HRM: Impact of Social Media on HR professionals

Context of the study:

Social media gives numerous benefits and opportunities for individuals and organizations to connect
with each other and come together to fulfil their needs. Most of the businesses around the world have
adapted themselves to social media and use it for their day to day operations.

Human Resource Management and its practices has also been massively transformed by social media.
Social media has its own advantages and disadvantages on businesses. To take into an example of social
media use in Human Resource, LinkedIn is becoming one of the most important platforms for job
seekers and job providers and very crucial recruitment tool which is changing the traditional recruitment
process. Human resource managers can communicate about all their job postings and the necessary
requirements on the company’s social media pages and blogs, including links to the listings on the
company website. Companies even pay social media sites to boost their listings so that numerous
individuals get to see their posts. This creates a win-win situation for both the company who is able to
bring to public notice when job becomes available and for job seekers who can easily search, choose and
apply for those jobs.

On the negative side, many believe that social media has allowed HR executives and other top managers
to monitor the activities of all their employees. Few companies monitor to see if people are using social
media during job hours and a few monitor to check if their employees’ posts relate to work only. Many
organization give clear cut instructions to employees about different social media policies and regularly
keep a check on their fellow workers to ensure their social media behavior is in no way creating a
negative impact on the organization.

Some organizations give its employees the freedom to use social media platforms throughout the day
provided their posts are portraying the company in a positive manner or not affecting the company’s
brand negatively. A lot of media companies (newspapers, TV channels and radio stations) encourage
their workforce to constantly use social media in order to keep their customers informed and aware.
Another very important way in which social media has affected human resource management is that a
lot of companies have started communicating with their employees using social media. Businesses use
WhatsApp, Skype, Google Hangouts and many other such platforms to discuss business related topics
and other communication with their employees. Social media also allows connectivity with employees
all over the world, wherever they are located.
This study of ours will analyze and interpret the different effects that social media has on recruitment,
retention, and termination in the workplace. In addition, this study will illustrate the advantages and
disadvantages which social media sites provide human resource managers with. Furthermore, the
importance of this study is to improve the job functionality of human resource management as social
media is rapidly transforming in response to technology advancements.

Objectives:
This study will contribute to the field of human resource management by examining the appropriate use
or inappropriate misuse of social media sites. Recently, a lot of companies have faced law suits by their
employees over their invasion of privacy. There have been a lot of cases of employees being terminated
from jobs based on their use of social networks. The issue of data protection and data leak has also
become a matter of concern for many HR managers. The standards and regulations governing the use of
social media networks is also a very important factor for all companies.

There have been several alarming negatives of social media in the workplace in recent times. Our study
will contribute to provide possible solutions to help the human resource department to prevent misuse
of social media by employers and employees. Taking into consideration the various benefits that social
media provides to HR managers in recruitment and retention, this study will also examine how social
media can be used for providing any organization with a competitive edge. The findings of this study will
be used to strengthen the organization by improving the work ethics of all employees and the overall
work culture inside the company.

Literature Review:
Social media combined with the rapid growth of technology has changed the entire shape of present-
day workforce. All managers in the human resource domain face this task of learning to establish their
organization around the changes of technology (Hendrickson, 2003). This review of Hendrickson talks
about how technology and social media should be used in an efficient manner to help human resource
departments to get transformed for the better. Researching the effectiveness of social media sites in the
human resource sector of the workforce is the key because it will provide an organization with a
competitive advantage (Lengnick-Ha, 1968). Very few research work has been done on this subject due
to regular changes in various social media platforms and cyber laws. We will examine the integration of
technology in the human resource department. We will also be exploring the advantages and
disadvantages of social media and will also study how new research in this field will contribute to human
resource use of social media.

