Introduction
Companies are turning more and more to social networks for their recruiting. The social media is credited for attracting better and more qualified candidates for companies. Online social networks are proving to be more and better ways for attracting interesting and the best candidates for companies. Companies that do not employ the technology associated with social media have missed out on great opportunities for advertisement and recruitment of competitive talent in their companies.
People looking for work generally turn to the internet first before resorting to other measures, because it’s cheaper and easier to access. Instead of relying on traditional recruiting methods that may prove slow in their recruitment process, employers can take a step into the social media and can access to fertile breeding ground for raw and experienced talent. The social media is easy to use once the employer comes up with the specific needs and requirements of their recruitment.
Advantages Of Social Media In Recruiting
Wide audience: the social network has the advantage of reaching a wide and large number of people at the same time. While not many people may buy newspapers or even watch the television adverts, the social networking media reached millions of people with the same message. Hall (2009) individuals accessing the sites with the job adverts may not be themselves qualified to apply for the post, but know of someone who is. The social network allows or gives the opportunity to link the friend, colleague or acquaintance to the advert ensuring that they have access to it.
Social networking sites also enjoy a wide membership rate that is, facebook for example has more than 20 million users, twitter and my space both have an average of 7million users. If a company places an advert in the social networking channels then they reach a far much greater audience than they ever would have. In average the advert maybe spotted by about 5million members, who may then link their friends and colleagues to the advert. The audience that is covered by social networks is far much wider than the companies can imagine.
Shah (2010), reaching a wider audience does not necessarily mean that the company has immediate access to great talent. However it does mean that the company has increased the chances of accessing better and greater talent than possible through other recruiting means. For example if a company advertises a vacancy through newspapers, they will only reach the market of the newspaper. If the paper sells 5million copies, those are the most people that the company can hope will see the vacancy. Of these half may not even see the job advertisement, and another percentage may see it but not be interested, while others may see the advertisement be interested but soon loose the paper or forget about it. Therefore only a small population from the paper readers will see the job vacancy and do something about it. It should be remembered of course that of these very few will be qualified.
Qualman (2004) states that social media has transformed the word of mouth into the world of mouth and in the process created a more closer form of global village. A job advertisement placed in one city on the social media is viewed by individuals across the globe at the same time and in the same manner, (Pgs 2). Going back to the newspaper example there are very few chances that a person outside the scope of distribution of the paper will see the advertisement, in fact it is near close to impossible for people who are not within the publication area of the newspaper to see the advertisement. With social media however the location of individuals does not really matter, they can all easily view the same thing at the same time.
Social media has been credited for distributing talent across the globe. People with talent less appreciated in their countries of residence have moved across the globe to work for countries and companies seeking their talent and either settled there or just hired out their talent for a short period.
Reduction of costs in recruiting companies has suffered great costs when recruiting or advertising for vacant posts. Job adverts either in radio or television do not necessarily reach the best talent at the first advert. Companies are therefore required to advertise more and more, and still the population that they reach is far too low to attract the best possible talent. The costs of these adverts may prove to be burdens to some companies. Placing job advertisements in the newspapers has the same challenge, that perhaps after spending all these resources the job advertisements may not attract the right talent. Sometimes companies have been forced to pick the best from the applicants they have, even though they may not be fully qualified. The companies are then faced with the responsibility of ensuring that they now go further to train the person they have hired so tat he can acquire the skills required to perform the job.
Social networking exposes the company advertisement to a wider audience and even more talent. The applications that arise from the job adverts placed in the social networking media consist of much talent that infact the company now has a hard time deciding which talent to interview and give the opportunity. The costs of placing this adverts is very low as compared to the number of people it reaches. Placing a similar advert in television for example so that it can reach the same audience that has been reached by the social media means spending millions of dollars and many more resources, an still not be sure of the results, (Hall,2009.
For some of the social networks the job advertisements are in fact free. All the company requires is a valid email address and they can place as many job adverts as possible. For example on my space any advertisement is free. Most traditional forms of job vacancy placement require that the company put aside some sort of funding for the advertisements and efforts towards making the vacancy known. The social networking formula demands only some very low fees where there are charges or no fees at all just proof of the legitimacy of the company and the vacancy thereof. For companies to place job adverts on the social networks means that they may require no funds at all or minimal funds therefore no expenditure in the recruitment process and additional costs to the company.
Multitasking: placing job advertisements on the social network gives the company the advantage of multitasking at no extra cost. This means that the company can easily market themselves and their products without incurring any extra costs. The social network advertisements allow companies to compartmentalize their adverts including many different features. So not only can a company invite great talent but also reach a great and wider market, inviting clients to take advantage of their products and services at no extra cost.
