3. 1
Abstract
In the recent times, the emergence of social media has been very prominent and it has also been
used for many purposes. The content on social media has a huge potential to bring about a change
and hence can be regarded as a useful tool to get the required information. With respect to the
information provided, various companies can obtain feedback to see how they're perceived and
how they impact the world. This conceptual model tries to connect the aspects of social media to
the steps of recruitment, staffing, training, development, feedback collection and announcing
corporate changes. The conceptual model shows the two way information flow, first one being the
inflow of information from social media to the organizations and the second being the outflow of
information from the organization to the social media. The model ultimately explains how social
media is adopted into HR department, and to show how important it is becoming in HR, making
the department efficient and updated in the work they do and produce better results. Generating
information and taking it from the two sources will help in the better development of the
connection between the two.
4. 2
Introduction
The way a business works has come a long way from what it was traditionally. It has gone
through a lot of changes and developed over a period of time to become what it is today. The
organizations has also changed along with it and tried to better themselves in every possible
way. The most significant change that organizations have gone through are, firstly the industrial
revolution where the rich people were the king and the survival of people to thrive in the
situation was the main goal. The second change was in the technological change that brought
out the importance of knowledge and made people aware about their rights and this empowered
them to challenge the already existing system. Higher standards of living was one of the most
important driving force that encouraged people to realize the need for better working conditions
with maximum monetary benefits. The third and the most recent change is known as the social
change. Here the most important aspect is quality of life that a person has and networking. This
is where social media comes into picture. The organizations are trying to incorporate social
media in their working environment to make the most use out of it and also to keep their
employees happy.
HR department is one of the most versatile departments that can take maximum use from social
media to make its working more effective and efficient. The four functions of HR that can adapt
social media as a tool for its working are: recruitment and staffing, training and development,
bringing about a corporate change and feedback. Social media will only be able to provide
limited tools to help but that will be enough to be cost beneficial and time saving in the long run.
In Recruitment and staffing function social media can help to scan the potential employees by
analyzing their thinking patterns, their beliefs from the content that they post on facebook,
twitter, etc. and drawing a conclusion whether the applicant is suitable for the organizations
working culture or not. Training and development function is made easy with the help of social
media as it providing material to the trainees whenever they want to take it and from where ever
they are. The emergence of social media in the training and development field also help the
organization to keep a check on the employees’ development in the areas of attitude
management, behavioral attributes, sensitize them to the public issues and their take on them.
Bringing a change in the organization is a tedious task but with the help of technology it can be
made easier. The people nowadays are very easily influenced by social media and try to copy
trend that are prevalent. This gives the
5. 3
Companies an advantage to use various social media platforms to spread the change and help
implementing it to a certain extent. Feedback is a crucial function of the HR department and
must be taken very seriously. The popularity of social media is a very useful tool to get feedback.
People take to social media to share their views on various topics through platforms such as
linkedin, twitter, glassdoor, facebook, etc. and create a space where people can gain the required
information along with adding on with their experiences. The feedback that is available is not
always true but it gives the organizations an insight as to where must they change and wherethey
are better than most of their competition.
Social media can be used as an important element of HR and with the help of it a lot of work can
be made easier and faster. The inflow and outflow of information is essential not only for the
company but the various stakeholders as well. The connect between the two will give the
organizations an edge over the others if done in the right manner.
6. 4
Research methodology
This study is designed to understand how function of HRM use social media and based on which
a conceptual model has been developed to find out a systematic relationship between flows of
information from human resource management to social media in a cyclic way. The development
of model is purely based on literature review which is taken from the past 10 years research
journals.
7. 5
Literature review
(Levine, Marci and Kothuri, 2017) With the advent of social media, it can be seen that a lot of
companies have taken to it by providing information on such platforms in the form of audio,
visuals and audio-visual presentations. These stimulate our by creating sensory experiences
which result in responses which can be measured. Using this, the companies are able to collect
data and analyze it to get some sort of feedback about their working, the products and services
that they offer and the overall impact that they have. The use of the ‘like’ button on facebook and
instagram and pining things on the cellular devices give the company an insight on how and what
does a social media user look forward to in the future of the company. With emergence of sites
like linkedin, twitter, facebook it has become easier to track what the users want and how do they
want it. Using the feedback that the company receives, it works on bettering themselves and
creating a better image for themselves.
