -2. 00 Strongly Agree 2. 1 – 3. 00 Disagree 0. 00- 1. 00 Strongly Disagree To test the validity of the questionnaire, it will distributed to 5 participants and these participants along with their results of the questionnaire, will not be part of the research and they were used Just to test the validity. Questionnaire development Seven questions will be used to determine the possible relationship between the variables (socia l media and recruitment) . The questions that were included in the questionnaire had a choice of 4 points from strongly agree to strongly disagree.All questions were selected carefully to be relevant to the topic and to reflect the aim of this study and enable to get the right results. The questionnaire will have the following topics: 1. The usage of internet and social networks to target talented candidates. 2. Participants' opinion about the idea of using social media in recruitment (open? Disagree? ) 3. The support from the top management for the use of social media in recruitment. 4. The benefits of using social media in recruitment such as saving time, cost, etc.. 5.The role of social media in branding and marketing of organizations 6. Disadvantages of using social media in recruitment. 7. The importance of using the traditional ways of recruiting besides the use of social media. Data Collection Plan Primary research and secondary research will be used. The primary research wil l be meetings, observation and general discussions with those directors will be used. The secondary data is based on the literature review including articles, Journals and books which was collected earlier about the impact of using social media in recruitment process.Statistical analysis of the data When the questionnaire will be collected from the participants, statistics will be used o analyze all the data through the use of SPAS to come up with the statistical analysis for this study. The aim of this study was to identify the impact of using social media (independent variable) on recruitment process (dependent variable). For the purpose of testing the hypothesis, analysis of data will be done and represented in tables.HI will indicate that there is a positive relationship and good impact of using social media in recruiting. H2O will show that there is a negative impact of social media networks if used in recruitment process. HO will indicate that there is no impact or any relatio nship between the use of social media and recruitment process. Implication and Limitation Studies about the use of social media networks are away from its impact on recruitment and the effective use of it in hiring as HRS function.The conclusion which this research will be able to draw, is the how HRS professionals can benefit from the use of social media and what are pros and cons and the impact of social networks if applied and used in recruitment instead of the other traditional methods of hiring. This research will also reveal that social media networks can be used in other littorals and not only recruitment; it can be used for example in marketing campaigns and branding. This research will be conducted in RACK region only and the results may not apply to other companies in the AAU or may not benefit them.Some of the questions that will be asked to participants, considered to be confidential and therefore respondents may not provide the accurate answer and this will affect the f indings and results of the research. Appendices and References Appendix A: Questionnaire 1. The use of internet and social networks can improve the way we target talented candidates from all over the world. Strongly Agree 4 Agree 3 Disagree 2 Strongly disagree 2. I am very open to the idea of using these social media networks fully in the recruitment process without the need to use the traditional methods of hiring. Ring employees 4. Social networks when used in recruiting can save time and reduce the cost of advertisement for Job postings 5. Social media can contribute to the branding of the organization if used in the right way cannot trust the social media users because some conditional information cannot be published online and this therefore can affect the selection decision.