Foster (2002), it is easy for companies to customize their profile pages to fir the business. Social networking sites provide endless business advisory services and resources that allow the people advertising to create more attractive profiles at no extra cost or effort, (Pgs 55-57). For traditional methods of advertising and placement extra benefits such including product advertisements or interesting and catchy phrases requires extra costs. Infact most of them such as newspapers and radio programs discourage the use of vacancy columns for any company advertisement by charging maximum costs for minimum advertising to be placed in the papers. In the end companies just end up placing minimal or no company profiles at all.
On the other hand for social networks job seekers are able to access the profiles of the companies and as such gauge whether they would really like to work there. Company profiles act as a proper filter machine for parties that may be looking for work. People can not only choose the posts they are interested in but also the companies and industries that are of interest to them. The companies are saved from recruiting people who have no or little interest of working in the companies in the future. Changes in the requirements of job vacancies can also be constantly updated. Companies can easily view the applications they are receiving and in turn change the information to suit the vacancy more. Once the posts have been filled, the company does not necessarily have to remove the advertisement but instead can modify the advertisement to exclude the job vacancy and stop applications, or to include other vacancies. The maintenance of website is flexible, the company can decide how often to change the information included in the website.
Feedback companies advertising for vacancies through social networks allow and can get feedback from interested parties. People who are interested in the vacancy but may have concerns about their qualifications can contact the company through the network. For example for the social network facebook, comments can be added to the profiles of the company regarding the posts they have placed. People can ask questions or add suggestions on how easily the company can access talent.
Interested parties can actually also post their resume directly to the company profile. Companies therefore need not have separate venues for resume collection unless where necessary. Job seekers again can filter organizations through social networking. It is important to note that social networks provide the job seeker with excellent information on the company. In the same way the company can easily access personal and social information of the applicant in order to see if they can fit well with the company policies and regulations, (Christensen, Pgs 23-25).
Feedback in job recruitment is very important as it allows the company and the applicant to interact before the interview. It gives the applicant an open view of the company’s policies and regulations, and the chance to fully decide if they want to take a chance and join the company. It also gives the company a chance to fully study the candidate they are wishing to recruit and decide if they want to take a chance on them as well. This saves the company resources that would have been spent recruiting and socializing candidates who are completely wrong for the company, (Shah, 2010, Pg 140).
Traditional forms of advertising do not allow for immediate feedback for the job vacancy advertisements placed. Though recruits may make telephone enquiries among other forms of enquiry, the chances of these are low. The company and the candidates interested may therefore end up going through an entire process of recruitment for no benefit at all. It might occur to either the candidate or the company that they have no interest in entering into a relationship with each other after wasting resources because they did not have a chance to interact before.
Bullard (2003) through immediate feedback, the company shortens the time span that goes into recruiting candidates. Immediate feedback gives the company a chance to see who are interested in their vacancy and make shortlists easily. Whereas traditional job vacancy announcements may take a while to attract the right candidate, social networking has an immediate effect in attracting the right candidates. If and when the company realizes that the adverts are attracting the wrong or unqualified candidates, they can immediately modify the information and requirements for the vacancy at no extra cost.
Feedback also highlights the shortcomings or the strengths of the adverts. If there are errors in a job vacancy advertisement they can easily be corrected without putting strain on the company or inconveniencing the interested candidates greatly. Many companies have restructured their adverts through the comments added in the profile of the vacancy announcement.
Christensen (2008) through feedback and comments the advertisement is able to reach more people because the friend of interested companies will also be given a chance to view the job vacancy, (Pgs 23-25). This means that fed back will allow the company to access more and more talent. Sometimes feedback also gives the company an opportunity to view talent that may not be for the advertised post. The company therefore gets more than it bargained for than it bargained for in placing the advertisement.
Disadvantages Of Recruiting Through Social Networks
Insecurity: The main disadvantages of the social network, is that the security of both the company and the applicant is compromised. The company profile and linking to the company characteristics can often cause the company to be accessed by individuals whose only intent is destroying the security of the company.
The information posted in the profiles can be accessed by the competitors who in turn use the information in a manner other than what it was intended for. Additionally since applicants can view the profile information of the companies, there are chances that they may alter their qualification sot suit the posts more. Just like it is dangerous for people to begin personal relationships with others they have met via social networks, in the same way companies may find it dangerous to hire people from social networks, (Erickson, 2007 pgs 13-14).
