Excerpt
Table of content
Abstract
The influence of social media on human resources
Theoretical Background
The hiring process
Employer
Applicant
Current employment
Employer
Employee
Conclusion
References
Abstract
The following paper is concerned with the use of social media in the human resources departments of companies. To do this, the first part of the paper explains the different generations and their thinking about social media. It is necessary to define social media that people understand further in the paper what it means.
The main part of the paper focuses on the use of social media in the hiring process and the use for current employees. There will be a description of the use for employers and candidates / employees.
The result of the research shows that social media makes it easier for employers to find qualified candidates. Also, current employees should be allowed to use social media while they are at work, but with limitations.
The influence of social media on human resources
“You find out lots of things about people just by Googling them.” said Kim Harmer, a partner at Harmer Associates, a Chicago-based recruiting firm, about the use of social media in the recruitment process.1 People publish a lot of information about their private life on social media platforms, like Facebook, twitter or Instagram which makes it easy for employers to find information about potential employees. The problem is that people often publish pictures or do not think about their posts and it is very difficult to delete information once they are online. Social media is becoming more and more important in the field of human resources, not only in the hiring process also with a view to current employees. The employees are changing; regarding to the Bureau of Labor Statistics 75 % of the employees will be Millenilas/ Generation Y in 2025, compared to 36 % today.2
The Generation Y is the people born in the early 1980s to early 2000s and they grew up with the use of social media, in their homes but they also want to include it in the workplace. They think it can help the company to develop and work faster and more efficient. There are three more generations the human resources department has to think about when they want to include social media in the workplace.
The Generation X is the group of people from the early 1960s to the early 1980s. This group of people uses e-mail to connect with others but they think that face-to-face meetings are necessary. They do not use Facebook or other social media sites in the workplace but do not have a problem to adjust them.
Baby boomers were born between 1946 and the early 1960s and have the opinion that doing business over the phone or face-to-face is the most effective way. They think it builds stronger relationships and it is easier to communicate. There is no need for social media in the workplace but they are not 100% against it. Baby boomers try social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter but they do not understand why it should be important to use it in the workplace.
The last group was born between 1925 and 1946 and is known as the traditionalists. Traditionalists do business only through face-to-face meetings and do not accept any other method.3 Most of them do not know what social media platforms are and they do not see the value for the workplace. They think that it is a negative thing because it deflects people from their work and lowers the productivity as a result. Traditionalists do not respect the way the younger generations work. Most of the traditionalists are not in the workfare anymore because they are too old and in a few years the human resources departments do not need to be worry about this group of people thinking about using social media. But they have to think about the Baby boomers and Generation X in their processes.
Since social media has a role in different areas of human resources this paper focuses on the change of the hiring process through social media. The question if social media makes it easier for the company to find good employees should be answered in the end of the paper. Also, the question if current employees should be allowed to use social media platforms during their time at work should be answered.
Theoretical Background
“Social media is the collective of online communications channels dedicated to community-based input, interaction, content-sharing and collaboration. Websites and applications dedicated to forums, micro blogging, social networking, social bookmarking, social curation, and wikis are among the different types of social media.”4 This is one of many definitions for social media and it shows that within social media there are different types of social media. Human resources focus on tools and platforms where people interact and publish contents. This can either be private content or regarding to work. Most likely it depends on the platform but the content includes “conversation, articles, images or pictures, recipes, and anything that an individual might share with others in their daily lives.”5 With the years the use of social media increased by providing platforms for professional networking, marketing products and services, recruiting employees, serving customers and personal and professional branding. The high demand of social media platforms formed a new market. There are thousands of social media sites appealing to various groups for different reasons. Some of the most popular social media sites are:
- LinkedIn is specifically for the business community. That includes professional networking, publishing content, group discussions and advertising jobs. The goal is that registered members can establish professional networks of people they know and trust
- Facebook was build as a site for college students to stay in contact. People could share pictures and chat with each other. Today it is a significant platform for businesses because you can create business pages separately from you private page. It is a free networking website were registered users can create profiles, send messages or upload videos and pictures. A statistic from the Nielsen Group shows that Internet users in the United States use Facebook more than any other social media platform.
- Users at Twitter have a maximum of 140 characters to share something with others. It is called micro blogging service and the post of Users is called tweet. Those tweets can include thoughts, recommended reading or advertise jobs. Twitter members can broadcast tweets and follow other users' tweets by using multiple platforms and devices.
- Flickr is a platform that allows users to easily post pictures to share.
- Pinterest focus on the post of images. Users can share and categorize pictures people find online. The main focus is on visualizing but the pictures require a short description. By clicking on an image the user gets taken to the original source of the picture. Pinterest does not have a big role for businesses but people use it for their private use.
- Reddit is forum and posts current news. It is promoted by different site member and includes many sub-communities which are known as “subreddits”. Those subreditts focus on specific topics like politics or technology. The goal is share top stories of the specific topics on the main page.
- Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia where people can create articles about specific topics. All registered people can create articles, but to edit an article a registration is not required. It was founded through an effort of a community of users known as Wikipedians.
- Google+ was designed to replicates a way people interact very closely offline. They created a slogan for the project which is “Real-life sharing rethought for the web.” Different to Facebook it allows Users to create groups of people and send posts to those groups. People can decide with whom they want to share their posts.6
- Indeed is the world's number one job site, where people from 50 different countries can find jobs all over the world. It helps companies to find the right employees and offers the best opportunities for job seekers to find a job. It has over 180 million visitors every month.7
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1 Waters, 2011
2 Segal, 2014
3 KPMG, 2012
4 Wigmore, 2015
5 Heathfield, 2015
6 Wigmore, 2015
7 Indeed, 2015