“It‟s not what you know, but who you know”

Jenny Navan

H.Dip in e-Business

Social Media and Recruitment “It's not what you know but who you know that makes the difference.” A s t ud y o f s o ci a l r ecr ui t i ng i n I r e la nd fr om a j o b - s e ek er s ‟ p er sp e ct i v e .

A p o st -g r a du at e d i ss e rt at i o n s u bmi t t ed i n p a rt i a l f u l fi l me n t o f t h e r eq u i r e me n t s o f H . Di p i n Bus i n es s i n E - Bu s i n es s .

N a t i on a l C o l l eg e of Ir e l a n d Hi gh er Dip loma in e-Bu sin ess 2009/2010

Jenn i fer Navan 09104950 J en n i f e r. Nav an @ st ud en t .nc i r l. i e Wor d C ount : 14,622

1|Page

“It‟s not what you know, but who you know”

Jenny Navan

H.Dip in e-Business

Declaration of Originality

I

hereby

certify

that

this

material,

which

I

now

submit

for

assessment of the programme of study leading to the award of a Higher Diploma in Business in e -Business is entirel y m y own work and has not been taken from the work of o thers save and to the ex tent that such wo rk has been citied and acknowledged within the tex t of my work.

Signed:

__________________________

Date:

30th July 2010

Student Number:

x09104950

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“It‟s not what you know, but who you know”

Jenny Navan

H.Dip in e-Business

Abstract

Social Medi a is an important development not onl y to the world o f the Internet, but it also has an important impact on soci et y as a whole. The Internet has affected nea rl y ever y element of ou r lives and soci al m edia is soon to become as p rolific. So cial m edia has an impact

on

business,

marketing,

personal

shopping

habits,

even

politics. Over the last twelve months, social m edia has also started to have an impact on recruitment.

Social

recruiting

networking

sites.

is

the

So ci al

term

given

to

recruiting has

recruitment been

via

social

gaining popularit y

across the wo rld over the last twelve to eighteen months and is becoming

more

main-stream

in

Ireland.

This

project

aimed

to

i n v e s t i g a t e w h e t h e r t h e Ir i s h p u b l i c w e r e i n t e r e s t e d i n f i n d i n g o u t about jobs through social netw o rking sites, o r i f this was viewed as a v i o l a t i o n o f t h e i r p r i v a c y. A n o t h e r a s p e c t o f t h e s t u d y w a s t o es tabl ish whet h er or not t h e Iri s h publ i c st ill bel i eved t he ol d adage of „ It‟s not what you know, but who y ou know that makes a difference‟, and thus s ee if people leverage their online connections to the same ex tent they would us e th ei r offline friends and contacts to aid them in securing a job.

T h e r e s u l t s c l e a r l y i n d i c a t e d t h a t a l t h o u g h t h e r e h a s n o t ye t b e e n much success with social recruiting, peo ple are willing to tr y using it and welcome being contacted through social networking sites to l e a r n a b o u t e m p l o ym e n t o p p o r t u n i t i e s . A n o v e r w h e l m i n g m a j o r i t y also believe in that „ It ‟s not what you know but who you know that makes

a

difference‟.

respondents

who

use

This

was

personal

supported contacts

to

by help

the

amount

them

to

of find

e m p l o ym e n t .

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Jenny Navan

“It‟s not what you know, but who you know”

H.Dip in e-Business

Dedication W it hout t he help, sup po rt and l ove gi ven t o m e b y cert ai n individuals, this research paper would not have been pos sible. Thanks to m y family and friends who have been ex tremely understanding of absences and dist ractions , special mention to m y parents Patricia and Bob and m y sister Michelle. I would like to thank Darragh , for his love and unwavering support. H i s e n c o u r a g e m e n t h a s t r u l y s u p p o r t e d m e t h r o u g h t h i s ye a r , a n d w i t h o u t h i m , t h e ye a r w o u l d h a v e b e e n m u c h m o r e d i f f i c u l t . “It always seems impossible until it‟s done.” Nelson Mandela

Acknowledgements T h a n k yo u t o m y e m p l o ye r C p l f o r t h e i r f u n d i n g a n d s u p p o r t . A speci al mention must be given to my former manager, Paul Bacon; m y enthusiasm for social media is second onl y to his. His encouragement to return to education made this possible. M y cu rrent manager, Judith Moffett must also be thanked for her support, both professionall y and personall y. I would like to thank m y supervisor Dermot Bradfield and all of m y classmates and lecturers fo r their support, guidance and advice t h r o u g h o u t t h e ye a r . I w o u l d a l s o l i k e t o t h a n k e a c h o f t h e p a r t i c i p a n t s o f t h e s u r v e y, without whom, this project would no t have been possible. To the man y people who provided me with presentations, articles and w o r d s o f e n c o u r a g e m e n t a n d s u p p o r t , t h a n k yo u . To each and every one of you, I ext end my deepest appreciation.

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“It‟s not what you know, but who you know”

Jenny Navan

H.Dip in e-Business

Conten ts

i)

Title

1

ii)

Declaration of Originality

2

iii) Abstract

3

iv)

Ackno wledgements

4

v)

Contents

5

vi)

Table of Fi gures

6

1)Executive Summary

7

2) Introduction

11

3 ) Li t e r a t u r e R e v i e w

16

4) Methodology

23

5 ) A n a l ys i s

28

a. So ci al Media Us age in Ireland

29

b. Social Media in Recruitment

34

c . E m p l o ye r s R e s p o n s e s

37

d. Job Seekers R es ponses

41

6) Con clusion

57

7) References

61

8) Appendices

64

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Jenny Navan

“It‟s not what you know, but who you know”

H.Dip in e-Business

Table of Figures Figure A Breakdown of Survey Respondents ..............................................................................................................................27

Figure B Usage of SNSs................................................................................................................................................................33

Figure C Employers Use of Social Media .....................................................................................................................................38

Figure D Employers Reasons for Using Social Media...................................................................................................................39

Figure E Job-Seekers Usage of Social Media ...............................................................................................................................42

Figure F Job-Seekers Reasons for Using Social Media ................................................................................................................43

Figure G Job-Seekers Opinions of Social Media Sites ..................................................................................................................44

Figure H Job-Seekers - Social Media in Recruitment ...................................................................................................................45

Figure I Job-Seekers Contact Through Social Media ..................................................................................................................46

Figure J Job-Seekers Thoughts on Social Media in Recruitment ................................................................................................47

Figure K Using Social Media in Job-Hunting ................................................................................................................................48

Figure L Using Social Media Over the Next 12 Months...............................................................................................................48

Figure M Securing Employment Through Social Media................................................................................................................49

