vikalpa-39-3_93-104

VIKALPA VOLUME 39 NO 3 JULY - SEPTEMBER 2014 93

Tweet Your Tune Social Media, theNew Pied Piper in Talent Acquisition

Debolina Dutta

KEY WORDS

Social Networking

Strategic Recruitment

Applicant Attraction

Employer Branding

There is consensus in research that there exists a war for talent and that win-

ning this war is critical for an organization to gain strategic and competitive

advantage (Chambers, Foulon, Handfield-Jones, Hankin, & Michaels, 1998;

Gatewood, Gowan, & Lautenschlager, 1993; Michaels, Handfield-Jones, & Axelrod,

2001; Rynes, 1991; Turban & Greening, 1997). Early stages of applicant attraction thus

become critical, especially in a robust job market, as the potential recruits have a number

of choices about where to employ their human capital (Aiman-Smith, Bauer, & Cable,

2001).

Human resource management has been unknowingly using marketing strategies to

sell the employment product and job offer (Price, 1996). Moving forward, talent ac-

quisition leaders would be required to think like marketers while developing media

and sourcing strategies. Competencies traditionally considered as marketing and sales

skills (e.g. competitive analysis, product positioning, and target group segmentation)

are increasingly becoming a part of the required talent acquisition skill set. To measure

the corresponding outcomes through a different yardstick than what is convention-

ally used by HR functions to measure recruitment efficiencies requires the develop-

ment of appropriate metrics.

Job seekers psychologically engage with an organization through various sources of

information which shape their attitude and beliefs, and hence their image of the or-

ganization. In todays age, social networking as a recruitment tool is gaining popular-

ity (Doherty, 2010). Organizations embracing this channel are perceived as evolving,

innovative, and open to technological change. With the growing interaction of the

current generation on social media sites, organizations are waking up to the potential

of leveraging these channels to build their brand images and attract applicants to their

organizations.

This paper looks at integrating research on recruitment with literature on marketing

communication and social media to propose a quantifiable approach to leveraging

social media for strategic recruitment. The aim is to develop a systematic approach

which organizations can use to delineate their strategy, choose the appropriate social

media channels, and understand and define the metrics involved for each channel

and the related investments required for successfully carrying out social media re-

cruitment.

NOTES AND

COMMENTARIES

presents preliminaryresearch, review of

literature and commentson published papers or on

any relevant subject

94

LITERATURE REVIEW

Recruitment

Recruitment has always been a critical function respon-

sible for attracting and selecting the right talent for or-

ganizations (Schneider, 1987). So, while an organizations

human resources are perfectly inimitable (Lippman &

Rumelt, 1982), organizations that succeed in winning the

war for talent are able to attract larger pools of quality

applicants and achieve a huge competitive advantage over

their rivals (Michaels, Handfield-Jones, & Axelrod, 2001).

These organizations have a clear two-fold strategic ad-

vantage over their competitors, i.e. the ability to be more

selective in their hiring decisions, which increases the

effectiveness of their overall staffing systems (Boudreau

& Rynes, 1985) and the ability to earn above-normal re-

turns through the acquisition and deployment of human

talent (Barney, 1986; Lado & Wilson, 1994). Thus, the

competence to attract, recruit, develop, and retain high

calibre talent is the single-most important determinant of

organizational effectiveness and a source of competitive

advantage (Borstorff, Marker, & Bennett, 2007). The re-

cruitment function of an organization serves as the en-

gine focused on winning this war and providing the

competitive advantage.

Recruitment has been defined in multiple ways. Rynes

(1991) defined it as encompassing all organizational

practices and decisions that affect either the number or

types of individuals that are willing to apply for, or to

accept, a given vacancy(p. 429). The definition proposed

by Barber (1998) was much narrower in scope and in-

cluded only the purposeful actions taken by the organiza-

tions. According to Breaugh & Starke (2000), Recruitment

consists of those organizational practices with the pri-

mary purpose of identifying potential employees, inform-

ing them about the job and organizational attributes, and

persuading them to join the organization. A more recent

definition by Breaugh (2013) says that recruitment is de-

fined as an employers actions that are intended to (1)

bring a job opening to the attention of potential job candi-

dates who do not currently work for the organization, (2)

influence whether these individuals apply for the open-

ing, (3) affect whether they maintain interest in the posi-

tion until a job offer is extended, and (4) influence whether

a job offer is accepted. While this definition appears to be

the most relevant in extending the realm of recruitment to

encompass the influence of social media, it does not ad-

dress what organizations do to enhance the employer

brand, even in the absence of an active job opening. It is

therefore suggested that the definition of recruitment

needs to be expanded beyond those related to active re-

cruitment and to include all activities by an organization

which help bring potential applicants into the consid-

eration set of the organization. This can be considered as

passive recruitment. Hence, recruitment can be defined

as all the activities undertaken by an organization to en-

hance its employer brand which helps it to attract both

active and passive applicants to the organization for cur-

rent and future job opportunities and which influences

them to apply, maintain interest during the selection proc-

ess, and join at the appropriate time.

Barber (1998) delineated three phases of recruitment as

applicant attraction, recruitment operations, and final job

choice decision. Breaugh and Starke (2000) outlined a

recruitment framework wherein the recruitment objectives

(retention, job performance, cost, speed of filling, etc.) were

instrumental in driving the strategy development for the

recruitment function. This in turn, led to the recruitment

activities, with applicant related intervening variables of

applicant attraction, message credibility, accuracy of ap-

plicants expectations, self-insight of applicants knowl-

edge, skills, ability, and needs mediating the recruitment

results (Breaugh & Starke, 2000).

