International Journal of Management and Social Sciences Research (IJMSSR)
Volume 2, No. 9, September 2013
Analyzing the Effect of Social Media on Recruitment
Vaishali Lal, Assistant Professor, MVJ College of Engineering, VTU, Bangalore, India
Shruti Aggarwal, Assistant Professor, MVJ College of Engineering, VTU, Bangalore, India
ABSTRACT
The use of Internet in recruitment is not new. In fact, over
the years, e-recruitment has become popular both among
the employers as well as job seekers. Monster, Yahoo!
HotJobs and CareerBuilder are some of the premier job
sites among them. Many of us are registered with one or
more of the social networking sites like Facebook,
LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. With the growing popularity of
social media sites like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, as
well as lesser-known sites like Upspring, Perfect
Business— professional networking with the use of social
media as a recruitment tool is much more famous and in
fashion now a days.
The companies use the social networking sites for finding
talented professionals. There have been reports that the
social networking sites have already dented the business
of jobsites like monster.com. The social networking sites
are gaining popularity as a source of recruitment as they
offer better solutions as compared to the job sites. Not
that the use of social networking sites is flawless.
However, to what extent can the social networking sites
be used as a source of recruitment? Undeniably, there
are certain jobs than cannot be filled by using the social
networking sites. And even if the social networking sites
can be used for recruitment, they might have to be
supplemented by some other source of recruitment to
accomplish a meaningful recruitment task.
The problem relates to study “the effectiveness of social
media sites in the process of recruitment”. The role of
social media sites in making or breaking the next job
opportunity. Empirical study will be used for studying the
effectiveness of social media. The research methodology
used includes primary data, secondary data and statistical
tools like Hypothesis testing and correlation.
The study aims at testing the popularity & effectiveness of
the social media sites on one hand and also finding out the
reliability & trustworthiness of these sites on the other
hand.
INTRODUCTION
With the advent of social media sites such as LinkedIn,
Facebook and Twitter, recruitment procedures have been
dramatically transformed. Reputed organizations not only
cast a wide net through these sites but also narrow down
their search to what they want exactly with great ease.
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They have precise strategies in place to make the best use
of the social media in their hiring process.
Social recruiting is the process of sourcing or hiring
candidates through the use of social platforms as
promotional channels by employers. Career/ Placement
offices at university campuses also use social recruiting
since social media is familiar to and often embraced by
students and graduates as a job searching medium.
Social media based recruitment is certainly on the rise, but
is it suitable for all types of jobs? Mr. Manoj Biswas, HR
lead, Accenture India, states, “Opposed to popular
opinion, social media is a platform where an employer can
seek candidates, irrespective of the nature of the job.
Social media websites act as effective recruitment tools to
scout for talent with specific skill sets and a large qualified
talent pool. With the large number of groups across
multiple networks, employers can now exercise their
discretion and narrow down a search to a specific type of
organisation/ qualifications/ skill set they are looking to
hire.”
Social recruiting falls into two different categories. The
first is internet sourcing using social media profiles, blogs,
and online communities to find and search for passive
candidate data and information. The second is social
distribution. This involves using social media platforms
and networks as a means to distribute jobs either through
HR vendors or through crowd sourcing where job seekers
and other influencers share job openings within their
online social networks.
The majority of HR managers say that social media
platforms are an effective recruitment tool with a more
direct and focused approach in today’s technologically-
vibrant age.
From building rich talent pools and communities,
connecting with potential employees, to finding effective
ways to interact with ‘passive’ candidates, social media is
doing all this and more. “Social media platforms have
emerged as a very important element in building the
employer brand. The sheer speed and interconnections of
these platforms augments the bandwidth of reach in terms
of potential candidates,” adds Avadhesh
“Social media, comprising Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn,
etc, is the fastest growing communication platform in the
world. It has become a way of life for millions of youth
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International Journal of Management and Social Sciences Research (IJMSSR)
Volume 2, No. 9, September 2013
across the globe who wants to remain connected to things
that matter irrespective of location.”
“Social media is like a goldmine of information. In future,
it will not only emerge as a strong source for hiring but
also serve to enhance the employer brand,” says SY
Siddiqui, chief operating officer - administration (HR,
finance, IT, company law and legal, Maruti Suzuki India.
“Recruiting through social networking websites is
more cost-effective compared to traditional forms of
hiring that include placement consultants, posting
advertisements in different forms of media and
participation in job fairs,” confirms Shruti Jain, Chief
Communications Officer and Global Head - CSR, EXL
Service.
BENEFITS OF SOCIAL NETWORKING
SITES
Networking sites are changing the way that organizations
manage their talent in several ways:
Firstly, organizations today are able to reach out potential
employees and communicating to them better easier while
building their employer branding.
Secondly, they are also able to create a linkage with their
own employees, both because employees can connect and
talk to each other helping in creating a linkage with each
other and also because employers can communicate to
them using these forums.
Thirdly, networking sites have become channels to
observe and listen what others are saying about the
organization; finally, is also helping organizations to
manage their alumni networks more efficiently.
THE PITFALLS AND CHALLENGES
Fake profiles, spammed inboxes and legal complications
are cons of social media recruitment. “The biggest
challenge is constant monitoring and evaluation of
responses and feedback from our customers, fans and
followers. One has to be a little pro-active and respond to
any query or comments in real time,” says Deepa
Mohamed, Head (Human Capital Management), Sopra
Group India. Social media is a long-term commitment and
HR managers are expected to have the requisite technical
competence, launch targeted campaigns and keep the
candidates engaged.
Though social media is popular for its expediency, it has
certain drawbacks too. Mr. Vasant Kudva, VP-talent
acquisition team, QUEST Global, observes, “Among the
challenges of using social media today, one of the key
issues faced is inadequacy of information, e.g., although
the usage of LinkedIn is widespread in terms of number of
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people on it, perhaps only a fraction of people actually use
all the features like detailed experience summary, current
and previous job descriptions, listing all the schools
attended, having or giving peer recommendations, etc.
This tells us that relying overly on LinkedIn for
recruitment could also result in a wrong choice, as a
candidate probably present on LinkedIn may not be savvy
enough.”
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
1. A Conceptual Analysis of Social Networking and its
Impact on Employee Productivity Benjamin B.
Aguenza1, Ahmad Puad Mat Som, IOSR Journal of
Business and Management (IOSRJBM) ISSN: 2278-487X
Volume 1, Issue 2 (May-June 2012), PP 48-5
The purpose of the study is to investigate the relevance of
collaborative technology such as social networking to
employee productivity in the workplace. The conceptual
paper examines positive and negative perceptions of social
networking sites, provides the relationship between social
networking and employee productivity and examines
whether social networking are capable of increasing the
levels of employee performance and satisfaction.
2. Recruitment & social media Building an effective
online presence: A first insight in using social media
for recruitment purposes, Stephan ten Kate, August
2009
The significance of social media for recruitment
communications is underlined by the fact that current and
future starters can be typified as digital natives –
youngsters which grew up with the Internet and who have
fully embedded social media in their daily lives. Social
media differ completely from traditional media. Where
traditional media could push their messages in a one-way
approach to the customer, social media are focused on
conversations and dialogues with a two-way
communication method. Social media are not introducing
new strategies within this context; they only provide extra
communication channels with much potential.
3. The role of Social Networking Sites in recruitment:
Results of a quantitative study among German
companies, Sandra Abel, May 2011
The author studies the extent to which the use of Social
Networking Sites leads to effective recruitment. The
author established a research model in order to find
relationships between the qualities of Social Networking
Sites and effective recruitment. The author chose various
parameters to study the effectiveness like: information
quality, popularity, networking scope, ease of navigation
and security/privacy.
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International Journal of Management and Social Sciences Research (IJMSSR) ISSN: 2319-4421 39
Volume 2, No. 9, September 2013