Figure N Knowledge of Others Securing Employment Through Social Media .............................................................................49

Figure O Job-Seekers Current Employment.................................................................................................................................50

Figure P Job-seekers - Using Personal Connections ....................................................................................................................52

Figure Q Employers - Using Personal Connections ......................................................................................................................52

Figure R Job-Seekers - It's Not What You Know, but Who You Know .........................................................................................53

Figure T Job-Seekers - Friends ....................................................................................................................................................54

Figure U Employers - Friends.......................................................................................................................................................55

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“It‟s not what you know, but who you know”

Jenny Navan

H.Dip in e-Business

Executive Summary The aim of this project was to establish wh ether jo b-seekers in Ireland were interested in using social media in order to find new e m p l o ym e n t . T h e p r o j e c t w a s a l s o i n t e n d e d t o i n v e s t i g a t e w h e t h e r o r not people believed in the adage that „It‟s not what you know but who you know that makes a difference when looking for work‟ and therefore ex amine whether o r not people were usin g their online c o n n e c t i o n s t o a s s i s t t h e m i n f i n d i n g e m p l o ym e n t . The topic is one which has not been researched to an y gr eat ex tent in I r e l a n d . It w a s c h o s e n a s a t o p i c f o r r e s e a r c h a s m a n y e m p l o ye r s b e l i e v e s o c i a l m e d i a i s t h e w a y f o r w a r d i n r e c r u i t m e n t , ye t l i t t l e research has been carried out on ho w this ma y impact on job -seekers, on their desire fo r privacy o r on their need to maint ain a separation between their pro fessional and per sonal lives. Figu res gathered for both the UK and the USA show a dramatic increase in the use of soci al media in re cruitment, or so cial recruiting. H owever when considering factors such as the mai n age groups o f the wo rkin g population

in

both

of

these

coun tries,

it

is

evident

that

the

differences in the make-up of the Irish population may mean that Ireland does not follow suit, or at least not at the pace which some ex pect. A n o n l i n e s u r v e y w a s c a r r i e d o u t a m o n g s t I n t e r n e t u s e r s i n Ir e l a n d t o establish their opinions on several ke y points o f interest such as their current and planned usage of social m edia, thei r opennes s to being contacted about job vacancies on social netwo rking sites and t h e i r u s e o f p e r s o n a l c o n n e c t i o n s t o a i d i n s e c u r i n g e m p l o ym e n t . T h e su rve y focused mainl y on the job -s eekers perspective but also took i n t o a c c o u n t s o m e e m p l o ye r s p o i n t s o f v i e w a l s o . Lo o k i n g f i r s t l y a t t h e u s a g e o f s o c i a l m e d i a , i t c a n b e d e f i n e d a s “Online applications, platforms and media which aim to facilitate 7|Page

“It‟s not what you know, but who you know”

Jenny Navan

H.Dip in e-Business

interaction, collaboration and the sharing of content.” – (Univers al McCann, 2008) T h e m a i n s o c i a l n e t w o r k i n g s i t e s i n u s e i n Ir e l a n d a r e Li n k e d In , T w i t t e r a n d F a c e b o o k . G e n e r a l l y, T w i t t e r a n d F a c e b o o k w o u l d b e v i e w e d a s „ p e r s o n a l ‟ s i t e s w h e r e a s L i n k e d In w o u l d m a i n l y b e v i e w e d as a „profes sional‟ site. All three have ex perienced rapid gro wth in membership over the last eighteen to twent y-four months. The most com mon age profil e of us ers for t hes e s it es i s ei ght een to t hi rt y- fou r, h o w e v e r d u e t o i n n o v a t i o n s i n t e c h n o l o g y, s u c h a s s m a r t p h o n e s (iPhone and Android) and touch screen computers (iPad); the age g r o u p i s e x p a n d i n g t o i n c l u d e b o t h yo u n g e r a n d o l d e r u s e r s . Social recruiting is the act of conducting recruitment through social n e t w o r k i n g s i t e s . It h a s b e e n g r o w i n g i n p o p u l a r i t y a m o n g s t b o t h agenc y recruiters and in -house recruiters over the last eighteen m o n t h s , s t a r t i n g i n i t i a l l y w i t h t h e l a u n c h o f Li n k e d In i n 2 0 0 3 , w h i c h was the first professional networking site with a large take -up. Since t h e l a u n c h o f L i n k e d In , s o c i a l r e c r u i t i n g h a s s p r e a d t o o t h e r s o c i a l networking sites such as those which are deemed to be more personal than professional. One o f the reasons for the in creased use o f social recruiting is the reduced costs which are involved and secondl y, given that 78% of Generation Y 1 trust their peers compared with ju st 14% of those who trust advertisements (Brave New Talent ,2009), there

is

greater

scope

fo r

creating

a

genuine

connection

by

contacting and engaging with someone through social media rathe r than posting an online advert for ex ample. The research was conducted through an online questionnaire and was aimed mainl y at job -seekers but did have a small element fo r e m p l o ye r s . T h e r e s u l t s t o t h e r e s e a r c h a r e b r o k e n d o w n w i t h i n t h e p a p e r t o f o c u s s e p a r a t e l y o n e m p l o ye r s a n d j o b - s e e k e r s .

1

Generation Y refers to those born between 1980 and 2000 8|Page

“It‟s not what you know, but who you know”

Jenny Navan

H.Dip in e-Business

T h e e m p l o ye r s ‟ r e s p o n s e s t o t h e s u r v e y s h o w t h a t t h e m a j o r i t y o f respondents (15%) use social networking sites to promote their b u s i n e s s p r i m a r i l y.

This was followed b y business

development

(14 %) in s econd place and in fourth place at 11% was recruitment. O f t h e e m p l o ye r s w h o p a r t i c i p a t e d i n t h e r e s e a r c h , a l l u s e d s o c i a l m e d i a t o s o m e e x t en t , w i t h 8 7 % c u r r e n t l y u s i n g s o c i a l m e d i a t o s o m e e x t e n t w i t h i n r e c r u i t m e n t a l r e a d y. H o w e v e r o n l y e i g h t o f t h e t w e n t y two respondents had hired someone successfull y through a social networking sit e.