It is important that the communication made during the

process of recruitment is both consistent and credible

(Breaugh & Billings, 1988), not only during the initial

stages of application but also during the recruitment proc-

ess, for organizations to successfully attract talent. This

credibility and consistency in communication is assessed

by the applicants during the process (Rynes, 1991) and

also helps explain the greater effectiveness of the various

internal recruitment sources such as employee referrals,

internal transfers, or re-hires (Zottolli & Wanous, 2000).

For instance, Saks & Cronshaw (1990) found the realistic

job previews to be more credible when presented by the

recruiter rather than the written format. Applicants tend

to infer job and organizational information based on the

organizational image projected along with the percep-

tions formed during their early interactions with the or-

ganization, if the information is not clearly provided by

the organization (Ryan & Tippins, 2004). Recruitment

research suggests that individuals might discount organi-

zations when exposed to neutral information (Collins &

Stevens, 2002). So, from a recruitment context, this means

TWEET YOUR TUNE SOCIAL MEDIA, THE NEW PIED PIPER IN TALENT ACQUISITION


that neutral news is not necessarily good news. Hence,

the method of message delivery becomes important, apart

from the content. All of this provides important linkages

to the manner in which information is disseminated in

the social media.

The financial implications of recruitment, turnover or at-

trition, for both entry level and senior management, sug-

gest the need for better and effective recruitment practices

(Sanford, 2005). Wright and McMahan (1992) defined

strategic human resource management as the pattern of

planned human resource deployment and activities in-

tended to enable an organization to achieve its goals.

Strategic recruitment would require a synergy of recruit-

ment activities and processes with the organization goals.

It is also of interest to see what recruitment strategies and

processes help organizations gain a competitive advan-

tage in attracting talent in a manner to retain them through

mobility barriers (Caves & Porter, 1977), thus immobi-

lizing the perfectly mobile resources (Barney, 1986). Since

recruitment can help organizations achieve competitive

advantage through its ability to accumulate new resources

more efficiently and effectively relative to competitors

(Delery, 1998; Mahoney & Pandian, 1992; Prahalad &

Hamel, 1990), a convergence of the organizations strat-

egy with the recruitment strategy and implementation

becomes critical for recruitment to deliver strategic value.

For instance, a recruitment function which remains in-

ward-looking and focused on managing costs, or improv-

ing its source mix, may be harming the organization by

delaying a quicker resource fulfilment. Today, it has be-

come imperative for an organizations HR to understand,

articulate, and operationalize an appropriate social me-

dia recruitment strategy, which will help the function and

the organization as a whole. Those organizations that

leverage social media strategically have an opportunity

to deepen connections with their target users, building

affinity, and loyalty (Powers et al., 2012).

Proposition 1: The more recruitment communica-

tion is linked to organizations strategic goals,

the more effective it is likely to be.

Applicant Attraction

The whole purpose of an organizations communication

before and during the process of recruitment is to attract

potential job applicants to the organization (Breaugh &

Starke, 2000). Thus recruitment communication can be

defined as any recruitment information which is person-

ally relevant to an applicant and messages received dur-

ing interactive communication (Breaugh & Starke, 2000)

to attract applicants. Allen, VanScotter, and Otondo (2004)

found face-to-face interactive communication being rated

as the richest medium to attract applicants, followed by

text communication which was rated higher than pure

audio communication in richness. The Psychology lit-

erature indicates that more the information (both positive

and negative) prior to the start of employment, lower is

the turnover (Farr, OLeary, & Bartlett, 1973; Gannon,

1971; Wanous, 1973; 1975). All of this indicates that the

information about when and how the applicant receives

his information about the organization and the role can

influence the applicants behaviour after joining the or-

ganization. The power of social media emerges as a rich

interactive channel for contextualizing and personaliz-

ing the communication at an individual level.

The antecedents to job application are the cognitive and

affective processing of information about job choices,

wherein a congruency is sought between applicants

needs and the perceived job and organizations offerings.

What people construe as distinctive, central, and endur-

ing about the organization helps define the organiza-

tional image (Dutton, Dukerich, & Harquail, 1994). An

organizations image plays an important role in the minds

of the applicant and helps him differentiate the organiza-

tion from its competitors (Aaker, 1997; Cable & Turban,

2003; Scott & Lane, 2000). Hence, being able to establish a

favourable image in the mind of the applicant can help

an organization attract a larger and more qualified talent

pool to its door.

Employer branding has been defined as the sum of a

companys efforts to communicate to existing and pro-

spective staff that it is a desirable place to work (Edwards,

2010). This is analogous to customer-based brand equity

(Aaker, 1997) which helps in creating a unique favour-

able brand image in the target customers mind and helps

increase the likelihood of the product or service being

chosen over other similar products or services; employer

branding also works in a similar fashion for the appli-

cant pool. Employer attractiveness or the perceived ben-

efit that the applicant may get by being employed by an

organization, is the antecedent to the development of an

effective employer brand (Arachchige & Robertson, 2011).

Rynes (1991) suggested that given the small amount of

information available to applicants early in the job choice

96

process, initial application decisions are heavily based

on general impressions of organizational attractiveness

or organizational image. Belt and Paolillo, (1982) found

applicant responses to organizations with a better image

to be significantly higher. Fisher, Ilgen, and Hoyer (1979)

showed that graduating students found information ob-

tained from people outside the organization to be more

credible than the same information obtained from organi-

zational representatives. This indicates that job applicants

are significantly influenced by their reference groups. This

becomes important in the context of social media, where

the level of peer communication is very high. This is also

substantiated by Kilduff (1990), who found the graduat-

ing MBA students being more attracted to organizations

most preferred by their peers. Collins and Stevens (2002)

argued that applicants could rely on employer brand

images for guidance in decision-making, since in many

cases, the true attributes of the job and company may not

be easily known. Therefore, establishing the employer

brand becomes critical for organizations hoping to at-

tract high calibre talent. All of this research indicates that

organizations can significantly leverage the power of so-

cial media to establish and communicate an attractive

employer brand and influence initial applicant decision.