The field of human resource management has gone for a complete makeover due to technology in
recent years. The use of various social media platforms, online websites, cloud storage and a mix and
match of many other services has forced the human resource departments to alter their functioning and
adjust to the organization’s technological needs. During a research in 2012, Miler found out that around
80% of employees identified in a survey responded that they did use personal mobile device at work.
The integration of technology in business has created a multi-digital workforce where employees use
their computer and internet to complete their daily job tasks (Benson, Johnson, & Kuchinke, 2002).
Another very important study in this field has been that employees are not only using technology in the
office, but they are also taking it home (Miller, 2012).

Human Resource Management has evolved from the “paper-work and file maintenance” HRM stage to
that of a “strategic business” stage adding value to the success of a business (Cascio, 2005). Many
organization have now expanded the use of technology into electronic human resource management (e-
HRM), which is enabling internet and web technologies into the traditional HRM practices (Huang &
Taylor, 2013). For example, the conventional HR practices have been made easier since managers can
now post jobs online, get a variety of options due to the increased reach of social media and even train
new employees through a web-based system. Although technology is changing the role and functioning
of HR manager, the question that arises from time to time is, “How beneficial has technology been for
human resource holistically?”

According to Miller (2012), many employees can easily work from home efficiently due to social media,
internet and personal electronic devices. In some instances, organizations are a digital workplace and
employees use technology as an IT tool to work from home (Benson et al., 2002). But the use of
personal devices by employees for business related work raises issues related to privacy of the
organization. Human resource management is now struggling to strike the right balance between the
use of personal devices and technology within the workforce.

Due to several problems that many companies have faced from the misuse of social networks and
technology in the work space, HRM has had to come up with many set of strict rules and guidelines to
follow when dealing in social media. However, in many instances, the human resource department
tackles these issues by termination and suspension and as a result employees feel that their privacy is
being invaded because of such monitoring. Legal issues have been presented in which an employee
believes that he/she is wrongfully terminated based off an image or comment posted on his/her social
media account (Gramberg et al., 2012). All organizations are now struggling with how to govern the
social media activities of their employees at present.

Integration:

The use of social media for recruitment and training appears to be huge challenge fopr all companies in
spite of its benefits. As of today, social media has not replaced the major e-recruitment tools, but many
experts consider that social media has just made these tools more dynamic and relational. On the other
hand, a lot of experts do not consider social media as “just complementary” or simple gadgets but as the
major tools for recruitment and employer brand strategy. However, the indispensable nature of social
media remains for the moment a subject of controversy.

In the coming age, a lot will also depend on the labor market and the real appropriation of social media
by recruiters. New behaviors become widespread among employees and managing one’s personal
digital identity is regarded as more and more important for a growing number of employees. On one
hand, social media can enable a greater internalization of recruitment through the development of
social media HR strategy and the involvement of employees in the sourcing. On the other hand, these
practices could be outsourced subject to the emergence of new types of recruitment agencies (offering
a real value added, specialized in jobs and developing competencies about social media).
Finally, social media provide an opportunity to raise the strategic role of HR professionals
through employer branding strategy, internal skills development, a greater involvement of
managers within the sourcing process and via social media communities. But disagreements persist and
HR professionals are encouraged to meet the challenge.

Research Gap:
 Should a company monitor social media data of employees?
 How can HR professionals help the company to avoid social media pitfalls?
 How can HR professionals support the business in pursuing social media opportunities?

Questions for interview:

Q.2) Do you look into people’s social media profiles before hiring them?

Q.3) Do you communicate about your human resource practices through social media?

Q.4) How HR professionals collect candidates’ data through social media?

Q.5) With the use of social media throughout the company, how does it impact the cost and time spent
by HR professionals?

Q.6) How has WhatsApp impacted communication amongst your employees? Do you use WhatsApp for
formal communication?

Q.7) How has social media impacted the entire recruitment process?

Q.8) Can social media replace the entire conventional recruitment process?

Q.9) How has social media impacted the productivity of employees?

Q.10) Do you believing in terminating employees if they show poor behavior on social media?