Using Social Media to Find Work

Introduction

I undertook a study into how jobseekers use social networking Sites as part of their job seeking efforts following the statistic that more than 60% of candidates are use social networking sites in their job searching. I chose this study as I found very little research on the jobseekers view of social recruitment. Through secondary research I was able to find that 93%of employers now use social Recruitment with Linked-In, Facebook and Twitter Being Social Networking Sites of choice. Although components of the sites may vary, all allow employers to market themselves with a profile page, Use the power of contacts and networks to not only source potential candidates but to spread job opportunities far and wide.

Using an e-survey I found that despite 100% of respondents having at least one social Network profile more than 50% of jobseekers have actually used Social Networking Sites as part of their job searching and instead still traditional methods of finding a job such as using friend and family connections, and using online career searching sites such as Monster.

com, Naukri.com etc. questioning whether people are aware of potentials of social recruitment.

Company Profile

We are pleased to introduce Affirm Services Consultancy Pvt. Ltd.-placement division, a trusted name in service industry to the esteemed and reputed organization.

•  We are into Recruitment and Consultancy since 20th Jan 2002 and became Pvt. Ltd. On 11-08-2004.
•  Affirm Services Tagline- “A trusted name in service industry”
•  Mantra-“Never Underestimate A Human Being They May Have Greater Potential Than You”
•  We offer the entire range of services required for the selection and placement.
  Get quality help now

  

  Marrie pro writer

  Verified

  Proficient in: Social Media

  5 (204)

  “ She followed all my directions. It was really easy to contact her and respond very fast as well. ”

  

  +84 relevant experts are online

  Hire writer

• We are not Placement Agencies; we are placement Consultancy-where we don’t charge anything candidates.
•  Affirm excels in identifying the accurate requirement of Client Company as well as potential candidates to ensure an error free services to guarantee a long term relationship
•  Affirm offers following services to help Client Companies & Candidates to complement each other requirement.

VISION

Company vision is to become the most dependable & professional placement services in India and in the International Markets.

MISSION

To develop an absolute confidence and reliability of client companies and candidates by clearly understanding their needs to ensure a total customer satisfaction

The objective of the Study-

•  To identify usefulness of social media for the recruitment process
• To Find how social networking sites such as Facebook, Linked-In and Twitter are actively used in job seeking
• To identify the which social media is more preferable for the jobseekers and employers
• To find the how many jobseekers are aware about the social media hiring

Scope of Study

• The researcher mainly looked at Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn for his research.
• These three sites are mainly focuses as these are most widely used by Candidates in their job searching.
• Due to limited time 60 candidates and 30 employers were randomly selected by researcher for project study.

Limitations of the Study

• There are some limitations of this study. Due to lack of time sample size was selected from only few random candidates and company clients. Questionnaire was prepared only for those who use internet.

Conceptual Framework

Facebook 

It is an online social networking service. After registering to use the site, users can create a user profile, add other users as “friends”, exchange messages, post status updates and photos, share videos, use various apps and receive notifications when other update their profiles.

In the Facebook Company, share the job post in the form of job application and getting response from it. Additionally, users may join common-interest user groups, organized by workplace, school or collage, or other characterized and categorized their friends into lists such as “people from work” or “Close friends”. Users can create profiles with photos and images, lists of personal interests, contact information, memorable life events, other personal information, such as employment status. Users can communicate with friends and other users through private or public messages, as well as a chat feature, and share content that includes website URLs, images, and video content.

These profiles can then contain an individual’s up to date work profile and employers for potential employers to see as well as information hobbies, recent places of interests, your friend list (including mutual friends-which is useful for recruiters looking to expand their network)

Linked-In

Linked-In is the world’s largest social network for professionals. With 500 million users come from more than 200 countries. Linked-In lists more than 10 million active jobs posts and data on more than 9 million companies have created Linked-In Company pages to for their attention.

Linked-In is most useful in the recruitment process. This platform is very useful in the connect with potential jobseekers, Recruiters, Companies Directors, Various areas person, students.

In Linked-In Company Post, their Job post. Company create templates for job and send to relevant areas of potential persons on Linked-In connection.

Active job seekers are update their resumes or check out new job opportunities on linked-In

One purpose of the site allow registered users to maintain a list of contact details of people with whom they have some level of relationship, called Connections . Users can invite anyone to become a connection.