Research indicates that applicants move through a

gradual process of bringing an organization into their

consideration set, evaluating it through the lens of their

work values, before making the decision to apply for the

job. The behaviour of highly skilled job seekers in a tight

labour market is similar to that of consumers in a crowded

marketplace (Collins & Stevens, 2002). The job choice proc-

ess begins with an individuals evaluation of informa-

tion obtained from recruitment sources, including printed

advertisements, media messages, and friends (Gatewood,

Gowan, & Lautenschlager, 1993). An organizations fail-

ure to supply information may be viewed as a signal of its

lack of professionalism or of its lack of interest in the ap-

plicant (Breaugh & Starke, 2000). This indicates the need

for a concentrated effort by organizations to channelize

favourable and consistent messages through the various

channels towards their target applicant pool. Thus, even

investments in social media recruitment need a thought-

ful strategic approach by the organization, if its power is

to be harnessed.

All of this implies that while multiple information sources

(Breaugh & Starke, 2000; Fisher, Ilgen, & Hoyer, 1979;

Kilduff, 1990) influence applicants behaviour, social

media channels help organizations to not only address

and influence potential job applicant behaviour but also

build a favourable employer brand.

Proposition 2: Higher the use of social media

platforms, the greater will be the employer

branding among potential applicants to the

organization.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Social media was defined by Marketo (2010) as the pro-

duction, consumption and exchange of information

through online social interactions and platforms.

OReilly (2010) defined Web 2.0 as the second genera-

tion of Internet-based services that facilitate interactive

information sharing, social networking, collaboration and

end user participation. Hoffman and Fodor (2010) iden-

tified the 4 Cs of connection, creation, consumption, and

control as the motivators behind social media engage-

ment. The common denominator therefore is the social

media, which is a platform for communication and collabo-

ration. Since engagement and collaboration are the two

sides of the social media coin, a clear understanding of

the potential job applicants needs and commensurate

degree of information sharing is required.

The primary and secondary value creating activities of

an organization in its value chain can be significantly

influenced by social media (Yang & Mason, 1998). The

growing popularity of social networking websites like

LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter are forcing organiza-

tions to recognize the potential it provides in attracting

todays Generation Y workforce. With over millions of

users on LinkedIn and Twitter, and over a whopping 800

million users on Facebook (Hunt, 2010), clearly the large

segment available for talent acquisition is too attractive

for any HR function to ignore. The power of the internet,

of which social media is a part, is increasingly being

leveraged by HR functions for the purposes of recruit-

ment, selection and training and interacting and engag-

ing with the current and potential employees (Florkowski

& Olivas-Lujan, 2006). Research suggests HR 2.0 as a

new term for the collective human resource management

processes enabled and facilitated by Web 2.0 based ap-

plications (McAdams, 2010) and especially used in re-

cruitment through passive job seekers, branding, and

relationship building before and during the selection proc-

ess. Web 2.0 based tools and techniques like corporate



intranets, blogs, and professional networks can be used

to attract and induct suitable talent. LinkedIn has been

particularly helpful for some companies in finding out

additional information about job applicants (Roberts &

Roach, 2009).

While it is generally believed that the strategy adopted by

the organization should drive its use of social media

(Hunt, 2010; Andzulis, Panagopoulos, & Rapp, 2012),

Doherty (2010) argued that organizations started look-

ing at social media as a recruitment tool due to cost pres-

sures. The question then is: Are organizations accurately

tracking and measuring the right metrics? The conven-

tional recruitment metrics measured efficacy of recruit-

ment channels through the time to hire and cost of hire

(Breaugh, 2013; Otter, 2009; Rynes, 1991). As argued ear-

lier, the applicant attraction process is analogous to tar-

geted marketing, with employer brand image and

employer value proposition helping to seal the interest.

The power of social media lies in its ability to effect pe-

ripheral persuasion, as defined by Petty and Cacioppos

(1986) elaboration likelihood model (ELM), wherein the

potential applicants lack the motivation or the ability to

carefully process a message (Breaugh, 2013).

However, as Hoffman and Fodor (2010) stated, social me-

dia diluted the circle of influence and control of the or-

ganization and placed higher levels of control on the

interfacing individuals. Organizations need to also look

at these channels as a potential area to improve employee

branding and be perceived as an employer of choice

among the Generation Y workforce. Hence, in this con-

text, apart from the conventional recruitment metrics, it

becomes necessary for HR functions to measure and evolve

metrics to assess the employer branding. As Hoffman and

Fodor (2010) stated, effective social media measurement

should start by turning the traditional ROI approach on

its headinstead of emphasizing their owninvestments

and calculating the returnsmanagers should begin by

considering consumer motivations to use social media

and then measure the social media investments custom-

ers make as they engage with the ..brands.

Social media should therefore not be thought of as simply

another channel for recruitment, another means by which

to interact with the potential applicant, or another tool by

which to manage employer brand and organization repu-

tation but, rather, all of those things simultaneously.

For the recruiters, the information available on the social

media provides additional insights into the candidates

personality, interests, and values which may not emerge

from the more conventional resume. However, there is a

clear need for caution to ensure that public and non-pro-

fessional information, if used to support a hiring deci-

sion, does not flout the discrimination policy of the

organization (Doherty, 2010).