The job-seekers responses co rrel at ed with the ex pected findings. E i g h t y- t h r e e r e s p o n d e n t s t o o k p a r t i n t h e r e s e a r c h , a n d o f t h e s e , 4 1 % c u r r e n t l y u s e s o c i a l n e t w o r k i n g s i t e s t o h e l p f i n d e m p l o ym e n t . T h e s u c c e s s r a t e s i n f i n d i n g e m p l o ym e n t t h r o u g h s o c i a l n e t w o r k i n g s i t e s are still

relatively slim,

with just 5% of

respondents securin g

e m p l o ym e n t , a l t h o u g h 2 1 % d i d s u c c e e d i n p r o g r e s s i n g t o i n t e r v i e w stage after m akin g initial contact throug h social net working sit es. When

asked

about

planned

use

of

soci al

networking

sites

for

recruitment, 70% of job -seekers responded that they are planning on using so cial media as a job hunting tool in the nex t twelve months s h o w i n g t h a t Ir e l a n d i s f o l l o w i n g t h e t r e n d s e t i n t h e U K a n d t h e USA

of

adopting

social

r e c r u i t i n g.

This

is

supported

by

the

o v e r w h e l m i n g m a j o r i t y o f j o b - s e e k e r s ( 7 5 % ) a n d e m p l o ye r s ( 6 2 % ) who believe that „It‟s not what you know, but who you know‟ that counts when looking fo r wo rk. Both parties would tu rn to friends and f a m i l y t o l o o k f o r a s s i s t a n c e i n f i n d i n g e m p l o ym e n t a n d w i t h t h e a i d of social media, it appears the y will use both th ei r online and offlin e friends to assist them in this task. Although there is a need for further researc h on the topic, it appears that despite a make -up in the labour force in Ireland, when compared to the US A and the UK, Irish job -seekers are readil y a dopting new 9|Page

Jenny Navan

“It‟s not what you know, but who you know”

H.Dip in e-Business

technology such as social networking sites, and are using it to their advantage b y leveraging both online and offline cont acts to find e m p l o ym e n t .

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“It‟s not what you know, but who you know”

Jenny Navan

H.Dip in e-Business

Introduction A s a S e n i o r R e c r u i t m e n t C o n s u l t a n t , w i t h f o u r ye a r s ‟ e x p e r i e n c e i n science

recruitment,

I

have

witnessed

several

shifts

in

the

e m p l o ym e n t m a r k e t . S t a r t i n g w o r k i n 2 0 0 6 a s a g r a d u a t e , I e n t e r e d a recruitment world where the candidate was king. The y h ad their pick and choice o f who the y wanted to work fo r, what location they wanted to work in, what salar y and benefits they wanted and what job

they

wanted

to

do.

E m p l o ye r s

requi red

us

as

recruitment

consultants, to help them find hi gh calibre candidates but often would be satis fi ed to just find an yone at all. There wa s a clear shortage o f labour during this time and with clients businesses ex panding and busier than ever, the y wanted a wo rkfo rce and the y w a n t e d o n e i m m e d i a t e l y.

N o w i n 2 0 1 0 , w i t h Ir e l a n d j u s t b a r e l y o u t o f r e c e s s i o n , w e a r e m o s t definitel y in a di fferent market. There is still a sho rtage of qu alified , e x p e r i e n c e d e m p l o ye e s b u t t h e r e i s n o t a n a b u n d a n c e o f v a c a n c i e s ; t h e e m p l o ye r i s n o w k i n g . T h e y c a n c h o o s e w h o t h e y w a n t , h o w m u c h they are willin g to pay; and when they actuall y hire som eone, it will be because the y want that person, not just an y person. This is w i t h o u t d o u b t a m a j o r c h a n g e i n j u s t f o u r ye a r s ; h o w e v e r , t h e r e i s another change which is perhaps just as altering to the industr y – Social Media.

Social Media o r Social Netwo rk Sites (S NS s ) refer to ; “ Web -based services that allow individuals to construct a public

or

articulate a

semi -public list

of

profile

other

within

user s with

a

bounded

system,

whom they share a

connections, and view and travers e their list of connections and those mad e by others with the system.” ( B o yd & E l l i s o n , 2 0 0 8 )

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“It‟s not what you know, but who you know”

Jenny Navan

H.Dip in e-Business

Universal McCann2 define Social Media as “Online applications, platforms

and

media

which

aim

to

facilitate

interaction,

collaboration and the sharing of content.” (Universal McCann, 2008) Social Media is a shift from „W eb 1.0‟ to „Web 2.0‟ which is essentiall y a movement towards dialogue, collaboration and sharin g online

versus

the

essentiall y

one-way

s ys t e m

of

information

gatherin g which p reviousl y ex isted on the Internet. Interaction is the ke y to social media and the term itself su ggests th e idea that in r e a l i t y, s o c i a l m e d i a c a n b e j u s t a s , i f n o t m o r e , p o w e r f u l a s traditional media. When we take into account that 14% of Generation Y

(those

according

born to

between

Brave

New

1980

and

T a l e n t 3,

2000)

trust

ad vertis em ents,

versus

78%

who

trust

the

recommendations of their netwo rk, we can see the scope and impact which social medi a can have (Brave New Tal ent , 2009).

T a k i n g s o c i a l m e d i a o n e s t e p f u r t h e r , M a t t A l d e r , d i gi t a l r e c r u i t m e n t ex pert and founder of Metashift defines so cial recruiting as “si mply using social channels to find the best people for an organisation” . (Alder, 2009)

As there is such a skills shortage due to the effect s of the recession, finding the top candidate has become all the more important . Findin g the perfect candidate essenti all y involves headhunting them , which is a l l a b o u t w h o yo u k n o w a n d h o w yo u c a n u s e t h o s e c o n n e c t i o n s t o m a k e c o n t a c t w i t h yo u r t a r g e t c a n d i d a t e . S o c i a l m e d i a a n d S N S s p l a y a large role in allowin g individuals to make those connections and to h a r n e s s t h e m t o a s s i s t t h e m i n a n y m a n n e r o f w a ys , i n c l u d i n g f i n d i n g n e w e m p l o ym e n t .

2

Universal McCann is a global media agency who has conducted an annual social media tracker, globally, over the last four years. 3 Brave New Talent is an organisation which helps employers to reduce and control their social media footprint more effectively. 12 | P a g e

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“It‟s not what you know, but who you know”

H.Dip in e-Business

In t h e l a s t 1 2 m o n t h s , t h e e x p l o s i o n o f S N S s a n d a p p l i c a t i o n s f o r smart phone devices such as the iPhone and the Android has caused a large shift in communications, moving now into a virtual world. This h a s t h r o w n u p m a n y i n t e r e s t i n g d e b a t e s a b o u t p r i v a c y, a b o u t s o c i a l i n t e r a c t i o n s , a b o u t s o c i a l m e d i a i n g e n e r a l a n d a l s o a b o u t p h ys i c a l interactions.

These debates centre around whether or not too much information is f r e e l y a c c e s s i b l e o n t h e In t e r n e t , l e a d i n g t o a n i n c r e a s e i n c yb e r crime and identit y theft and a decline in traditional values such as the art of writing and conversation.

