First, we take the perspective of organizations and recruiters to clarify how the HR department can recruit employees by applying social media tools. Given the increasing importance of social media, e-recruitment is on the rise. Particularly, studies have shown that an increasing number of employers spread vacancies online and screen the online profiles of candidates who apply for a job (Institute of Business Ethics2011; Career Builder2009; Reppler2011). Similarly, a growing market exists for tools with CV searching technology and CV parsing technology (i.e., to automatically convert CVs or social media profiles into a candidate profile in the organization’s database). Such talent acquisition technologies can help save time in the administrative processing of applications. For instance, international software companies (e.g., Oracle, SAP, Kronos) provide technology which allows organizations to push vacancies from their corporate system or database into social media by clicking just a button, as well as to access network information to search for relevant candidates in return (see also Chap. 8 on social network data). A dedicated corporate database for e-recruitment is also referred to as an “applicant tracking system” or “hiring management system,” which is comparable to a social CRM database (see Chap.5), albeit for (potential) employees instead of (potential) customers.
As an example of e-recruitment, we look at Accenture™(http://www.accenture.
com/), which is an international IT consultancy firm. On its corporate website, the organization has a page dedicated to e-recruitment (http://careers.accenture.com/).
On the bottom of that page, links to different social media tools and an RSS are presented, for which interested candidates can register themselves. This organiza- tion uses, among others, Facebook™ as an active tool to spread direct links to vacancies (https://www.facebook.com/accenture). Such social media initiatives can contribute to a corporate image of being a “good” employer. The organization also
tends to use a consistent corporate style, e.g., by using similar pictures on every social media tool and by clearly showing its corporate logo.
Accenture™is not the only organization that takes advantage of e-recruitment.
In particular, organizations may now have dedicated job descriptions for recruiters who are responsible for the online HR-related questions and answers on social media. Such profiles constantly screen photos and messages, respond to online questions, and keep the online recruiting channels up to date. Also small and medium enterprises (SMEs) can use social media for e-recruitment in order to reach more people. However, the latter also depends on the sector in which the organization is active. For instance, smaller organizations in certain niches (e.g., journalists or IT professionals) may have a Facebook™page, but still prefer relying on physical networking (i.e., during offline social events, besides social media) (Rombouts2012).
Subsequently, specific e-recruitment initiatives are discussed for LinkedIn™, Facebook™, and Twitter™from the perspectives of organizations and recruiters.
9.2.1 LinkedInTMand e-Recruitment for Organizations
Chapter2 described LinkedIn™as a networking website for organizations to list job vacancies and to search for potential candidates. It is a prominent tool for e-recruitment as it only targets professional profiles. The presence of a specialized social media tool such as LinkedIn™ implies that organizations become less dependent on outsourcing to professional agencies with external HR, which may result in higher cost efficiency. In particular, LinkedIn™can help find candidates for vacancies by means of the following features (https://www.linkedin.com/):
• Create a company page to have a network of followers.
• Create a showcase page per product to have a more targeted network of followers.
• Create a group for discussion.
• Job posting on the LinkedIn™company page or as an ad.
• Advanced search engine.
The first four features can be used to let candidates come to the organization, while the last feature is to actively search for candidates. We now have a look at each feature separately.
First, an organization can decide to create a LinkedIn™company page to obtain a professional network of followers. Look for an example at the company page of Ghent University (https://www.linkedin.com/company/ghent-university). Each LinkedIn™ company page has a personalized URL, to which the organization can refer on other social media tools, on the corporate website or even in emails.
Vice versa, the LinkedIn™ company page can also contain direct links to the corporate website and other social media tools (e.g., in the header to draw the attention of web page visitors). The aim of this LinkedIn™feature is to get more
followers and to inform them properly about all initiatives at the organization.
Among others, the LinkedIn™corporate page can be used to post vacancies or to include links to vacancies that are accessible on the corporate website.
Secondly, instead of following an organization, LinkedIn™ allows organizations to launch showcase pages per business area (e.g., per product, per business unit, or per initiative). This means that an organization can also create a showcase page with updates related to a certain product or service. It concerns a dedicated page to highlight different aspects of a business and to build relationships with a more targeted network. As such, people can follow specific products and services in which they are interested. For instance, Microsoft™ has a showcase page for Microsoft Office™(http://www.linkedin.com/company/microsoft-office).
Thirdly, an organization can create a discussion group for questions and answers regarding its brand or a specific product or service. For instance, the software company Adobe™ has a discussion group on its Photoshop™tool (http://www.
linkedin.com/groups/Adobe-Photoshop-Group-119955), in which people interested in photography can ask questions or respond to questions in a forum and can look for a job at the company. A discussion group also allows the organization to spread links with more information on activities. By reading and comparing different discussion groups on a certain topic, more candidates can become interested into a brand and its vacancies. Hence, besides e-recruitment, a discussion groups is closely linked to social CRM (see Chap.5).
Fourthly, LinkedIn™gives organizations the opportunity to post job vacancies.