COMPARISON OF CONVENTIONAL ANDSOCIAL MEDIA RECRUITMENT

Prior research on recruitment has studied pre-hire out-

comes (e.g. number of applicants, job offer acceptance

rates), post-hire outcomes (e.g. job performance, employee

turnover), recruitment objectives (cost of hire, time to hire,

number of positions filled, diversity) (Breaugh & Starke,

2000; Breaugh, 2013). It therefore becomes important to

differentiate conventional recruitment methods and out-

comes from the social media methods and outcomes in

terms of their applicability, strategy, and use. As men-

tioned earlier, prior literature has looked at recruitment

purely from the lens of active requirement fulfilment.

Therefore, all metrics defined therein depend on the out-

come of actually recruiting an applicant. This is a funda-

mental difference, since active recruitment through social

media reduces social media to just another channel. The

power of social media exists in its ability to enhance pe-

ripheral persuasion (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986). As cogni-

tive and affective processing of information about the job

choices can be significantly enhanced by using social me-

dia, it provides an invaluable opportunity to influence

applicant attraction, enhance employer branding, and

target specific talent pools. Therefore, social media can be

leveraged both for active and passive recruitment, but

more importantly for passive recruitment.

Organizations today place too much emphasis on two

basic metrics Time to fill and cost per hire but fail to

sufficiently debate upon, identify, and measure a new

age parameter called quality of hire. They need to evalu-

ate if they are reaching their targeted audience vis--vis

an unwanted global audience. In the effort to get the

fastest available applicant, the most suitable applicant

may get missed out. Social media channels clearly allow

for organizations to disseminate targeted messages to a

filtered audience thereby contributing to and increasing

the quality score card.

98

An important measure of recruitment effectiveness is de-

fined by the quality of hire a parameter which organi-

zations are slowly and increasingly beginning to recognize,

while the efficiency metrics (time to fill, cost per hire, attri-

tion rate) are still measured and are still relevant. The

quality of hire measure has two dimensions: the meas-

ures of recruitment-focused quality (assessments, fit

against defined job competencies, and skills) and post-

hire contribution and performance quality index. These

measures are necessarily contextual and cannot be stand-

ardized. However, the metrics aligned to business out-

comes are generally accepted as valid measures for quality

of hire. These may be the strength of the talent pipeline

(talent mapping, sourcing, knowing the competition, and

presenting the most qualified candidates), new hire attri-

tion, assessment scores for critical roles, candidate expe-

rience (measure of perceived and actual fit), employer

experience (measure of assessed and actual fit), percent-

age of diversity, etc. These measures of quality remain

relevant even for social media recruitment.

Additionally, customized targeting of potential applicants

of defined demographics through social media lends it-

self for affirmative action in specific areas of recruitment

like increasing diversity (gender, disability, racial, etc.).

The fundamental differences between conventional re-

cruitment channels and social media recruitment are

given in Table 1.

The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technol-

ogy (Venkatesh, Thong, & Xu, 2012) postulates that a dif-

ference in age, gender, experience, habit, etc., of individual

users can result in a significant difference in the behav-

ioural intention and technology use. The performance

expectancy (degree of benefit technology will provide),

effort expectancy (degree of ease in use of technology),

facilitating conditions (perceptions of resources and sup-

port available), and social influence (extent that an appli-

cant perceives that its reference groups believes that they

should use technology) all work towards influencing

behavioural intention to use technology. The influence of

reference groups on applicants behaviour had already

been established (Van Hoye & Lievens, 2007; Van-Hoye

& Saks, 2011). All of this indicates that only an applicant

population which is technology savvy will be the tar-

geted segment of social media recruitment.

Social media may not be amenable to active recruitment

at all levels and positions; hence a judicious use of these

channels for appropriate target segments is advised. Or-

ganizations would be ill-advised to discard conventional

recruitment channels, operations, and metrics without a

careful analysis of its strategy.

STRATEGY FOR SOCIAL MEDIA RECRUITMENT

Before an organization enters the social media arena for

the purposes of talent acquisition, it must determine the

appropriate goals associated with the social media im-

plementation (Andzulis, Panagopoulos, & Rapp, 2012).

It needs to identify and understand the value proposition

for the talent pool, not just the organization. A recent

study indicated that of the 35 percent of the employers

using social media for recruitment, 21 percent are using it

to recruit and research potential employees, and 18 per-

cent are using it to strengthen their employment brands

(Hunt, 2010).

The tactical choices and investments done in social me-

dia typically emanate from four strategic goals that an

organization may have. Analogous to the strategies in the

Table 1: Differences between Conventional and Social Media Recruitment

Measure or Criteria Conventional Recruitment Social Media Recruitment

Objective / Utility Active demand fulfilment Active and passive recruitment

Channels of communication Newspapers, referrals, direct, job board, Social media channels like blog sites, micro-blogging,recruitment consultants websites and forums/discussion groups, social networks

(LinkedIn, Facebook)

Metrics of measure Pre- and post-hire outcomes, operational efficiencies Employer branding and personalized engagement

Locus of control HR function Social media community

Level of individualization Medium to low Very high

Target applicant group All individuals matching current open positions Gen Y , internet savvy, having access & active on socialmedia channels

Tenure of engagement Relatively short-term, from application to Continuous engagementon-boarding of applicant



sales and marketing context, (Andzulis, Panagopoulos,

& Rapp, 2012), recruitment strategies are relationship

building, employer brand building, active recruitment,

and finally cost optimization.

Table 2 indicates the philosophy, operational investment,

and tactical outcome to be expected from each of these

strategies. Based on organizational needs, resource avail-

ability, and priorities, HR functions should carve out their

social media plan. However, it may be feasible for an or-

ganization to choose a few of these or all of these concur-

rently and decide the relative degrees of investment

required.