(Ghosh, 2013) In his article, the author talks about how social media has been able to form a
network where people share information and create content, while others comment. Comments,
likes, retweets and share all help the company see how the audience perceives them. How the
companies are able to portray themselves on the social media platform is a direct result of the
constant feedback that they are getting. Sites such as Google plus, quora and slideshare are also
useful sources to gather feedback. People ask questions, give ratings and leave comments that the
company can use for their advantage and create a database for the feedback. The HR department
here can see how the feedback through social media affects the image of the company. The HR
department needs to keep a vigilant eye on the conversations that take place regarding the
leadership of the company, the working and the brand and employee image that is being
portrayed on social media platforms.
(Oh, Agrawal and Rao, 2013) In the article, the authors talk about the authenticity of the
information that is available on the social media platform. In their findings, they saw that there
was on reliability of the content that one can gather from such media. The information that a HR
manager gather from social media about the portrayal of the company might not be true. The
manipulation of facts and image is a major issue that the companies face while they see whether
or not the image that the larger audience perceives is right or not. Most often than not it is seen
that the image that the audience has is based on the rumors and the manipulated facts that have
8. 6
been circulated, giving a very negative feedback to the company. The company cannot go on
every social media site and correct the facts that are being posted about the various aspects, so
they need to be vigilant and very particular while they analyze the different forms of feedback
that they receive from various sources.
(Sampson, 2013) The article talks about how the companies have recently started using internet,
social media mainly as a source to gather feedback. The company faces a lot of challenges while
doing so as differentiating content from the accurate information can be quite tricky. He
compares the new way of collecting feedback to that of the older times when the companies used
card and directly approached some selected customers and how they got more accurate feedback.
With the emergence of social media, the effect that can be seen on the companies and their
branding has changed drastically. The concept of social media has also brought about the change
in the feedback of the people. With the promise of anonymity and mass support gives the user a
platform to stand against the wrong doings of a company and also a space to turn small problems
into big scams. This does not help the companies as they are not able to get the right idea of what
the public see them as and what should be done to ensure that they are able to right their wrongs.
The concept of feedback through social media has helped them by making gathering content
easier but made it analyzing hard by ten folds.
(Siddiqi, 2016) In the world of corporate, organizations understand the need of finding best of
the best for the organization to face the global competitions and come with a new way of hiring
people or making the process more comprehensive. This will help then to invite the best of the
best in the organizations. Social media is becoming a pool of masses to attract in the recruitment
process. It is becoming as a link between the job seeker and employer which make the process
transparent and accurate. The point to be noted is that the credibility of the data which may be
provided by the social media would not there and the actual performance in the work place may
different from the perception formed by the profile of the candidate. A moderate relationship was
found between the social media and recruitment which is the result of a revolution in the
organization functioning strategies. Organizations have understand the importance of social
media and want to use it in an optimum level to find talented and effective individuals from a
diversified pool of potential candidates.
9. 7
(Stoughton, March 2015) When companies started using the social networking website as a
multi-study investigation to examine correct job seeker. But when the investigation was followed
it was found out that people feel their privacy has been invaded and side by side applicants show
a lower agreeableness and increased intention to litigate. When cost and benefit of networking
website screening is consider it is very helpful for the organization but it reduces the
attractiveness of the organization, it may also result in change in the conceptualization of the
social networking website. The technical innovation in the workplace have provided
organizations to better understand the response of the applicants.