Vacancies can appear on the LinkedIn™company page, possibly with a button similar to “Apply with LinkedIn™” to directly apply for the job by sending personal LinkedIn™information to the organization. But vacancies can also appear as online ads (see Chap.4). The latter is a more advanced use of LinkedIn™, as online ads are characterized by a bidding process and a pricing model. Thus, for this feature, the organization can opt for a free and limited account on LinkedIn™or for a more advanced and charged account.
The fifth LinkedIn™feature for e-recruitment relates to an active search engine (see Fig.9.2). In this feature, the profiles of LinkedIn™users are used as a database with professional information about potential candidates. One way to actively find candidates is by searching for keywords. This means that users can profit from adding relevant keywords to their individual profile.
In order to look for keywords, a search engine will particularly screen the summary which is on top of a LinkedIn™user profile. In order to be more findable by a search engine, potential candidates should regularly update their LinkedIn™
profile in order to appear in the latest search lists (see SEO, Chap.6). The summary of a candidate should also be short, containing the current and previous employers and job titles of the candidate, as well as his/her education. For the candidate, the summary of a LinkedIn™profile is also a good way to promote himself/herself by using keywords as unique selling points (e.g., why is this candidate different from others and what is his/her expertise about?). An example of the summary of a LinkedIn™user is shown below:
Valentina Boyd
Current: Supply chain manager at Organization XYZ Previous: Organization ABC, Organization DEF Education: Ghent University
Summary:
• Supply chain management
• Production planning
• Production strategy
• Total quality management
• Project management
• Change management
Once a LinkedIn™profile is found by the search engine, recruiters will screen the profile to prepare for a job interview or an assessment. Recruiters will particu- larly look at professional expertise, current and previous jobs, contact details, and the professional contacts (i.e., LinkedIn™connections). The purpose of a social media tool such as LinkedIn™is providing professional information. Hence, users should better reserve private information (e.g., about hobbies, pets, etc.) for other tools (e.g., Facebook™). Furthermore, recruiters pay attention to details about previous jobs and education and are sensitive for gaps in a re´sume´. For instance, if a time gap exists between the period of going to high school and university or between jobs, they will very likely ask the candidate what he/she has been doing meanwhile. Finally, LinkedIn™allows to highlight a candidate’s skills by means of listing the rewards of a user, as well as by means of recommendations and endorsements. These options are appreciated by recruiters as the mentioned skills are then confirmed by other people. Endorsements reveal how many connections confirm that a particular user possesses a certain skill (e.g., “45 people endorse Valentina Boyd for supply chain management”). On the other hand, Fig. 9.2 An example of a search engine on LinkedIn™(LinkedIn™and the LinkedIn™logo are registered trademarks of LinkedIn™Corporation, used with permission)
recommendations are pieces of text in which a user is suggested to be good or suitable for a particular purpose or job. For instance:
John Cortes, Production manager at CASIAC
“Valentina is a hardworking person, who functions very well in a team. She came up with an intelligent idea to improve the production process. Valentina was appreciated by the whole team.”
June 21, 2012, John managed Valentina at Organization ABC
9.2.2 Other e-Recruitment Tools for Organizations
Besides the professional community of LinkedIn™, other social media tools can be used for e-recruitment. As an illustration, this section looks at Facebook™ and Twitter™from the perspective of organizations.
Although Facebook™ (https://www.facebook.com/) is not a professional net- work, organizations can have a dedicated Facebook™page that users may “like.”
As Facebook™is a private community, “likes” allow the organization to get access to personal information and posts related to its “likers.” The search engine of Facebook™ can be used to find other Facebook™ users (e.g., organizations or professionals, among others). Hence, the organization’s Facebook™page can be used to announce vacancies but also to prepare for a job interview with targeted questions and to compare a candidate’s re´sume´ with his/her private Facebook™ profile in order to find anomalies or inconsistencies. Consequently, given Facebook™’s widespread use (Chap. 1), organizations can use Facebook™ for e-recruitment, in addition to other initiatives such as online ads (Chap. 4), viral campaigns (Chap.4), or social CRM (Chap.5).
Also the microblogging tool Twitter™(https://twitter.com/) can be applied for e-recruitment, particularly to reach certain niches (e.g., journalists or IT professionals; see supra). For instance, in this publicly available tool, recruiters can “tweet” links to the organization’s vacancies in the hope to reach many people when followers start retweeting. Compared to LinkedIn™, Twitter™relates more to pushing information about a specific content to a target population, and followers deliberately choose what to retweet. Besides posting tweets, organizations can make use of an additional job search engine for Twitter™(TwitJobSearch:http://
www.twitjobsearch.com/, https://twitter.com/twitjobsearch) to find all Twitter™ messages with certain hashtags (which symbolize the topics), e.g., hashtag “job”
and a keyword (#marketingjobBrussels). Examples of frequently used hashtags for recruiters are presented in Table9.1(Career Enlightenment2012; Recruiter.com 2014; SmartRecruiters2011).