Due to the high costs of social media monitoring, MROCs1

provide a relatively economical alternative. However, the

inputs received here are qualitative in nature, even when

surveys and polls are used. The special nature of the re-

cruitment of MROCs and the sensitized nature of the par-

ticipants involvement means that the data should be

interpreted in a qualitative way, rather than assuming

that it directly represents the universal population. Com-

munity panels are the e-version of traditional in-house

panels and employ the latest techniques in engagement

and communities to optimize relationships with brands

(Poynter, 2011).

Organizations focused on passive recruitment or even

those having a robust succession planning policy can

look at proactively engaging with the passive job seekers

through the social media channels. The targeted and per-

sonalized engagement with the candidates creates greater

candidate loyalty to the company and makes it more

difcult for competition to attract them (Doherty, 2010).

All the above channels can also be used for monitoring

social reputation and building an aspirational employer

brand. There is a need for substantial commitment and

continuous monitoring by the HR function for social me-

dia to become a concomitant and dynamic channel within

the recruitment function.

This suggests that organizations need to follow a struc-

tured approach (See Figure 1). As indicated, the choice of

channels will flow from the desired strategy and recruit-

ment need. The performance realized will indicate the

changes required in operational investment and choices

of channels.

Table 2: Alignment of Strategy, Philosophy, Investment, and Outcome for Recruitment

Strategy Philosophy Operational Investment Tactical Outcome

Relationship strategy Trust building and collaboration Dedicated community manager focused on Strategic talent inductedthrough personalized engagement prospective talent lead generation and engagement into the organization

Employer branding Establishing credibility, gaining Social media monitoring, sentiment analysis, Organization perceivedattention, demonstrating employer creation of purposed communities, MROCs as preferred employervalue propositions and community panels. of choice

Active recruitment Reactive demand fulfilment Maintaining a dynamic career microsite Active recruitmentreflecting active open requirements positions closed

Cost optimization Reducing costs of recruitment Maintaining a dynamic career microsite and Reduce recruitmentchannels integrating with active open requirements. Dedicated spend on more

resource to close applicants from these channel expensive channels

Figure 1: Social Media Recruitment Approach

1 Market research online communities, dubbed MROCs by Forrester Research in 2008, was initially pioneered by Communispace andbecame mainstream by 2010.

Social Media Strategy Choice of Channels Metrics Operational Investment

Performance

100

The social media strategy defines the stage which an

organization can use, which thus helps in choosing the

appropriate channel. For instance, if the social media strat-

egy of an organization is active recruitment, the stage is

the career page in the organization website. This is then

linked to posting of active jobs on various job portals and

social media sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

The metrics of efficacy will thus be the number of active

positions closed through these channels. If the intention

of using social media is to boost employer branding, the

stage becomes the website blog page, LinkedIn, and

Facebook pages where the content is updated on current

events and achievements of the organization, recent

awards and recognitions received, employee testimoni-

als, and insights into the culture of the organization. The

metrics of measurement in this case will thus become the

number of unique visits, the return visits, the search rank-

ing, number of followers/members/fans and also number

of re-blogs, frequency of badging on other sites, re-tweets,

etc. For instance, LinkedIn has defined constructs of tal-

ent brand reach and talent brand engagement and used

these to develop the concept of Talent Brand Index as a

measure of employer branding.

While this is illustrative, it becomes important to define

the stage, channel, and appropriate metrics for each in

more details so that an effective ROI can be garnered from

the use of social media in recruitment.

Proposition 3: The more social media strategy

and corresponding metrics are aligned to the

organizations strategy, the more effective would

be the social media recruitment

MEASUREMENT OF ROI IN SOCIAL MEDIARECRUITMENT

Hoffman and Fodor (2010) argued for changing the tradi-

tional ROI metrics for effective social media influence

measurement. As stated earlier, the fundamental differ-

ence between conventional recruitment and social media

recruitment is that, in the latter, the locus of control has

shifted to the applicant pool. This essentially mandates

that social media recruitment develops a different set of

metrics to measure outcomes than the conventional re-

cruitment metrics used by organizations. Therefore, in

the recruitment context, instead of emphasizing the or-

ganizational investments and calculating the returns in

terms of hires or time to hire, HR managers should begin

by considering both the applicants motivations to use

social media as well as the organizational desired out-

comes and then measure the social media investments

made by the potential applicants as they engage with the

organization brand. As Hoffman and Fodor (2010) state,

returns from social media investments will not always

be measured in dollars, but also in (applicant) behav-

iours and investments tied to particular social media ap-

plications. The argument is that this approach takes into

account both short-term (immediate recruitment fulfil-

ment) and long-term returns of significant organization

investment in social media. The key metrics should there-

fore evolve in terms of job applicants (active and pas-

sive) behaviours which are tied to particular social media

applications.. The conventional metrics of advertising of

reach and frequency or an inward-looking view of re-

cruitment cost and fulfilment time will defeat the very

purpose of social media recruiting. The intrinsic chal-

lenge is that in this medium, the applicant community

creates and consumes online content, which essentially

makes organization controlled metrics meaningless, as

the control is not with the organizations. As Hoffman

and Fodor (2010) state, the four key motivations which

drive social media are connections, creation, consumption,

and control. A significant difference is that the control

exists with the community and not with the organiza-

tion. Therefore, organizations which depend on or lever-

age the social media channels for their active operation

are most likely to gain maximum mileage from social

media recruitment. Additionally, organizations facing

challenges in acquiring key talent may look at building

relationships with potential talent pools. This can be more

easily achieved through social medial channels.