Sometime it may also act as problem when the social networking website forms the perception in
the mind if the interviewer mind and he may generalize the applicant, this is how it an also
become a problem from the side if organization
(Walters, 2016)When it was looked at the number of active jobseeker profile linkin is in first
place with 85%. Facebook and twitter following them with 73.5% and 38.6 % respectively. This
how that the number of people using all kind of social media network are majority in the pool so
I can be taken as standard for measurement, but the point of notice was that 86.4% of job seeker
think that facebook and twitter should be regarded as personal and not professional but the same
question was asked to the asked to a employee the no of yes reduced to 69.6% which says that
job seeker and employees both have a same logic up to one level.
When a new set of numbers were looked that it slow that 67% of the total job seeker use social
media to gain the insight about the companies culture so why not a company have a look at the
profile of the candidate to gain some insight about their cultural background and can company
wants this type of people in organization because in past many big people in the top companies
had been asked for resignation for their ill comment on a public domain which may be a bad
representation of the company on the public .
Stage at which social media profile is to be taken into consideration is also a important point to
be notice when a survey was done most of the employees said that application stage and the
interview stage will be better for this as because in interview stage the professional HR mangers
can easily connect with the candidate and point out different loop in the profile and able to bring
10. 8
out the real picture of the candidate and could say that this kind of personality will match the
cultural environment of the organization
(Bicky & Kwok, 2001)Sector in which social media is used for recruitment of the employees is
also a significant use because some industries like hospitality where the soft skills of the
individual is a key role in the job he holds. A research conducted by the an organization stated
that professionals who use social media have a better communication skills toward the customers
which make them a perfect person for the industry which need a extensive use of soft skills in
their job profile. Social media is becoming a tool to measure, a tool to link and contact.
(McClay, 2016)Last 10 years have seen a boom in the social media sector and almost 80% of
employees in the organization are regularly using social media like LinkedIn, facebook,
instagram and twitter and along with that the training process has also evolved and tried to
capture the essence of social media in its process as an element of HR department. Some of the
common ways in which social media is used for learning and development process are virtual
onboarding, team building and camaraderie
In training function there are majorly two components one is the trainee and other is the trainer
and before learning, there has to be a link between the trainer and trainee which has to be
created. Youtube and other social media platform helped the trainee to know about the trainer
and why he trains and it can also provide a small glimpse what and how is the training section is
going to be and what all necessary preparation they need to do for the process of training and
what they can expect as the outcome of the training.
Connect SMEs (subject matter experts) directly with learning came in existence when social
media gave a equal opportunities to the trainee to approach the experts and have a common
platform like chat groups and forums where they can discuss and put their point forward and also
ask and clarity of doubts.
(Leonard, 2015)Social media is the need of the hour and it should be used by the hr professionals
because it makes the starting and the ending process of training and development easy as it
11. 9
simplifies the feedback system at the end and help to analysis the learners with their profiles in
sites like LinkedIn and twitter.
(Eren & Vardarher, 2013)Presence of social media in organization has a direct impact on the
sense of belonging which can be seen as a positive effect on the motivation of the employee. One
of the effects which can be seen is especially on the acceptance of the increasing level of
interaction between employees, but the varying number and dominance of factors involving the
sense of belonging to an organization through social media do not have a direct influence in the
overall sense of belonging.
12. 10
Conceptual model
Figure 1
Organizations are working towards making social media a part of human resource management.
They utility of social media is to gain knowledge and impart it through a digital platform. To
create a strong connection, a two way information flow is a must. Social media is a very
powerful platform that can be used by organizations to create a cost effective system for
recruitment, selection, training, learning and development, feedback and announcing corporate
changes. The independent variables are social media platform and HR department. The
dependent variables in this model are functions, carried out by HR by utilizing the benefits of
social media, specifically the inflow and outflow of information being given and taken by HR
department. Not all the functions of HR can be adapted through social media but a few can be
13. 11
partly adapted, which would help in optimizing the functions of HR and also minimize the cost
incurred and the time taken to carry out such functions.
