Social Media Recruitment Process

Question: Discuss about the Social Media Recruitment Process. Answer: Introduction The use of social media is rapidly increasing with time. Each and every individual is linked with the use of updated technology, internet and social media. It has become one of the most significant elements of the lives of individuals and especially for the urban people. But with its increased use the consequences and complications arte also up surging and primarily in the business organizations. There are several organizations which have faced such issue of privacy and ruining of their brand image because of the unethical comments passed by the employees in the social media or on their social networking groups. Similarly privacy issues of the employees are also getting hit with the use of social sites as employers are accessing the sites of employees for gathering information about the employee or the candidate for the recruitment purpose. The essay will inform about the issues and consequences of the use of social media as well as the ways in which they can be mitigate (Blomqvist a nd Ekstrm, 2016). Usage of Social Media at Workplace in relation with employees privacy, recruitment and its consequences for employees and organization In present scenario, the privacy issue of the employees is rising extensively at most of the organizations. There are number of cases where the organizations are taking use of the facebook pages or other social websites to access the personal information about the employees. This give detail information about the employees, their hobbies and other numerous things but as per the Fair Act and the Labor law these types of activities are regarded as unethical as well as it voids the rules and regulations of the privacy policies which is required to be followed by each and every employee, employer and the organization. There are various cases where the employees have filed a suit or have raised their voice against such unethical act of the organizations and have been equally supported by the Government for elimination of such acts. These practices which create privacy issues are incorporated by the organizations for number of thing such for the recruitment of the employees, organizations took use of these practices so that they can verify the details as well as know about the hobbies and other interests of the interviewee or to know the background of that person (Bolton, et al., 2013). Another reason for such practice is the employer or the managers try to know about their employees and for this they access their social accounts to gather information about them such as to verify the reason of their leaves or to know about their previous job engagements etc. These privacy issues not only impact the employees but there are several times when the organization also get affected by the acts of the employees such as disclosure of some significant information related to the company or the negative views or opinions delivered by the employees on the social media after getting terminated or after leaving the organization. There are consequences from both the sides i.e. in regards with the employees privacy as well as in context of the organizational privacy (Boyd, 2014). There are several consequences of such privacy issues which are related to both the employees and the organization. The first most consequence which arises or takes place because of such unethical practices is that the employees can file a suit against the organization or the employers which can harm the image of the organization, merely by looking over the social site if the recruiter does not select the candidate for the job then the organization might lose a potential candidate because of the misconception of the recruiter as the social pages of sites are not appropriate for gathering the actual data and information regarding any individual. Another consequence is that employees might feel offended and leave their jobs, there are chances that some negative activities could took place such as occurrence of wrong and fake rumors about the employee and its character (Broughton, et al., 2013). There are few times when the candidates put discrimination charges over the organization if they have rejected that candidate only on the basis of the lifestyle information obtained by the recruiter while selecting candidates. There are several consequences which can also take place in context with the organization such as if any employee post some negative information about the company it might lead to ruining of the image of the organization, publically criticized, negative picture in eyes of the people and decrease in the value of market share. There are furthermore consequences if the employee discloses some confidential and important information and details of the company which can provide the competitors an advantage to demean the company and give the organization a competition might lead to extreme dreadful and shocking results for the company. The organization might terminate the employee or file suit against the individual for spreading fake rumors and negatively publicizing the company (Gritzalis, et al., 2014). For handling such issues there is a need to maintain a balance between the rights of the employees and the consequences for the organizations. If the organization instead of using the facebook pages or other social sites for enquiring and gathering the information of the employees have used one-to-one approach and communicate with the employee then there must be must harmonious interpersonal relations as well as if the employees also have not criticized the organization publically have discussed the issues with the higher authorities can give must positive outcomes (Yerby, 2013). The rules and regulation of the Labor law and Fair Act must me strictly followed by the organizations as well there must be strict implementation of the privacy policy by the employees as well as by the organizations so that the interest of both the parties do not get harm by performance of any unethical act (Kluemper, Mitra and Wang, 2016). With the change in time and generations the attitude and mind set of the individuals also get change. The notion of the older aged employees related to the commitment towards organization and the work, responsibilities and privacy are very much different from the view-points of the younger employees. Today the people are more connected socially rather than meeting up with each other on regular basis. The connections, relations and associations are generally through chats, social interactions at social sites or through other social networking groups. And the reason that the young employees do not feel offended or not feel good if the organization or the employers obtain their personal information from their social networking pages (Leonardi, Huysman and Steinfield, 2013). The use of social media and internet has extensively increased in the last decade. Collaborating and interacting at the social media sites have become more significant from last few years. Earlier there was high commitment towards the work and the organization by the employees and thus this sustain them criticize the working environment and the business operations publically. The most effective form to resolve issues was the face-to-face communications rather than making propaganda of those issues. Similarly before a decade or two the employees does not have an informal connection or communication with the bosses and the senior level managers or employees and so there was no sharing of the personal information with them but with change in generation now the top level people are involved in a communication with the grass-root level employees through the use of the social networking sites and pages and this creates a scenario where the individuals of different levels are pretty familia r with each