With that as a background I became interested in whether people were actuall y using social media channels to find new jobs or if it w a s j u s t a m yt h . T h e q u e s t i o n a l s o a r o s e a s t o w h e t h e r t h e y, t h e j o b s e e k e r , f e l t i t w a s a n i n t r u s i o n o f t h e i r p r i v a c y, w h e t h e r t h e y v i e w e d certain sites as being strictl y busines s or st rictl y personal . F i n a l l y, I w a n t e d t o e x a m i n e t h e o l d s a yi n g t h a t “ I t ‟ s n o t w h a t y o u know, but who you know, that ma kes the difference” . If the belief still exists that this is true, are people leveraging their connections online to help them in finding a job, or , does it remain the case that this is done onl y with their „real world‟ connections?

Certain large multinat ionals hav e ambitious plans . For ex ample, some have m entioned plans o f recruiting b et ween 60 - 80% o f all ne w e m p l o ye e s d i r e c t l y u s i n g s o c i a l m e d i a w i t h i n t h e n e x t s i x t o t w e l v e months, having achieved this relativel y quickl y in locations such as America. However, the uptake of certain social media outlets in Ireland has not been quite as quick as it has been elsewhere in the world. This target of 60 – 80 % is not factorin g in recruitment which is alread y takin g place online in the form o f online jobs boards an d online application forms.

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H.Dip in e-Business

S e v e r a l c o m p a n i e s a r e t o yi n g w i t h s o c i a l m e d i a a n d r e c r u i t m e n t a t the moment; some even have very successful campai gns . In o n e e x a m p l e , M i c r o s o f t I r e l a n d s a v e d £ 6 0 , 0 0 0 i n r e c r u i t m e n t f e e s t h r o u g h u s i n g Li n k e d In f o r a r e c r u i t m e n t p r o j e c t t o h i r e n i n e h i g h l y speci alised soft ware en gineers. Fitz gerald managed to source seven o f t h e n i n e e n g i n e e r s t h r o u g h Li n k e d I n . T h e s e w e r e v a c a n c i e s w h i c h would normally have been recruited for through advertising and r e c r u i t m e n t f i r m s , a n d a t t h a t , F i t z g e r a l d s a ys i t w o u l d h a v e b e e n hard to find these individuals. " These are quite unusual skills which are used to protect h a r d w a r e , " s a i d F i t z g e r a l d . " We g e t a t t a c k e d , s o a b o u t 1 8 months ago we decided to create a team that can continually reverse-engineer viruses." " We k n e w w e w o u l d h a v e t o l o o k a c r o s s E u r o p e t o f i n d t h e s e people, and LinkedIn allowed us to contact people in Finland and Romania where the recruits came from. ” (Finders, 2009) T h i s i s n o t a c o m m o n s t o r y ye t h o w e v e r , i t i s s t i l l q u i t e l i m i t e d t o the large multinational corporation s (MNCs ) and a lot of other organisations, are still asking the why, what and who questions in terms of the uses and benefits of social media and also the how question in relation to developing a successful recruitment campaign online.

If the aim is to achieve this level of recruitment (6 0-80% ) th rough soci al media in a short space o f time, user attitude is crucial. There m u s t b e a s t r o n g b u y- i n t o s o c i a l m e d i a , a d e s i r e t o f i n d w o r k i n t h i s w a y, t h e k n o w l e d g e o f h o w t o f i n d w o r k i n t h i s w a y a n d a n understanding o f the implications social m edia will have on job h u n t i n g a n d p r i v a c y.

14 | P a g e

“It‟s not what you know, but who you know”

Jenny Navan

H.Dip in e-Business

With little research done into this area, I a im to get a snapshot of user attitude to social recruitment or recruitment throu gh social m e d i a i n Ir e l a n d a t t h i s m o m e n t i n t i m e .

In o r d e r t o e s t a b l i s h u s e r s e n t i m e n t , p r i m a r y r e s e a r c h w a s c o n d u c t e d o n t h e t o p i c i n t h e f o r m o f a n o n l i n e s t u d y. T h e r e s e a r c h f o c u s e d o n w h y s o c i a l m e d i a i s u s e d , h o w i t i s u s e d a n d h o w i t i s v i e w e d . It a l s o focus ed specifically on the respondents ‟ attitudes to social media in recruitment,

taking

into

account

the

respondents ‟

previous

ex periences with social media in recruitment, their opinion of it, their thoughts on using social media in recruitment go ing forward a n d c r u c i a l l y, w i l l l o o k a t t h e r e s p o n d e n t s ‟ b e l i e f s w i t h r e g a r d s t o t h e s a yi n g „ I t ‟ s n o t w h a t y o u k n o w , b u t w h o y o u k n o w ‟ . T h e responses to these questions will be reviewed in this paper against t h e r e s p o n d e n t s ‟ a n s w e r s t o h o w t h e y u s u a l l y f i n d e m p l o ym e n t , h o w t h e y i n t e n d t o f i n d e m p l o ym e n t i n t h e f u t u r e , a n d h o w m a n y s o c i a l o r online connections they have versus those in the offline world.

For the purpose of this dissertation, the focus will be mainly on the job-seeker and their attitude to social media in recruitment, however t o g i v e a b r o a d e r o v e r v i e w t h e r e w i l l b e a n e l e m e n t o f e m p l o ye r s opinions discussed also.

The primary research will be evaluated against published research on the topic from the UK , the US and from Ireland.

15 | P a g e

Jenny Navan

“It‟s not what you know, but who you know”

H.Dip in e-Business

Literature Review

Quite a lot of recent work has been put into researching the phenomenon of social media, the ex plosive birth and growth it has a c h i e v e d a n d t h e i m p a c t w h i c h i t i s h a v i n g o n b u s i n e s s , yo u t h a n d older generations at the moment. Research to date has tended to focus on t opics such as: S o c i a l m e d i a a n d P r i v a c y; F a c e b o o k h a v e b e e n e m b r o i l e d i n debates over privacy for the last 18 months , So ci al Media and Marketin g, So ci al Media and P olitics; some people believe that without the use of social media, Barack Obama would not have been elected President of the USA, now 77% of TDs say they will use social media as part of th ei r nex t election campaign compared with 32% of those who used it in 2007 (Busin ess & Finance, 2010); and So ci al media and communicati on skills to name just a few ex amples.