Employers can create a company linked Profile from which they can share information about their products and services, link to their blog / corporate website and other social media sites, showcase their employees and highlight their career opportunities. Employers should also routinely post relevant and engaging content for their followers such as blog posts, articles, videos and pictures.

Similarly candidates have their personal profiles, candidates can highlight their resume, skills, experience, connections, and influence in the field in which they interested.

Jobs can be posted and applied for directly to the Liked-In website. Employers can formally post jobs on Linked-In to recruit candidates for a fee, or informally post them at no cost within applicable groups and status Updates. Linked-In is referral-friendly and contains features that allow individuals to identify who to connect with and suggest candidates as employee referrals. LinkedIn also makes it easy for employers to trace connections between job candidates and employers and to use employee’s contacts to source candidates.

A contact network is built up consisting of their direct connection which can be used to gain an introduction to someone a person wishes to know through a mutual contact. When it comes to sourcing candidates, LinkedIn recruiter has advanced search capabilities via which employers can search for candidates by past or current employers, job titles, years of experience, seniority level, company size, interests , location schools, references from trusted recommenders and even specific language in profiles. Employers can also search for employees through connections including first and second connections active participation in Linked-In groups linked to an organization not only allows recruiters to interact with potential candidates and establish a LinkedIn presence but allows these candidates to build an interest in the organization. LinkedIn Mails also allows recruiters to personally reach out to candidates privately

Twitter

Twitter is flexible, real time platform allows you to get creative and drive results at the same time.

A hash tag is a word beginning with the # sign. People use hash tag to organize conversations around a specific topic. Clicking on a hash tag takes you to search results for that term. Tweeting job vacancies can be quick way to spread the word of job vacancies. Short and catch job posts are tweeted in 140 characters or less and can then be enhanced with a Hash tag which are formed simply by prefixing a word with a hash symbol (#). Hash tags are used as a way to filter and find information on Twitter. By including a Hash tag with a keyword in a tweet, it becomes instantly searchable. A few examples of hash tags when recruiting include #jobs, #jobpost #employement, #recruiting, #hiring, #career, #salesjob etc

Mention

Sometimes you want to bring a Tweet to someone’s attention, but still want all of your followers to see the message. So instead of a reply, use a mention. Include the @username of whomever you want to mention in your Tweet, and it will appear in the Mentions are clickable and link back to the mentioned individuals profile.

Significance Of the study

Social networking provides numerous opportunities as compared to traditional employment methods. Depending on the scale of your social networking, you can build a great contact list, through which you can keep yourself informed of new opportunities on the horizon. Your friends would post or share opportunities through their friends, and thus you can really get a lot of happening information at your fingertips. Social networking helps students and future job-seekers at all levels.

The reality is that most of job openings is found through word of mouth. In these social media times, it is now being complemented by social networking. If you have strong network and you have friends who have confidence in you and your abilities, you can easily get them to recommend you for post. They can also share information about openings in their organization. A good and growing social network would allow you to get know about new and existing opportunities. There are groups related to fields of interest, where you search through ads posted by other people.

Social networks provide an easy way of getting to know about employment opportunities and trends in your field of interest. By following experts, you can keep yourself informed of the things you need to do that can help you climb up the interacting with such experts you can get an idea of the requirements and expectation of potential employers.

Literature Review

1. Santosh Kumar A.V-

Social networking websites are effective job search tools, job fairs are findings tough competition in the social media, evidently been visible that a lot of companies have their own formal pages on the social websites, where job seekers can learn about the organization business, culture, ethics etc. Hence Recruiters have a large pool from this source from which they can search for prospective employees. Indispensable part of the hiring process, Cost effective, does not require setting up an office and forms an effective tool for recruiters.(Research Scholar, Bharatiar University, Lecturer, Department of Commerce and Management, Sehadripuram First Grade College, Yelahanka, Bangalore.(A.V)

2. Ms. Poulami Banerjee-

Recruiters are mainly using the social networking sites for searching talents in the middle management level positions, followed by top level management positions and then for lower level. The reason being, for lower level positions there is plenty of talent available in the market while for the top level positions not many individuals rely on these sites so experience has revealed the most lucrative segment is middle level managers. Linked-In stands top in the list of the most shortlisted candidates, followed by Facebook while 23% combination of both. Most of the professionals spend approximately 21-30 hours every week on these sites. Almost 83% of the firms feel that social networking sites will revolutionize the trend of recruitment.(Banerjee, March 2012)