other lives (Mathur and Mathur, 2015). And thus privacy is not a big concern to be complaint or conflict for. The employees are also not that much responsible for the work and the organization as compared with the seriousness of the elderly aged employees. Instead of thinking over the consequences organization might face because of the negative publicity because of the actions of the employees, they just post their comments about the organizational working experiences which lead to pessimist outcomes for the organizational image. And this sense of irresponsibility gives the reason to Government and the organizations for enhancing the strictness of the privacy policy (Madera, 2012). There are several HR policies which emphasize over taking of legal actions on the employees who make comments about the organization on the social sites. Similarly the Labor law also protects the employees against the use of their personal information by the organizations by taking severe actions against those organizations. There is a need that every company should implement a social media use policy which binds and restrict all the employees and the organization to take unethical use of the social media and social networking sites to investigate or harm each other through any form (Broughton, et al., 2009). The apart from the extensive number of legal issues there are several ethical issues also which are involved in the use of social media in context with the business and organizational purpose. There are prominently two significant issues which usually came under limelight. The first one focuses over the subject or the topic which has been discussed over the social networking sit es and groups and second issues relates to the balance among the implicit as well as the explicit behavioral expectations at the workplace and the rights of the individuals (Nikolaou, 2014). If the privacy policy is completely broken by the employees which means that if an individual have posted entirely unethical which can harm the company or someones image then the dismissal of the employee is ethically correct but if the intensity of the comment is mot that high and it has been written just to taken out the frustration from the work then it will be analyzed from several perspectives and the decision would be taking rather directly terminating the employees, similar is the case of the organization that if the employer have accessed the personal info of the employees from their social sites will be sound unethical if there has been taken some negative or wrong use of that information or any kind of discrimination has been taken place on the basis o that and if the information gathered is just for integrating with that person than it wont be sound unethical (Pang, et al., 2014). Usually the organization, employer and the employee consider the use of social media as the win-lose situation or recognized it as the employer-versus-employee situation. This is because in the organizational history from the global context there have been several cases where it has been analyzed that the use of social media has involved the organization/employer or the employee in a circumstance where conflicts arises as well as there is ruining of the image of either of the two (Valenzuela, 2013). The percentage of the negative outcomes of using social media is extremely higher than the positive outcomes of its use and this is the reason in some organizations the use of social media is completely banned in the system as well as there are certain organizations where the employees are also not allowed to take use of their mobile phones at the work place so that there can avoidance of the issues related to business conspiracy or sharing of the confidential data of the company (Pfeffer , Zorbach and Carley, 2014). The increased number of conflicts and issues in the interpersonal relations of the employers and the employees the use of social media is recognized as a negative element in the success and friendly environment at the workplace. Thus there is a view-point and notion that the use of social media is a win-lose situation which means that one of the either party will be benefited from the use and other will get negatively impacted by tits use. It is also regarded as the employer-versus-employee situation which means that it will definitely result into a situation of conflict or clash between the employees and the employers (Slovensky and Ross, 2012). But with the thoughts and efforts of a progressive employer the whole situation can depict a different picture. The win-lose situation can be converted into a win-win situation with few major effective strategies and approaches. First of all the employer must have a complete understanding of the needs and requirements of the employees and the organization and it should also evaluate that whether the organizational objectives are integrating with individual objectives of the employees or not. The first major step which the progressive manager can take is formation and implementation of a strict and clear policy regarding the use of social media. The cause and consequences must be circulate within the organizational members effectively and HR team must forward remember mails or mails which can mark the attention of the people over the strict follow up of the policy so that one cannot give an excuse of fail to remember (Singh and Duhan, 2016). The other ways for achieving this objective of transforming the situation in a win-win state are firstly the manager should convey the possible outcomes of voiding the social media usage policy, secondly on monthly basis the issues and problems which the employees are facing must be discussed in an open forum so that the conflicts can be resolved at the initial stage only, third without the consent of the employees the employer should not access to its social sites for gathering information regarding the individual, fourth there must be development of an informal relationship between the employer and the employee so that there can be an open discussion regarding any sort of issue instead of developing into a situation of conflict. The manager should also ban the sites or have a restricted access to the internet by the employees instead of monitoring them so that there can be no such issues of offensive use of internet and force the company to take any sort of legal actions against th e employees (Kluemper, Mitra and Wang, 2016). With all such friendly approaches, open discussions and strictness in the policies of social media usage will have a direct impact in controlling the occurrence of conflicts and issues regarding the unethical use of social media and instead of the negative outcomes there will certainly be fruitful and positive results of incorporating the use of social media for the employees as well as for the organization (Kluemper, Mitra and Wang, 2016). Conclusion From this essay it can be concluded that there are several issues and consequences of the use of social media by the employees at the workplace and by the organization for gathering information of the employees. As per the laws and the regulation it has been found unethical and illegal to take use of someones personal information for the purpose of recruitment or for other things and making discrimination on the basis of that information is highly unethical and the employee can file a suit against the organization for the same (Stoughton, Thompson and Meade, 2015). There are several issues which are associated with the use of unethical use of social media by the employees while they are at work such as access to prohibited sites as well as writing comments on the social networking groups and sites which can harm the reputation and business operation of any organization. And thus all these come under the violence of the privacy policy. 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