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Awareness about networking sites: Table no.1 indicates

i. Type of research: It is a descriptive type of that most of people are aware about the social networking
research aimed at finding the effectiveness of sites.
social networking sites for recruitment.
ii. Objectives of the study
• To check the popularity of social networking sites
being used as potential source of employment
• To study the effectiveness of social networking
sites being used as potential source of
employment
• To study the reliability of social networking sites
for potential employment
• To study the social networking sites for their
trustworthiness in handling confidential
information
• To study the awareness of social networking sites
being used as potential source of employment
with respect to gender and age.

iii. Data collection

Primary Data: the study mainly delves on the primary
data collected through questionnaire survey method for Age of first employment: Table no.2 indicates that
analyzing the issue. Information has been collected from majority of respondents are taking employment in the age
the employees working in Software Companies & group of 18-23 yrs. i.e. most of them would prefer to join
individuals looking for jobs. Questionnaire involves both jobs immediately after their education.
open ended & close ended questions.
Secondary data: Secondary data is collected from various
publications, websites; journals etc have been extensively Table no. 3
used to strengthen the analysis. Correlations
iv. Sample
Age of first Awareness
a) Sampling unit: the respondents are the
employment about
employees working in software companies&
networkin
individuals looking for jobs. Age, gender &
g sites
occupational factors have been considered while
analyzing the parameters of interest. Age of first Pearson
1.000 .038
b) Sample size: 97 filled questionnaires are valid employment Correlation
and have been considered out of a total sample of Sig. (2-
100 respondents. The respondents comprise of IT .711
tailed)
Professionals and students entering the job
markets. N 97.000 97
Awareness Pearson
v. Statistical Tools .038 1.000
about Correlation
• Tables for representing the data collected through networking Sig. (2-
questionnaire sites .711
tailed)
• Hypothesis testing on the popularity of websites
• Correlation between age of first employment and N 97 97.000
awareness about the social networking sites
DATA ANALYSIS
Table no. 1 Correlation between awareness about social
Awareness about networking sites networking sites and age of first employment: As can
be seen from the statistics, there is very low correlation
Frequenc Percen Valid Cumula between Age of employment and the awareness about
y t Percent tive % social networking sites i.e. awareness does not depend
Valid Yes 93 95.9 95.9 95.9 upon age groups.