To date, there has not been a vast amount of research conducted o n s o c i a l m e d i a i n r e c r u i t m e n t . H o w e v e r t h e e m p l o ye r s ‟ p o i n t o f v i e w i s c o v e r e d m o r e f r e q u e n t l y, t o t h e e x t e n t t h a t t h i s ye a r s a w t h e s e c o n d a n n u a l g l o b a l g a t h e r i n g i n Lo n d o n f o r a s o c i a l m e d i a i n R e c r u i t m e n t c o n f e r e n c e . T h i s ye a r ‟ s c o n f e r e n c e a t t r a c t e d t w o hundred recruiters from the UK, New Zealand, South Africa, USA and nine other European countries. Research in the U SA b y J o b v i t e 4 a l s o f o c u s e s m a i n l y o n t h e e m p l o ye r s p o i n t o f v i e w , although it does highli ght the fact th at ; „Fifty years ago, employees dreamed of working for a company their entire li fe. But in 2006, the average worker now has 10.8 4

Jobvite are an American recruitment agency who use real-time technology and social media. 16 | P a g e

“It‟s not what you know, but who you know”

Jenny Navan

H.Dip in e-Business

employers‟ in their lifetime, compar ed to 4 in 1960s – and Gen X

may

have

14.

Today

the

job

search

is

always

on‟.

(Jobvite, 2010)

As an overvi ew o f what is Social Media and W eb 2.0, „The Facebook S t o r y‟ ( La c y, 2 0 0 9 ) p r o v i d e s g r e a t i n s i g h t i n t o h o w a f e w yo u n g entrepreneurs cre ated a storm in Silicon Valley an d created websites which were to be adopted b y the masses against all ex pectations. This book provides an excellent introduction into the evolution of sites such as Blo gger and Fac ebook, and ex pl ains the original vision the site founders had. To put Social Media in contex t, Socialnomics (Qualman E. , 2009) gives us an insi ght into wh y social media ex ploded and wh y th e gro wth rate was so prolific. Some o f the research he h as done trul y highlights

the

scale

of

adoption

of

social

media.

When we look at the fig u res fo r adoption of other inventions, we will see that Social Media has ri sen quickest b y far. Years to reach 50 million: R a d i o – 3 8 ye a r s T V – 1 3 ye a r s In t e r n e t – 4 ye a r s i P o d – 3 ye a r s Facebook added 100 million users in less than 9 months iPod5 application downloads hit 1 billion in 9 months (Qualman E. , 2009) Accordin g to Qualmans research, Boston College will stop offering @ b c . e d u e m a i l a d d r e s s e s t o i n c o m i n g f r e s h m e n f o r t h e ye a r 2 0 1 3 a s e-mail is becoming obsolete at this stage.

5

iPod applications includes applications from the iTunes Store for the iPod generations and the iPhone. 17 | P a g e

“It‟s not what you know, but who you know”

Jenny Navan

H.Dip in e-Business

To highlight the s iz e of social media usage, in 2009 according to Qualman, Ashton Kutcher and Ellen DeGen eres have more follo wers on

Twitter

than

the

entire

population

of

Ireland,

Norway

and

Panama. Of the research I have conducted , both recruitment companies and jobs boards alike believe that soci al media will hav e a majo r impact going forward for both recruitment and job -hunting. The ex tent and impact the shift towards social media will have on r e c r u i t m e n t d i f f e r s h o w e v e r . I n a n i n t e r v i e w w i t h M i k e T a yl o r f r o m web-bas ed-recruitment.co m,

James

Caan,

founder

of

Alexander

M a n n , a l e a d i n g U K r e c r u i t m e n t a g e n c y, a n d o f D r a g o n s ‟ D e n f a m e , believes that social media will really hav e more o f an impact fo r smaller recruitment agencies as the y do not have an existin g large database of candidates which the larger agencies would have, making soci al

recruitment

n e c e s s a r yf o r

them,

ye t o p t i o n a l

for larger

agencies (Caan, 2009). To give an ex ample o f a large MNC, Microso ft Ireland believe that over the nex t eighteen months, a ver y large p ercentage of their new hires will be identified through social media , this is following on from their successful use of social recruiting in the USA. In 2 0 0 9 i n t h e U S A , 8 0 % o f c o m p a n i e s w e r e u s i n g Li n k e d In a s t h e i r p r i m a r y t o o l t o f i n d e m p l o ye e s . ( Q u a l m a n E . , 2 0 0 9 ) To

look

at

Ireland,

RecruitIreland.com

and

the

advices

that

usage 93%

of of

soci al

social

media

networkers

here, use

Facebook, however 73% o f th ose keep their accounts p rivate. In an e x a m p l e o f h o w e m p l o ye r s a r e u s i n g s o c i a l m e d i a , 2 5 % o f j o b s e e k e r s s u r v e ye d i n d i c a t e d t h a t t h e y w e r e a w a r e o f s o m e o n e b e i n g reprimanded in work over th ei r online activit y (RecruitIreland.com, 2010). The correlation between thes e statistics and whether or not social media will become an essenti al and successful to ol fo r recruitment is 18 | P a g e

“It‟s not what you know, but who you know”

Jenny Navan

H.Dip in e-Business

n o t ye t c l e a r ; h o w e v e r e v e r y r e s e a r c h p a p e r a n d w e b s i t e w h i c h discusses so cial media in recruitment refers to similar st atistics about the amount of users of each of these sites and how the y have gro wn. P erhaps the view is that it is inevitable that whe re on e goes, the other must follow ho wever there is no empirical evidence to make this statement in earnest. Bri ghtwater recruitment agenc y su ggests that 90% o f IT job -seekers use

Li n k e d I n

currently

(Campbell,

2010)

and

as

Li n k e d In

is

predominantl y a business n et working site, it would imply that this is t h e f u n c t i o n j o b - s e e k e r s a r e u s i n g Li n k e d In f o r ; h o w e v e r , o n e w o u l d e x p e c t IT p r o f e s s i o n a l s t o b e a h e a d o f t h e t r e n d i n t e r m s o f u s i n g soci al media fo r such a purpose. There is still no s olid evidence that other sectors will follow suit, nor does it give us an y information about whether or not they wish to use social media fo r the purpose of job-hunting. If we are to look at statistics fo r so cial media users in Ir eland we see that there ar e 1.58 million active users of Facebook as of April 2010 (De, 2010), 3000 FourSquare6 (Fagan, 2010) users in Januar y 2010, 2 5 , 0 0 0 I r i s h Li n k e d I n a c c o u n t s i n A p r i l 2 0 1 0 ( H a n d , 2 0 1 0 ) a n d 150,000 Twitter (Morris, 2010) users in April 2010. Although this still doesn‟t provide proo f that Irish job -seekers wish to use social m e d i a t o f i n d e m p l o ym e n t , i t d o e s g i v e a n i n d i c a t i o n a b o u t t h e I r i s h soci al medi a market. Outside o f Ireland, it is still a difficult area to find literature on. Lu c i a n T a r n o w s k i o f B r a v e N e w T a l e n t i n t h e U K s u g g e s t s t h a t Generation Y job -seekers ex pect to be informed about jobs and businesses th rou gh soci al media, an opinion which the Recruitment and

E m p l o ym e n t

Confederation

(REC )

in

the

UK

also

hold.