Proposition 4: Organizations which use em-

ployer branding and relationship strategy as

predominant recruitment strategies are more

likely to use social media for recruitment.

The relationship strategy is akin to brand engagement in

the marketing context, just as employer branding is analo-

gous to brand awareness, as defined by Hoffman and

Fodor (2010). Depending on the types of social media that

have been adopted for talent acquisition, there will be

different metrics and tools used to measure the impact as

shown in Table 3.

Based on the strategic goal, organizations can choose the

stage, the appropriate channel, define the operational

investments required for each channel, and then set the



Table 3: Suggested Relevant Metrics for Social Media Recruitment

Social Media Strategy Suggested Stage Suggested Channels Appropriate Metrics for ROI Measurement

Relationship strategy Blog site Career page in No. of memberscompany website Average length of time on site

No. of comments No. of responses to polls, contests, surveys-Amount of user

generated content No. of RSS feed subscribers No. of references to blog in other media and re-blogs

Social network Facebook/LinkedIn page No. of comments No. of active users, friends & friends of fans No. of likes or friends feeds; sources of likes No. of user generated items-Usage metrics of applications/widgets No. of posts on wall/reposts and shares-No. of responses to

friend referral invites

Micro-blogging Twitter No. of followers No. of replies No. of Re-tweets Tweet : Re-tweet Ratio

Forum & Google groups, No. of relevant topics/threadsDiscussion groups domain groups No. of individual replies

No. of sign-ups Citation in other sites Incoming links Tagging in social bookmarking

Employer branding Blog site Career page in No. of unique visitscompany website No. of return visits

No. of times bookmarked Search ranking Ratio of Unique: Return visitors Source of traffic (search engines/other links/sites)

Social network Facebook/Linked in page No. of - reviews/ratings and valence (+/-) No. of members/fans No. of impressions and bookmarks- Total reach and viral reach- Source of traffic (search engines/

other links/sites)

Micro-blogging Twitter No. of tweets about the organization-Valence of tweets (+/-) No. of followers No. of filtered clicks No. of mentions

Forum & Google groups, No. of page viewsdiscussion groups domain groups No. of visits-Valence of posted content (+/-)

Active recruitment Blog site, Social Career page in Ratio of job postings: joineesnetwork, Micro- company website No. of applicants to active jobsblogging linked with active Apply click ratio (no. of people landing on the page vs

jobs on online number of people applying after landing)recruitment portal No. of hires through this channel

job postings on Face- Ratio of Unique: Return visitorsbook/Linked in/Twitter Time to fill - Cost per hire

Cost optimization Blog site, Social network, Jobs on career site, Sourcing cost per hire through social media channels vsMicro-blogging other channels

Note: Adapted from Hoffman and Fodor (2010).

102

determined metric outcomes. While there clearly are com-

plexities in calculating the ROI for social media recruit-

ment, apart from the issues of size test, control samples

and recruitment outcomes, a longer-term study could link

the quality and tenure of hire to the source, apart from

assessing applicant satisfaction levels in engagement

through various channels. This longitudinal study will

help establish the proxy estimates to generate the calcu-

lations necessary to link social media investment to HR

outcomes. What is irrefutable is that without effective

measurement, there will be deterioration in the effective-

ness of the medium over time. Without a focused effort to

develop metrics in the context of the 4 cs (Hoffman &

Fodor, 2010), the social media recruitment efforts will re-

main fuzzy and essentially become just a flash in the pan,

possibly even harming the organization and the employer

brand.

Since the stage for social media could be common across

the various strategies, it becomes important to cite the

appropriate metric for the related strategy. Since relation-

ship strategy is analogous to brand engagement, as de-

fined by Hoffman and Fodor (2010), where a targeted pool

is engaged through personalized relationship, metrics like

number of members, RSS feed subscribers, amount of user

generated content, length of time spent on site, and re-

sponse to polls/contests/surveys become relevant. How-

ever, if the social media strategy is used to increase

employer branding and thereby enhance the organiza-

tions image (Aaker, 1997; Arachchige & Robertson, 2011;

Cable & Turban, 2003), the same platforms would require

different yardsticks to measure the impact. Here it be-

comes more critical to assess the impact on a larger talent

pool vis--vis a targeted talent pool. Hence metrics like

the number of visits, the time spent, the valence of blog

comments, and updates on Facebook and Twitter pages

can be used to measure outcomes like organization brand

awareness and word-of-mouth increase. For relationship

strategy of the same platforms of Facebook and Twitter,

number of comments, active user/followers, would be

more appropriate.

IMPLICATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS

The goal of this paper was to present a broad overview of

social media and its role in the strategic recruitment. It

also looked at building parallels between marketing con-

cepts and applicant attraction and discussed how social

media provides a logical platform for working on appli-

cant attraction. Apart from applicant attraction through

employer branding, social media can also be leveraged

for active recruitment. However, there exist clear differ-

ences in the approach and philosophy of conventional

and social media recruitment. This therefore necessitates

articulating the relevant strategy and then defining ap-

propriate metrics to check for achievement of the same

depending on whether organizations want to pursue

strategies of relationship building, employer brand en-

hancement, active recruitment or cost optimization, the

choice of channels, the appropriate investment and the

corresponding metrics of measuring desired objectives

change. While social media is opening the doors and

changing the way recruitment functions, it should not be

mistaken as the recruitment strategy going forward but

rather a part of the recruiting strategy. When an organi-

zation looks to attract and hire candidates, emphasis

needs to be laid upon what an organizations employee

value proposition is and on the basis of this value propo-

sition and the organizations culture, growth path, and

hiring needs, a recruitment plan needs to be laid out along

with milestones and objectives to see how they can be met.