No 4 4.1 4.1 100.0

Total 97 100.0 100.0

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International Journal of Management and Social Sciences Research (IJMSSR) ISSN: 2319-4421 40
Volume 2, No. 9, September 2013

Table no.7
Table no. 4 Registration with networking sites
Frequency of changing jobs
Frequ Perce Valid Cumula
ency nt Perce tive % Freq Perce Valid Cumul
nt uenc nt Perce ative
Less than 1 48 49.5 49.5 49.5 y nt %
year linked In 25 25.8 25.8 25.8
1-2 years 30 30.9 30.9 80.4 Facebook 55 56.7 56.7 82.5
2-4 years 15 15.5 15.5 95.9 Twitter 14 14.4 14.4 96.9
Valid Valid Upspring 1 1.0 1.0 97.9
more than 4 2 2.1 2.1 97.9
Perfect Business 1 1.0 1.0 99.0
years
Others 1 1.0 1.0 100.0
5 2 2.1 2.1 100.0
Total 97 100.0 100.0
Total 97 100.0 100.0
Table no. 8
Hypothesis Testing: T-test
Effectiveness of social net working sites on sources of
H0: Average Frequency of Changing Jobs is 2-4 yrs.
employment
H1: Average Frequency of Changing Jobs is less than 2-4
years
Freque Percent Valid Cumulati
Table No. 5 ncy Percent ve %
One-Sample Statistics Very effective 32 33.0 33.0 33.0
N Mean Std. Std. Error
Valid effective 60 61.9 61.9 94.8
Deviatio Mean not all effective 5 5.2 5.2 100.0
n
Total 97 100.0 100.0
Frequency of
97 1.76 .933 .095
changing jobs Effectiveness of social net working sites on sources of
employment: Table no. 8 indicates that maximum of the
respondents feel that social networking sites are effective
Table No.6 but not very effective.
One-Sample Test Table no. 9
Test Value = 3 Most preferred site for employment
t df Sig. Mean 95% Freque Percent Valid Cumulat
(2- Differ Confidence
ncy Percent ive %
tailed ence Interval of the
) Difference linked In 52 53.6 53.6 53.6
Lower Upper Facebook 32 33.0 33.0 86.6
Frequency Twitter 2 2.1 2.1 88.7
of changing -13.06 96 .000 -1.237 -1.43 -1.05
upspring 1 1.0 1.0 89.7
jobs Valid
Perfect business 8 8.2 8.2 97.9
others, please 2 2.1 2.1 100.0
Hypothesis testing for average frequency of changing jobs: specify
the t-value is 13.061 which show that average frequency is
less than 2-4 years so we reject the null hypothesis and Total 97 100.0 100.0
alternate hypothesis stands true.

Most preferred site for employment: Table no 9

indicates that LinkedIn is the most preferred and Facebook
is the next preferred site for potential jobseekers.

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International Journal of Management and Social Sciences Research (IJMSSR)
Volume 2, No. 9, September 2013
CONCLUSION
In current digital world, networks flourish spontaneously
and their impact on different facets on life is increasing
day by day. As the economic slowdown continues,
millions of job seekers —gripped by the job jitters—are
rushing to join online social networks in a scramble to
build their social capital.
The study conducted reveals that majority of respondents
are aware of the social networking sites & there is very
low correlation between Age of employment and the
awareness about social networking sites. One interesting
indicator was that in current macroeconomic scenario
frequency of changing jobs has come down substantially.
The study also reveals that the most popular networking
site for seeking employment is Linkedin because of its
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ISSN: 2319-4421 41
large user database and unique features like job highlighter
& specialized email alerts.
REFERENCES
[1] Social Networking-Peter K. Ryan
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_recruiting
[3] http://info.shine.com/Career-Advice-Articles/Career-
Advice/Companies-now-hiring-through-social
media/6238/cid2.aspx
[4] http://info.shine.com/Career-Advice-Articles/Shine-
Experts/Role-of-networking-sites-in-recruitment-and-
talent-management/4257/Aty18.aspx
[5] http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-
opportunities/recruiting-through-social-
media/article3886953.ece
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