In t e r e s t i n gl y, t h e R E C h a v e p u b l i s h e d a 3 5 p a g e g u i d e t o S o c i a l M e d i a i n R e c r u i t m e n t ( R e c r u i t m e n t & E m p l o ym e n t C o n f e d e r a t i o n ,

6

FourSquare is a location based social networking website which allows users to share their location with their friends or followers and earn badges for frequenting venues regularly. 19 | P a g e

“It‟s not what you know, but who you know”

Jenny Navan

H.Dip in e-Business

2 0 1 0 ) - ye t d o n o t m e n t i o n a n yt h i n g a b o u t u s e r a t t i t u d e s t o w a r d s soci al media in recruitment. The National Recruitment Federation ( N R F ) i n I r e l a n d d o n o t ye t h a v e c o n t e n t o n t h e i r w e b s i t e a b o u t social media in recruitment, however they di d discuss it at their last AGM,

although

again,

this

was

mainl y

from

an

e m p l o ye r ‟ s

perspective. US res earch on the topic of social media is mainl y foc used on the marketing sector; however some of these s tudies do shine a light on how recruitment via social media may be received. AW eber stud y o n marketing behavioural

suggests

that

targeting

50%

increases

of

respondents

their

“indicated

conversion

rates

that either

significantly or moderately” when the y have received a target e d email with a link fo r ex ample (AW eber, 2010). This means that respondents were more likel y to be influenced either significantl y or moderatel y when t he y received an email which was more targeted t o them and based on t heir behaviours, which ma y o r ma y n ot have been gathered via th e Internet. When this is applied to the recruitment secto r, perhaps there is co rrelation in the effect that a direct email may hav e versus a general postin g on a social media sit e. Jobvite in the US A hav e conducted some ver y interesting research on social r e c r u i t i n g a l t h o u gh t h e y o n l y c o n s i d e r t h e e m p l o ye r s ‟ p e r s p e c t i v e (Jobvite, 2010) In t h e c o u r s e o f c o n d u c t i n g r e s e a r c h f o r t h i s d i s s e r t a t i o n , i t b e c a m e evident that a lot of the research and ma terial to be quoted would have to be taken from our closest nei ghbours, the UK. UK res earch is frequentl y quoted in all subject areas for Ireland as there tends to be a lack of research conducted ex clusively on Ireland. To put the differences between the U K and Ireland into contex t however, it is important to look at the different labour force models w h i c h e x i s t i n b o t h t h e U K a n d Ir e l a n d . In t h e U K i n 2 0 0 9 , G e n e r a t i o n Y a c c o u n t f o r 3 3 % o f t h e U K workfo rce, just 1 % less th an the largest group in the work -force, the 20 | P a g e

“It‟s not what you know, but who you know”

Jenny Navan

H.Dip in e-Business

B a b y B o o m e r s o f 1 9 4 6 – 1 9 6 4 . In 2 0 1 0 , G e n Y i s p r e d i c t e d t o account for the largest component of the workforce (Alder, 2009).

In I r e l a n d , i f w e l o o k a t t h e C e n t r a l S t a t i s t i c s O f f i c e ( C S O ) f i g u r e s for 2006, the most recent C ensus, we see that Gen Y accounts fo r 16% of the workforce, Gen X accounts for 42% and the Baby Boomers account for 36% with the remaining 6% accounted for b y the mature generation.

The CS O predi cts the labour fo rce o f ; 2011 will comprise of Gen Y: 26%, Gen X: 40% and Bab y Boo mers: 32%. In 2 0 1 6 , t h e p r e d i c t i o n i s ; G e n Y : 3 6 % , G e n X : 4 0 % a n d B a b y B o o m e r s : 3 2 % a n d f i n a l l y, i n 2 0 2 1 , t h e p r e d i c t i o n i s G e n Y : 4 2 % , Gen X: 36% and Bab y Boomers: 14%. 7

In

(Central Statisti cs Offi ce, 2010 )

terms

of

population

breakdown,

these

fi gu res

indicate

that

Ireland‟s labour work force currentl y looks quite different to the UK, a n d w i l l d o f o r s o m e t i m e . I f G e n Y i n Ir e l a n d w i l l n o t o u t g r o w G e n X until 2021, this could have implications on the adoption of social media b y Irish job -seekers. Ex ecutives Online8 have conducted some research into the area of social recruiting, taking into account both the job -seekers and the e m p l o ye r s ‟ p o i n t o f v i e w . T h e y f o u n d t h a t i n t h e U K , a t h i r d o f respondents h ad searched fo r a job b y using a S NS however onl y 7 % had been successful in securing a job through such a site. When they q u e s t i o n e d e m p l o ye r s , t h e y f o u n d t h a t 1 0 % o f r e s p o n d e n t s h a d t r i e d 7

These figures are based on a number of assumptions and projections including fertility rates, mortality, immigration and emigration and education. For the purpose of this research, the figures are based on Table 10 which factors in a low net migration over the next decade and are the most conservative of all predictions in terms of population growth, which would have a large impact on the growth of Gen Y. 8

Executives online are an Interim Management and Executive Recruitment firm based in the UK and Ireland. 21 | P a g e

“It‟s not what you know, but who you know”

Jenny Navan

using

SNSs

candidate

to

found

recruit

someone however

through

a

social

H.Dip in e-Business

only 4%

networking

had

site.

hired

a

Generall y

respondents of the Executives Online research w ere positive about the future role o f S NS s and h al f o f all respondents believed that S NSs will “grow in impo rtance and will someday be ho w everyone hires and finds work . (Ex ecutives Online, 2009) .

22 | P a g e

“It‟s not what you know, but who you know”

Jenny Navan

H.Dip in e-Business

The Methodology The purpose o f this paper is not to find out whether or not companies are ex periencing an y succes s with social recruitment, but whether or n o t j o b - s e e k e r s w i s h t o f i n d e m p l o ym e n t t h r o u g h s o c i a l r e c r u i t m e n t , to see if the y are currentl y usin g social media for this purpose, o r i f they intend to in the future, and, as stated, to see if job -seekers believe that „It‟s not what you know, but who you know‟ which ma y be able to give us an indication about the future uses of social media in social recruitment in Ireland. T o d o t h i s a n d t o g a i n a f u l l p i c t u r e o f t h e Ir i s h m a r k e t , s o m e research

was

conducted

on

e m p l o ye r s ‟

attitudes;

however

the

majorit y of the research was on job -seeker attitudes. Reading and other research w as also conducted to understand the medium of soci al medi a and the busin ess o f recrui tment. Due to a lack of s econdary research being available on this topic, it was decided that primar y research must be conduct ed. To identif y w h e t h e r o r n o t t h e Ir i s h p u b l i c w e r e i n t e r e s t e d o r i n v o l v e d i n j o b hunting through the use of social media a surve y was d ev eloped . The su rve y was designed to be conducted online to enable as man y respondents as possible manner.

