The Risk of Using Social media on recruitment

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While Social media offers so many advantages of recruitment process in cost and time, it also has so many unanswered issues. The most critical issues are legal and ethical issues (Broughton, et al., 2013).
Figure 1.0: Issues of using social media as a recruitment tool


(Source: Broughton, et al., 2013)
As per the survey done by Broughton, et al (2013), regarding online recruitment, the most critical issue stated was, the disadvantage to candidates who do not has access to the social media networks which is 50%. The second most critical issue is concern regarding applicants’ privacy which is more of an ethical issue (36%). Applying large number of candidates and discrimination based on personal details on social networks are other most concerned issues (Broughton, et al., 2013). Employers are always try to do background check on job applicants. But using traditional methods on doing so, time and cost have become a problem. Considering the advantages social media provide in this, employers has shifted to use of social media networks as a screening tool in which they use to do background check on candidates. Over the time, this has become a standard practice, but there are concerns regarding the ethical issues of this (Clark & Roberts, 2010).

Legal Risks from candidates


Although employers can access social network sites to check on their candidates, they are not required to disclose the information they found out from these sites about their candidates. Hence candidates might have no idea why they were discriminated and neglected at the interview (Brown & Vaughn, 2011).Most of the job applicants are known that, they have been screened through their social network profiles before interviews and they are fine with that. But some candidates might think that it is a violation of their privacy and they might seek legal help on that (Hardon team, 2019). The law aspects of using social networks has become a grey area since law has not clearly stated that finding information through social media is right or wrong. But employers should be mindful that every candidate has the right to challenge this legally (Davison, et al., 2012). It is unclear that, how law will react on using on social media as a recruitment method. Key concerns are whether candidates are agreed to use their social network information on job recruitment, whether the job selection were based on this information and whether the use of information will violate candidates’ privacy (Clark & Roberts, 2010).

Accuracy of candidates’ information


In modern world, 70% of employers use social networks to get their candidates information. Also 30% of companies has a dedicated HR person to get these information form social networks (Cifolelli, 2018). However, there is a question on the accuracy of using this information. Using of social media as a recruitment tool is not considered as a formal method of recruitment since the accuracy of the information available on social network profiles cannot be verified. Also, there is a risk of exploitation of this information for wrongful and malicious purpose by other online users (Davison, et al., 2011). Candidates will try to express their feelings freely, impresses their friends, share their personnel information and photographs through their social network profiles. They will not think that their profiles will be viewed by their employers. Due to this, employers always tend to view these profiles rather than using information on candidates’ covering letters. (Davison, et al., 2011).

Cost of recruiting through social media


Although social networks are widely used in recruitment process, the cost and benefits of using it has not properly evaluated. There is a debate on how to measure the return on investment of using social media as a recruitment tool (Zielinski, 2012). As per the industry experts, the biggest cost in social media is not actual money but the employers’ time taken to do a quality recruitment. Since there are large number of prospective candidates available in social networks, it will be required more time to recruit suitable candidate than traditional recruitment process (Zielinski, 2012).

Discrimination of candidates


Among the candidates it is obvious that using of social media is more popular on younger generation than older generation. Also, there are differences in using of social media according to person’s education level, geographical status, IT literacy, language, social and cultural factors. Hence there is a concern whether employers can get the diversify workforce by using social media networks (Searle, 2006). It is obvious that candidates who does not have social network profiles have a disadvantage on getting select to jobs than the one they have it. Hence there can be a discrimination among the candidates on recruiting (Searle, 2006).

Conclusion


It is important to understand that there are both advantages and disadvantages of using social media as a recruitment tool.  The accuracy of information, Perception of violation of candidate’s privacy, ethical barriers and discrimination of candidates are the main concerns on social network recruiting (Brown & Vaughn, 2011). Hence it is important to create a policy on using of social media as a recruitment method and adhere to it by considering all above aspects (Davison, et al., 2012).



References

Broughton, A., Foley, B., Ledermaier, S. & Cox, A., 2013. The use of social media in the recruitment process, Brighton: Insttitue for Employment studies.
Brown, V. R. & Vaughn, E. D., 2011. The Writing on the (Facebook) Wall: The Use of Social Networking Sites in Hiring Decisions. Journal of Business and Psychology, 26(2), pp. 219-225.
Cifolelli, K., 2018. American society of Employers. [Online]
Available at: https://www.aseonline.org/News/EverythingPeople-This-Week/ArtMID/543/ArticleID/1529/Risks-of-Using-Social-Media-in-Hiring-Decisions
[Accessed 05 06 2020].
Clark, L. A. & Roberts, S. J., 2010. Employer’s Use of Social Networking Sites: A Socially Irresponsible Practice. Journal of Business Ethics, 95(4), pp. 507-525.
Davison, H. K., Maraist, C. & Bing, M. N., 2011. Friend or Foe? The Promise and Pitfalls of Using Social Networking Sites for HR Decisions. Journal of Business and Psychology, 26(2), pp. 153-159.
Davison, H. K., Maraist, C. C., Hamilton, R. H. & Bing, M. N., 2012. To Screen or Not to Screen? Using the Internet for Selection Decisions. Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, 24(1), pp. 1-21.
Hardon team, 2019. Risks of social media rectruting. [Online]
Available at: https://www.hadronfinsys.com/blog/post/risks-of-social-media-recruiting#
[Accessed 05 06 2020].
Searle, R., 2006. New technology: The potential impact of surveillance techniques in recruitment practices. Personnel Review, 35(3), pp. 336-351.
Zielinski, D., 2012. SHRM. [Online]
Available at: https://www.shrm.org
[Accessed 05 06 2020].










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