While many sites have introduced measures to curb the failure of security when it comes to companies and individuals, there still the risk that the companies and the individuals accessing the sites will suffer from harassment and scams. Companies have hired people who have scammed their way into vacancies by using fake credentials or stealing the identity of others. Social networks have the highest percentage of these scams.
Time consuming if companies are lacking the staff to work on the profiles and keep updating the company’s vacancies and information, the recruitment process will always take a longer than necessary time. The staff of the company may also end up spending so much time on the social networks that they become less productive and that the company’s performance is affected.
In order for the social network recruit to work well companies must be specific and create attractive advertisements. Even with the advisory boards present in social networks, this sometimes proves to be a time consuming exercise. Traditional job vacancy announcements have the advantage of being uniform and therefore requiring little or no professional creativity. Social networking advertising on the other hand includes graphic designing and web designs that increase the chances of spending more and more time creating a small advert.
Overwhelming responses social network job vacancies often results in so much response, that the company may not be able to go through all of them. millions and millions of responses to job advertisements are often sent even to small companies and often the companies may be overwhelmed by the amount of information they have to go through in order to get to the candidates they wish to employ.
Sometimes the responses that a company gets have nothing to do with the vacancy that they have advertised, therefore company personnel waste also of time sifting through the garbage to get to the treasures, (Brown and Swayne, Pg 218-223). Sometimes because of these companies are forced to hire recruitment firma to sift through the resumes and find the best candidates for the position. Often companies do not have enough staff to deal with the amount of work resulting from social networking advertisements and job placements. Hiring extra help or retaining recruitment firms is often an extra cost that the companies had not bargained or budgeted for but that suddenly becomes a necessary requirement.
Lack of anonymity some companies like to maintain their anonymity when placing job advertisements. In the case of social networks the anonymity becomes difficult and even impossible. Companies can rarely choose their candidates without revealing their identity. For job seekers depending on what they have heard regarding the company the company may receive more resumes and applications than they can cope with or very few . the company’s image precedes the advertisements. So for large companies they may consider social network job placements a ground that they would not engage in. however for young companies social networking may be the only way to attract good talent for their recruitment programs.
Company image: the company image can easily be tainted by the comments place in the social networks. The same way that good news of the company spreads is the same way that bad images are spread. Disgruntled employees for example may take advantage of the feedback to spread bad and untrue rumors of the company, discouraging new recruits from applying for posts and in turn costing the company excellent talent.
Erickson (2007) People out to destroy the company are given fertile ground through social networks to come up with an easy way of tainting the company image. Some comments from people may not only discourage new recruits but also attract questionable characters who harass the company and its employees. In addition clients who could have been attracted to the company’s services highlighted in the job alerts may become discouraged or choose alternative setups for fear of using a company with an already tainted image.
Sometimes by uploading disturbing images to the company’s profile, people can even make more damage to the company’s image. Companies may be forced to hire marketing and publicity firms to help correct the image of the company that has been spoilt just because they placed a job advertisement in the social networks. The amount of money spent in correcting the publicity is always much more than what the company saved through advertising job vacancies in the social networks, (Pritchard, 2007 Pgs 81-82)
Success: though job placements through social networks have proved to be successful time and time again for some companies, the success has taken alot of effort to attract the right candidates. There are cases where companies can place advert after advert in the social networks with little or no success. Jue. A and Kassotakis (2009) success in social network recruitment and the use of social media as an agency top attract candidates and talent does not come overnight, (Pgs 87). Companies must take the time to study and implement the strategies that have led to the success of others and overcome the challenges that are associated with wide network that is social media.
Venturing into social media without any plan or structure is likely to end up as a costly error that could have easily been avoided. Success in the recruitment through social media does not come easily; it is a strategy filled area that companies need to take time to study and understand, (Strawbel, 2009 Pg 51).
Conclusion
Social networking as a recent invention in the field of marketing and job placements has gained much popularity that any other form of job placement. Job seekers in hundred are registered as members of social networks where they receive alerts on open vacancies in companies. Companies on the other hand are finding it easy to reach many job seekers and acquire gifted talent. The cost of job advertising has been severely reduced and the distance that normally separates talent from recruiters diminished. It is now entirely possible for job seekers and recruiters from different parts of the globe to come together.
However companies venturing into these form of job advertisements should be careful enough to study the strategies required for success. Alternatively they may need to hire recruiters versatile in this form of job placement to help them. with a proper strategy and plan, the success of recruiting talent from social networks is almost guaranteed.
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