An

online

to

survey

partake in would

a

allow

timel y and a

greater

convenient number

of

participants from across Ireland take part versus face to face or telephone interviews which would be more timel y and costl y and w o u l d r e d u c e t h e e l e m e n t o f a n o n ym i t y w h i c h w a s a f f o r d e d b y conducting the survey online. The surv e y focused mainl y on job seekers; however, to capture the v i e w s o f e m p l o ye r s w h o c a m e a c r o s s t h e s u r v e y, a s h o r t s u r v e y f o r e m p l o ye r s w a s a l s o c r e a t e d w h i c h r o u t e d a c c o r d i n g l y d e p e n d i n g o n w h e t h e r o r n o t t h e r e s p o n d e n t w a s a j o b s e e k e r o r a n e m p l o ye r .

23 | P a g e

“It‟s not what you know, but who you know”

Jenny Navan

H.Dip in e-Business

A f t e r c o n d u c t i n g a s h o r t p o l l o f u s e r s e n t i m e n t o n b o t h L i n k e d In a n d Twitter, it was decided that the survey should be less than three minutes long, unless respondents were to be paid for their time. C h o o s i n g w w w . i m p r e s s i t y. c o m a s t h e c h a n n e l f o r t h e s u r v e y, t h e questionnaire was designed. The main focus was on the job seeker, on which sit es the y currentl y u se, their opinion of each of thes e s i t e s , w h e t h e r t h e y h a v e u s e d t h e s e s i t e s t o f i n d e m p l o ym e n t , o r k n o w a n yo n e w h o h a s , b e i t s u c c e s s f u l l y o r n o t . F o r b o t h j o b s e e k e r s a n d e m p l o ye r s , t h e q u e s t i o n ; “ D o y o u b e l i e v e that it is not what you know but who you know that makes the difference?” was posed.

With the main purpose of soci al media

being the leveraging o f connections both online and offline, it was important to explore the actual belief in this statement in its traditional sense, versus the take -up of social media to help someone s e c u r e e m p l o ym e n t . T h e f u l l q u e s t i o n n a i r e f o r b o t h j o b s e e k e r s a n d e m p l o ye r s i s i n c l u d e d in the App endices – see Appendi x I. A breakdown of the respons es i s provided in full on the attached CD - see Appendix II The surve y was dis semin ated th rou gh several social media sites and also via email. A link to the surve y was posted on www.boards.ie www.t witter. com

www.linkedin.com

www. facebook.com

and

was

emailed directl y to about 50 individuals. It w a s n o t t h e a i m o f t h i s s t u d y t o a c h i e v e a r e p r e s e n t a t i v e s a m p l e o f the

population

and

therefore

candidates

were

not

asked

any

demographic questions such as questions about their education, their current position (their sector was asked), the highest income in the household or other such qu estions. Respondents were asked wh ether or not the y were base d in Ireland (as this stud y is

concerned

only with

Irish attitudes) but

not

whereabouts ex actly in Ireland so the surve y is not broken down b y geographic location. 24 | P a g e

“It‟s not what you know, but who you know”

Jenny Navan

H.Dip in e-Business

Respondents wer e also asked whether they classed themselves as an e m p l o ye r

or

a

job -seeker

in

order

to

route

the

questionnaire

a c c o r d i n g l y.

Respondents wer e asked about what secto r they mainl y work ed in, a n d i f t h e y w e r e a n e m p l o ye r , t h e y w e r e a s k e d a b o u t t h e i r c o m p a n y size; however th ese questions were all optional. The decision not to include all demographic questions was to ensure that respondents did not drop out of the survey because of these questions, as they are highl y person al questions and can cause unease. Du e to the time constraints of this research, it was also felt that b y including complete and detailed demographic questions, a balanced respons e may n ot have been attainable. The respons e rate was unfortunatel y not as high as had been hoped, with 136 responses received ov er the four week data collection window. Of those 136 responses, 15 were disregarded as they did not live in Ireland and 12 were dis regarded as the y were not completed. Through usin g a short ened UR L and the service provided b y Bit.l y 9 the

survey

generated

interest

by

235

people,

however

reasons

u n k n o w n , n o t a l l p a r t i c i p a t e d i n t h e s u r v e y. The majorit y o f respondents were job -seekers as hoped and a small g r o u p o f e m p l o ye r s a l s o t o o k p a r t . F o r b o t h g r o u p s , t h e t yp i c a l a g e range was l at e tw ent ies to mid-thirties. If future research was to take place on this topic, more time should b e g i v e n t o r u n t h e s u r v e y a n d a l s o m o r e t i m e t o p r o m o t e t h e s u r v e y, through this the aim would be to increase the participation rates which would in turn giv e the researcher a more thorou gh overview o f the market.

9

Bit.Ly is a URL shortening service, which allows users to create a shortened version of a web address and track how many users click on the link. 25 | P a g e

Jenny Navan

“It‟s not what you know, but who you know”

H.Dip in e-Business

Also, the respondents tended to be mainl y in the eight een to thirt yfour age groups, again with future research and more time an d resources, it would be recommended that a paper based surve y amongst the wider public would b e conducted, which m ay have given a broader overview of opinion. If time had been permitting, a short s u r v e y c o n d u c t e d i n a p o p u l a r v e n u e o r l o c a t i o n w i t h p a s s e r - b y‟ s would have added an ex tra dimension and allowed this stud y to gain the opinions of people who perhaps do not use social media to a great ex tent. If more in -depth research was to take place, it would b e advisable to include questions to obtain info rmation about the demographi cs o f the respondents and also as to thei r geo graphical location, as these additional factors may be quite relevant for establishing whether or not social media in recruitment is being adopted across all sectors nationwide, or i f it is localised to certain sectors o r geo graphi cal areas. Breakin g the responses down further provides us with eight y-three j o b s e e k e r s a n d t w e n t y- s i x e m p l o ye r s , a l l b a s e d i n I r e l a n d . D u e t o the routing of the surve y at the very beginning, where the surve y divides depending on whether the respondent was a job seeker or an e m p l o ye r , i t w a s i m p o s s i b l e t o m a k e t h e q u e s t i o n s i n t h e r e s t o f t h e su rve y compulso r y to answer. This led to a low take u p on some of the questions. Fo r future research, it would be beneficial to choose a site which would allo w the surve y to b e desi gned more carefull y a nd structu red m o r e a c c u r a t e l y. T h e r e w a s a l s o a n u m b e r o f s u r v e ys w h i c h w e r e i n c o m p l e t e a n d t h e r e f o r e t h e r e s u l t s w e r e d i s r e g a r d e d , t yp i c a l l y t h e s e s u r v e ys t e r m i n a t e d a f t e r j u s t t h e f i r s t q u e s t i o n .