As this area is relatively new, there are countless avenues

to proceed with future research. The focus of this paper

was on the more important and influential areas of social

media in the domain of talent acquisition. This paper has

provided some critical take-away for organizations HR

functions in terms of summarizing the approaches and

desired outcomes based on the organizations HR strat-

egy. The limitations of this paper are that the concepts

and suggested metrics have to be empirically substanti-

ated, which provides clear avenues for future research.

The additional areas for future research that were uncov-

ered in writing this paper were security/privacy concerns

of the applicants as well as the ethics of using informa-

tion available in the social media for making recruitment

decisions. Additionally, the use of social media in other

domains of HR practices such as learning and develop-

ment, employee engagement, etc. have not been explored.

As the body of academic work in this field slowly replaces

the practitioner pieces in the way an army strategists cull

the best practices learned on a battlefield, social media

will become a substantial source for future research that

has the potential to shape, craft, and transform not only

HR strategy, but also corporate strategy for years to come.

It is hoped that this research would open the door for

insightful research on the role of social media in the world

of strategic human resources.



REFERENCES

Aaker, J. J. (1997). Dimensions of brand personality. Journal ofMarketing Research, 34(3), 347-355.

Aiman-Smith, L., Bauer, T. N., & Cable, D. M. (2001). Are youattracted? Do you intent to pursue? A recruiting policy-capturing study. Journal of Business and Psychology, 16(2),219-237.

Allen, D. G., VanScotter, J. R., & Otondo, R. F. (2004). Recruit-ment communication media : Impact on prehire out-comes. Personnel Psychology, 57(1), 143-171.

Andzulis, J. M., Panagopoulos, N. G., & Rapp, A. (2012). Areview of social media and implications for the salesprocess. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management,32(3), 305.

Andzulis, J. M., Panagopoulos, N. G., & Rapp, A. (2012). Areview of social media and implications for the salesprocess. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management,32(3), 35.

Arachchige, B. J., & Robertson, A. (2011). Business studentperceptions of a preferred employer: A study identify-ing determinants of employer branding. The IUP Journalof Brand Management, VIII(3),25-46 .

Barber, A. E. (1998). Recruiting employees: Individual and organi-zational perspectives. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publica-tions.

Barney, J. B. (1986). Strategic factor markets, expectations, luck,and business strategy. Management Science, 32,(10), 1231-1241.

Belt, J. A., & Paolillo, J. G. (1982). The influence of corporateimage and specificity of candidate qualifications on re-sponse to recruitment advertisements. Journal of Man-agement, 8(1), 105-112.

Borstorff, P. C., Marker, M. B., & Bennett, D. S. (2007). Onlinerecruitment attitudes and behaviors of job seekers. Jour-nal of Strategic E-Commerce, 5(2), 1-23.

Boudreau, J. W., & Rynes, S. L. (1985). Role of recruitment instaffing utility analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 70(2),354-366.

Breaugh, J. A. (2013). Employee recruitment. Annual Review ofPsychology, 64(1), 389-416.

Breaugh, J. A., & Billings, R. S. (1988). The realistic job pre-view: Five key elements and their importance for re-search and practice. Journal of Business and Psychology,2(4) 291-305.

Breaugh, J. A., & Starke, M. (2000). Research on employeerecruitment: So many studies, so many remaining ques-tions. Journal of Management, 26(3), 405-434.

Cable, D. M., & Turban, D. B. (2003). The value of organiza-tional reputation in the recruitment context: A brand-equity perspective. Journal of Applied Social Psychology,33(11), 2244-2266.

Caves, R. E., & Porter, M. E. (1977). From entry barriers tomobility barriers: Conjectural decisions and contrived.The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 91(2), 44-57.

Chambers, E. G., Foulon, M., Handfield-Jones, H., Hankin, S.

M., & Michaels, E. G. (1998). The war for talent. McKinseyQuarterly, 3, 44-57.

Collins, C. J., & Stevens, C. K. (2002). The relationship be-tween early recruitment-related activities and the ap-plication decisions of new labor market entrants: Abrand equity approach to recruitment. Journal of AppliedPsychology, 87(6), 1121-1133.

Delery, J. E. (1998). Issues of fit in strategic human resourcemanagement: Implications for research. Human ResourceManagement Review, 8(3), 289-309.

Doherty, R. (2010). Getting social with recruitment. StrategicHR Review, 9(6), 11-15.

Dutton, J. E., Dukerich, J. M., & Harquail, C. V. (1994). Organi-zational images and member identification. Administra-tive Science Quarterly, 39, 239-263.

Edwards, M. R. (2010). An integrative review of employerbranding and OB theory. Personnel Review, 39(1), 5-23.

Farr, J. L., OLeary, B. S., & Bartlett, C. J. (1973). Effects of worksample test upon self selection and turnover of job ap-plicants. Journal of Applied Psychology, 58(2), 283-285.

Fisher, C. D., Ilgen, D. R., & Hoyer, W. D. (1979). Source cred-ibility, information favorability, and job offer accep-tance. Academy of Management Journal, 22(1),94-103.

Florkowski, G. W., & Olivas-Lujan, H. R. (2006). The diffusionof human resource information technology innovationsin US and non-US firms. Personnel Review, 35(6), 684-710.

Gannon, M. J. (1971). Sources of referral and employee turn-over. Journal of Applied Psychology, 55(3), 226-228.

Gatewood, R. D., Gowan, M. A., & Lautenschlager, G. J. (1993).Corporate image, recruitment image, and initial jobchoice decisions. Academy of Management Journal, 36(2),414-427.