When we talk about recruitment and staffing, it helps in attracting active mass of youth which is
spending most of their time in social media because of the revolutionary change in the telecom
and technological industry which made the individual more receptive to the information as well
as making it cheaper disperse and gain information. Limitations for recruitment through social
media is only a few job profiles can be posted, because of KMR posts (key managerial roles) has
a different approach and specifications which cannot be considered as a formal way of reaching
out to professionals. People who are going to be the potential employees of the organization also
feels that social media websites like LinkedIn and Twitter gives them an ease over the lengthy
process of inviting and verifying applicants and allows a free flow of information directly from
the organization to applicants.
Staffing, specifically has made social media a tool or a parameter to be used in the process and
figuring out the psychometric patterns that can be analyzed through the reactions, likes and
comments or the stands taken against issues that show the thinking pattern of potential job
holders and also helps in forecasting how an individual will act in a specific situation which
might take place in the organization and formulating ways to overcome some basic problems
related to such. Social media can also be used to eliminate the job applicants which might not be
compatible with the corporate culture of a particular organization.
Learning is what an individual does every day and to make a person learn more effectively we
can include learning in their daily routine. As spoken earlier social media has taken a major
portion of time in an individual’s life, so to train a person an element of it can be introduced and
utilized. Usage of virtual space activities pertaining to team building, advanced training and
efficient learning can be made much easier. For example, a virtual chat room can create a forum
where an individual can brainstorm their ideas and give the trainer an idea to understand and
gauge their trainee or audience. Tech forums/ bug fixing forums are the best examples of these
kind of intensive training and development concepts. Social media has given an opportunity to
individuals from every part of the world to get trained by an expert who is sitting miles away and
have a direct accessibility and learning from them.
14. 12
In fields of development, social media can be used as a method to measure the growth of an
individual. The content that they post and the content that they like or share gives an insight of
how there has been a growth in their attitude and behavior.
Corporate change is one of the most difficult tasks that HR has to perform since people are very
hesitant towards any sort of change. Social media has the power to spread information to large
extends and attract people to be influenced by it. People tend to get fascinated from the latest
trends and this is where the HR department can come and try to bring the changes they want. Not
only will this help in bringing about the required change but also spread a strong message to a
large number of people in general. Social media has made huge impacts on the CSR activities of
the organizations, spreading ways to create a better work life balance and also helped in some
changes that would help the organization along with all people associated with it. With
emergence of online portals for grievance handling to keeping up-to-date with the changing pace
of the world, social media can be used to influence people and bringing out the necessary
changes.
An organization which needs to improve itself must be able to take feedback in all forms that it
can get. Social media provides people a platform to share their experiences and views and to get
the required information about many organizations. The organizations can also use social media
to gain the feedback to understand where they are going wrong and to give feedback on various
things. Social media has changed the whole concept of feedback system by providing a space
where there is no formality and with an option of absolute anonymity. People no longer fear the
consequences and know that now they have an upper hand to say what they think will help
others understand the pros and cons of any organization. Taking into consideration the view
point of the organization and the employees, social media might not always give information
which is accurate or even true, but what can be analyzed is how they are perceived and what
could be done to improve their image in the public eye.
15. 13
Conclusion
The world today is occupied with social media and spends a lot of their time on it. HR
department must ensure that they make most of it. So it is very clear that each and every firm
should update itself and make the best out of every resource available, else it will lag behind and
its competitors will take over. Social media helps company reduce its cost of hiring people and it
has a wider reach. One should not forget that HR is not the only function in business; it has other
functions as well. When the rest of the functions are being done in a better and efficient way, it is
essential to ensure that HR department is updated as well. Only when all the functions are being
done in the updated manner, the business can extract the maximum benefit. But from the
research that is done and the literature reviewed it can be seen that currently the scope of social
media in HR is limited to some specific functions and even there it cannot be utilized to the
maximum.
Future scope
10 years down the lane social media will become so dominating that hr department may have to
make it as a sub department because of the multi dimensional uses which social media is
providing to the organization in the form of information. Information in the 21st
century which is
one of a major key for success for organization. Organization that uses the information in an
optimum level can have a competitive advantage over others. Social media is becoming a point
of innovation, Balancing Productivity and Reevaluating Corporate Value.
16. 14
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