Influence of Social Media on HR Practices

According to Wright (2014)

social networking giants such as Facebook are assessing and evaluating predictive analytics and social signals in order to uncover the greatest talent for their organizations. In modern firms, data is more valued when recruiting new employees. The more human resource managers know about the people they are considering for various roles, the less time they will need to spend conducting interviews. Using social media data analysis, recruiting teams may do tasks that would normally take hours in just ten minutes. This analytics can also be used to determine whether the prospective employees will leave the organization after a short period or will be retained for longer durations. In the future, social media platforms will be a critical tool in assessing the performance of employee before they are employed. For instance, Evolv has determined that employees who reside closer to their places of work tend to have higher rates of productivity. Moreover, due to the need to have diversity in the workplace, future human resource managers will be reliant on social media data to identify underrepresented groups in the society.

Organizations that exclude the use of social media platforms

in their business strategies face the risk of losing relevance in the contemporary business environment. Even the conventional brick and mortar establishments currently have a presence in social media platforms. However, since most companies have incorporated social media into their strategic planning, which includes development and training, change implementation, and most importantly recruitment. Recruitment done through social media platforms tend to reduce time spent on sourcing for data and statistics, while also allowing organizations to cast a wider net to find the best possible talent in the job market (Facebook, Blogs & the Boss: The intersection of social media & the workplace, 2013). Through leveraging on social media platforms for recruitment, organizations can significantly reduce their recruitment and training costs, enhance self-driven employee development, and also facilitate continuous skill enhancements in their personnel. Social media platforms can also be employed as tools of reinforcing the organizational culture to transform the existing culture through constant communication (Davenport, 2012).

Social media platforms are a critical tool for businesses

since they assist employers with a wide range of activities such as communication, recruitment, and employee engagement. In terms of recruitment, staffing managers used to evaluate numerous volumes of resumes, spent considerable time posting job adverts on boards, as well as used considerable resources to arrange for job fairs to attract the best candidates. In the contemporary era, the use of social media in recruitment has gained prominence with more than 84% of organizations surveyed attesting to incorporating it in their staffing operations. In most cases, the social media platforms are used to post openings, mine for talent, as well as an informal network of passing communication to employees. Social media platforms offer recruitment managers to chance to establish and track relationships with potential candidates who are not necessarily looking for employment at the moment (Managing and leveraging workplace use of social media, 2012). Advancement in mobile technology that includes smartphones and tablets have assisted recruiters to create better online exchange and searches for information. Organizations are creating specialized applications and online sites for the purpose of recruiting and advertising job openings to potential candidates.

In relation to employee engagement

social media platforms are used to ensure that the management communicates and obtains feedback from employees in the organization. Employees feel more appreciated and engaged when they perceive that they are adequately informed about changes to the organization's operations. They also value organizations that take into consideration their opinion, which is often channeled through social media platforms. Some companies have incorporated the corporate use of social media platforms to convey messages about new initiatives or policies to their staff (Fibeberg, 2014). The advantage is that employees have the opportunity to respond in real time to suggestions communicated by the management. Social media is also used to hold video conferencing with employees who are spread geographically all over the world.

Challenges for HR professionals using social media

Even though social media platforms are crucial tools that assist employers to better understand potential candidates, they should be used cautiously in terms of recruitment and evaluating personal data. Despite playing a critical role in the screening process, it is important for employers to evaluate when and where it can be employed in the recruitment and hiring process. It is possible for human resource managers to stumble onto information that they are not required to access due to privacy regulations. For instance, potential candidates can claim that they were rejected or denied employment due to information obtained from social media platforms about their race, religion, ethnicity, political inclinations, or age. It is critical that employers should not make use of social media data to determine candidates that are invited for interviews. It is also vital to ensure that the human resource department and not the recruitment manager should conduct social media evaluations to avoid conflict of interests (Managing and leveraging workplace use of social media, 2012).

There are also regulations that govern companies seeking background checks on potential employees

For instance, the fair credit reporting act stipulates certain qualifications that organizations should comply with before engaging in background screening. The satisfaction of these requirements could be overwhelmingly challenging because the content of most social media sites can be altered by users at any time. Sometimes the recruitment manager may decide to hire an employee regardless of negative information about previous conduct in their last employment. If the same case happens to occur in the company, the recruiting team could be liable for charges of negligence, which could be very detrimental to the organization (Managing and leveraging workplace use of social media, 2012). Moreover, friendships built online between employees and their managers could have additional legal implications in the form of litigations.

In most cases, befriending employees helps employers and managers acquire more information about their subordinates

Some of this information could be categorized under the protected information legislation. In this case, an employee who is dismissed can argue that the decision was based on protected information obtained illegally from social media platforms. In this regard, online friendships between managers and employees need to be discouraged to avoid such complications. There is also increased concerns due to the action of employers and managers requesting their employees to provide their social media accounts passwords. Several states in the US have passed landmark legislations that prohibit managers and employers from forcing their employees to reveal their social media passwords. In addition, some legislations even prohibit employers from punishing employees due to utterances or things they have mentioned or said on social media platforms (Managing and leveraging workplace use of social media, 2012). In the recent past, there is increased lawsuits focusing on social media with employers and employees contesting various issues from dismissal to ownership of social media accounts. Even though social media is advantageous to the human resources function, it should be used cautiously to prevent lawsuits that arise out of privacy issues.

References

Davenport, T. H. (2012). Case study: social media engages employees. FT.Com. Retrieved from Trident Online Library.

Facebook, Blogs & the Boss: The intersection of social media & the workplace. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRrJ9eINZI

Fibeberg, S. (2014). Case studies: social media. Accounting Today, 28(2), 26-29.

Managing and leveraging workplace use of social media. (2012). Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-and-samples/toolkits/pages/managingsocialmedia.aspx

Wright, A. (2014). How Facebook recruits. Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/technology/pages/how-facebook-recruits.aspx