Hoffman, D. L., & Fodor, M. (2010). Can you measure the ROIof your social media marketing? MIT Sloan ManagementReview, 52(1), 41-49.

Hunt, K. G. (2010). Finders keepers: Social media strategieshelp find top talent. Journal of Property Management, 75(6),36-40.

Kilduff, M. (1990). The interpersonal structure of decisionmaking: A social comparison approach to organiza-tional choice. Organizational Behavior and Human DecisionProcesses, 47(2), 270-288.

Lado, A. A., & Wilson, M. C. (1994). Human resource systemsand sustained competitive advantage: A competencybased perspective. Academy of Management Review, 19(4),699-727.

Lippman, S. A., & Rumelt, R. P. (1982). Uncertain imitability:An analysis of inter-firm differences in efficiency undercompetition. The Bell Journal of Economics, 13(2), 418-438.

Mahoney, J. T., & Pandian, J. R. (1992). The resource-basedview within the conversation of strategic management.Strategic Management Journal, 13(5), 363-380.

Marketo. (2010). The definitive guide to B2B social media: A marketworkbook. San Mateo, CA, USA.

104

McAdams, J. (2010). Human Resources 2.0. Accessed on July15, 2014 through www.hrworld.com: http://www.hrworld.com/features/hr-20-012808

Michaels, E., Handfield-Jones, H., & Axelrod, B. (2001). Thewar for talent. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.

OReilly, T. (2010). What is Web 2.0? Accessed on July 15, 2014through http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html

Otter, T. (2009). The business impact of social computing: Real-world results for recruitment. Accessed on July 15, 2014through https://www.gartner.com/doc/1251236/busi-ness-impact-social-computing-realworld

Petty, R., & Cacioppo, J. (1986). The elaboration likelihoodmodel of persuasion. In L. Berkowitz, Advances in experi-mental social psychology (pp. 123-250), Orlando, FL: Aca-demic Press.

Powers, T., Advincula, D., Austin, M., Graiko, S., Brown, M.,& Snyder, J. (2012). Digital and social media in the pur-chase decision process: A special report from the adver-tising research foundation. Journal of Advertising Research,52(4), 479-489.

Poynter, R. (2011). Chatter matters. Marketing Research, 23(3),22-28.

Prahalad, C. K., & Hamel, G. (1990). The core competence ofthe corporation. Harvard Business Review, 68(3), 79-91.

Price, D. (1996). How marketing can sell your personnel prod-uct. Personnel Management, 2(12), 21.

Roberts, S., & Roach, T. (2009). Social networking websitesand human resource personnel: Suggestions for jobsearches. Business Communication Quarterly, 72(1), 110-114.

Ryan, A. M., & Tippins, N. T. (2004). Attracting and selecting:What psychological research tells us. Human ResourceManagement, 43(4), 305-318.

Rynes, S. L. (1991). Recruitment, job choice, and post-hire con-sequences: A call for new research directions. In M. D.Hough (Ed.), Handbook of industrial and organizationalpsychology,Volume 2, 2nd Edition. (pp. 399-444) Palo Alto,CA: Consulting Psychologists.

Saks, A. M., & Cronshaw, S. F. (1990). A process investigationof realistic job previews: Mediating variables and chan-

nels of communication. Journal of Organizational Behavior,11(3), 221-236.

Sanford, J. (2005). Making cents out of the hiring process.Strategic Finance, 87(6), 41.

Schneider, B. (1987). The people make the place. PersonnelPsychology, 40(3),437-453.

Scott, S. G., & Lane, V. R. (2000). A stakeholder approach toorganizational identity. The Academy of Management Re-view, 25(1). 43-62.

Turban, D. B., & Greening, D. W. (1997). Corporate socialperformance and organizational attractiveness to pro-spective employees. Academy of Management Journal, 40(3),658-672.

Van Hoye, G., & Lievens, F. (2007). Social inuences on orga-nizational attractiveness: Investigating if and whenword-of-mouth matters. Journal of Applied Social Psychol-ogy, 37(9), 2024-2047.

Van-Hoye, G., & Saks, A. M. (2011). The instrumental-sym-bolic framework: Organisational image and attractive-ness of potential applicants and their companions at ajob fair. Applied Psychology:Aan International Review, 60(2),311-335.

Venkatesh, V., Thong, J. Y., & Xu, X. (2012). Consumer accep-tance and use of information technology: Extending theunified theory of acceptance and use of technology. MISQuarterly, 36(1), 157-178.

Wanous, J. P. (1973). Effects of a realistic job preview on jobacceptance, job attitudes and job survival. Journal of Ap-plied Psychology, 58(3), 327-332.

Wanous, J. P. (1975). Tell it like it is at realistic job previews.Journal of Applied Psychology, 52(4), 50-60.

Wright, P. M., & McMahan, G. C. (1992). Theoretical perspec-tives for strategic human resource management. Journalof Management, 18(2), 295-320.

Yang, H. D., & Mason, R. M. (1998). The internet, value chainvisibility, and learning. Hawaii: Thirty-First Annual Ha-waii International Conference on System Sciences.

Zottolli, M. A., & Wanous, J. P. (2000). Recruitment sourceresearch: Current and future directions. Human ResourceManagement Review, 10(4), 353-382.

Debolina Dutta is the Head of HR, India at VF Corporation,Bengaluru and is currently enrolled in the FPM Industryprogramme at IIM Indore. With a degree in Electrical Engi-neering from College of Engineering, Pune and a Post Gradu-ate Degree in Software Enterprise Management from IIM,

Bangalore, she has 22 years of work experience in the HR andSales domains.

e-mail: [email protected]


vikalpa-39-3_93-104

Documents

Transcript of vikalpa-39-3_93-104