3. Archana L, Nivya V G, Thankam S M-

Social media now stands as the second most prevalent source of hire, tied with corporate career websites. The paper concludes with instead of relying heavily on external recruitment firms or job boards, many companies are focusing on locating specialized talent through social media such as Linked-In. between 2011 and 2013, the percentage of employers who can gain a significant advantage by adopting hiring methods that have a social media element & no doubt that social media has improved the recruitment process by making it more open and democratic.Jobvite – Survey resulted-94% of recruiters use or plan to use social media in their recruitment efforts.78% of recruiters have made a hire through social media. The best candidates are always “shopping” for a new job and have more information at their fingertips than ever before. LinkedIn remains the king of searching (96%) Contacting (94%) and keeping tab of candidates (93%). Across industries, there is near universal adoption of social recruiting in 2008-78%, 2011 – 89% and 2013-94%(Archana L, 2011)

4. Lee &Kozar 2013-

There a strong relationship between the qualities of social networking sites and effective recruitment. The higher the quality of information, the higher the number of online users there will be and hence more diverse applicants for recruitment. In addition, the navigation features of social networking sites help recruiters find what they need without difficulty, and allow them to maneuver easily and quickly back and forth through the pages (Tong, Duffy , Cross, Tsung , and Yen 2005 (Kozar, 2013)

5. Mihelich (2014)-

The widespread nature of the Internet has played a large role in shaping the current state of the recruitment industry, and for this reason, it is easier for recruiters to source job candidates using internet job boards and social media.

6. Narvey (2009)-

Social Media allows free participation and engagement with wider communities. The process is proactive as both job seekers and recruiters are engaged in sharing and referring to each other using social media.

7. Liu (2010)-

Investigated students “use of different social media tools and their attitudes and perceptions towards these tools. The author sough to identify the knowledge and trends of using social media tools that included Facebook, Linked-In, Twitter. The study results revealed the top four reasons why students use social media tools. As reported, 85% use such tools for social engagement, 56% use them for directed communications, 48% use them for speed of feedback and 47% use them for relationship building; however, fewer than 10% of the students mentioned using social media tools for academic practice

8. Mills (2011)-

Social networking sites are attractive to students because they are an effective means of self-expression where interaction are relevant and the platform is motivating to the students. This motivation influences students to increase their use of social networking sites and develop close relationships with the other students, and the sense of community that is developed thereby increase students interaction.

9. Redman And Wilkinson –

Recruitment through social media is usually much less expensive and a faster process than traditional recruitment methods. Since recruitment is typically a continuous and ongoing affaire in many companies a competitive advantage over those who do not use it. Due to the large number of social media users, companies now have greater access to talent pools and desired candidates. Therefore, the number of companies who recruit or advertise vacancies through social media has increased, which demonstrate social media is now an accepted and legitimate form of recruitment in many companies

10. Denise (2013)

Social media also provides low cost techniques for recruiting, sourcing and interviewing prospective employees. Furthermore, Clark and Roberts explained the favorable benefits of using social media for recruitment. They emphasized the importance of an online presence that provides a positive message to potential candidates. In this respect from the recruiter’s perspective, it is easy to get a preliminary character sketch from the applicant profile. This could also lead to a time reduction in the search for finding the right candidates.

Research Methodology

In this research Researcher use Descriptive research

Primary Data

The first hand information collected from the employees is known as primary data.

• (a) Questionnaire Method:

Questionnaire was design based on the quantitative Method. Specifically, answers obtained through closed-ended questions with multiple choice answer options are analyzed using quantitative methods and they were involved pie-charts, Bar charts and percentages.

This method of Data collection is quite popular participating for large enquiries. Researcher used a web survey where a respondent was sent to a website to answer a questionnaire. Researcher decided to use a web survey rather than a general questionnaire as researcher would like the sample of people to already be ‘online’. This reduces the risks of a large proportion of my questionnaires revealing people who are not even online.(The questionnaire is designed for those over 18.)

• (b) Observation Method:

This is another method by which the research work is carried out. Under this method Researcher observed all the Candidates getting response from the posting a job post on social media

Secondary Data:

The secondary data was collected from Company website, various books, internet, company database.

Sample Size

The total sample size of the study was 90 out of which 60 samples are candidates and 30 samples are employers

Sample technique

Simple Random sampling technique