26 | P a g e

Jenny Navan

“It‟s not what you know, but who you know”

H.Dip in e-Business

Fi gu re A: B r eakd own of Su rvey R esp ond en t s

The original thesis proposal also included a plan to conduct some f a c e t o f a c e s u r v e y s w i t h e m p l o ye r s a n d k e y p l a ye r s i n t h e i n d u s t r y. Due to time const raints‟, this was not carried out ho wev er; it would prove

worthwhile

considering

including

this

element

in

future

research.

27 | P a g e

“It‟s not what you know, but who you know”

Jenny Navan

H.Dip in e-Business

Analysis T o e s t a b l i s h w h e t h e r t h e h yp o t h e s i s , „ I t ‟ s n o t w h a t y o u k n o w , b u t who you know‟ is held b y Iri sh job -seekers, it is important to look at several di fferent areas. F i r s t l y, t h i s p a p e r w i l l e x a m i n e t h e u s a g e o f s o c i a l m e d i a i n I r e l a n d ; establishing the p revalence of so cial media usage and the general u s e s i n I r i s h s o c i e t y. S e c o n d l y,

it

will

look

at

soci al

media

in

recruitment;

how

r e c r u i t m e n t h a s e v o l v e d o v e r t h e l a s t n u m b e r o f ye a r s a n d t h e i m p a c t soci al media is currentl y havin g on recruitment processes in Ireland. Thirdly it will look at the responses from the online survey which was conducted between Ma y and J une 2010 ; evaluating the responses o b t a i n e d a n d a n a l ys i n g t h e s e i n d e t a i l w h i l s t c o m p a r i n g t h e r e s u l t s with previous research. Through the combination of these, it should be clearer as to wh eth er or not Irish job- s eekers are cu rrentl y using so cial media to find new job opportunities, wh ether the y leverage thei r social c onnections to assist them in this task and whether there is a convergence between the online and offline world in this matter. T h r o u g h t h e e x a m i n a t i o n o f c u r r e n t u s a g e o f t h e In t e r n e t a n d s o c i a l media,

it

is

hoped

that

a

predi ction

of

future

use

of

social

networking sites can be ex tracted . Also it is hoped that a conclusion as to the opinion of job seekers on the usage of social media in recruitment can be obtained. Finally th rou gh an ex amination of whether the belief is commonl y held that „ It‟ s not what yo u know, but who you know‟ , it shall be ex amined that if this belief is held, do the responses about social media in recruitment compare favourabl y with the responses to questions about offline recruitment.

28 | P a g e

“It‟s not what you know, but who you know”

Jenny Navan

H.Dip in e-Business

Social Media usage in Ireland To ex amine social

media in

recruitment in Ireland,

it

is

first

important to understand what so ci al media is and to establish the preval ence of social media in general in Ireland. An understanding o f what is so ci al media, wh y social media ex ists, the purposes of social m e d i a a n d h o w p r e v a l e n t i t i s i n Ir e l a n d i s n e c e s s a r y t o f u r t h e r ex amine the specific area of social media in recruitment. Fo r th e purpo se o f this paper, the main SNSs ex amined are Facebook, Li n k e d In a n d T w i t t e r . W i t h i n W e s t e r n E u r o p e a n d t h e U S A , t h e s e three sites are widel y ackno wledged as being the most popular and influential social media sites. As al read y di scussed, soci al media refers to “Online applications, platforms

and

media

which

aim

to

facilitate

interaction,

collaboration and the sha ring of content. ” – (Univ ers al McCann, 2008)

An online application or a web application is computer software which helps the user to perfo rm related tasks and is accessed over the Internet. As the application is hosted online, and does not need to be installed on ever y user‟ s co mputer, it makes them eas y to update and maintain b y developers. When used with social media, these applications allow users to interact with each other, share content such as photos, videos o r games and collaborate b y allowing u sers to acces s the sh ared content a n d e a c h m a k e c h a n g e s t o i t o r d i s c u s s i t r e m o t e l y. Facebook

was

established

in

2004

by

Mark

Zuckerberg

as

a

n e t w o r k i n g s i t e f o r h i s f e l l o w s t u d e n t s i n H a r v a r d U n i v e r s i t y. I t rapidl y ex panded and was soon open to all students with a college email address in the USA. The demand grew again and membership w a s s o o n o p e n e d u p t o e v e r yo n e . A c c o r d i n g t o B r e a k i n g N e w s . i e o n t h e 2 1 s t J u l y 2 0 1 0 , s i x ye a r s a f t e r b e i n g e s t a b l i s h e d , F a c e b o o k 29 | P a g e

“It‟s not what you know, but who you know”

Jenny Navan

H.Dip in e-Business

gained its five-hundred millionth member, meaning that 8% of th e world‟s

population

have

a

Facebook

account

(Breakingnews.ie,

2010). Zuckerberg himself believes that membership could grow to o n e b i l l i o n u s e r s w i t h i n t h e n e x t t h r e e t o f i v e ye a r s ( G o r d o n , 2 0 1 0 ) . In 2 0 0 9 , t h e f i g u r e s f o r F a c e b o o k s h o w e d t h a t i f i t w e r e a c o u n t r y, i t would have the 4 th largest population globall y with 400 million members; while for the UK 11 % o f all time online is now spent on soci al net workin g sites, second onl y to time on search engines such a s G o o gl e . ( B r a v e N e w T a l e n t , 2 0 0 9 ) Accordin g t o Facebook Ireland, in April 2010 there were 1,418,100 F a c e b o o k a c c o u n t s i n I r e l a n d . O f t h o s e , 8 4 7 , 0 0 0 w e r e a c t i v e , d a i l y, users. 83 % of us ers come back to Facebook ever y w eek. Of the online population, 73% are p resent on Facebook. The division of male and female users is 55% Mal e to 45% Fem al e. 27 % of users are o v e r 3 5 ye a r s o f a g e . 3 5 % o f u s e r s a r e 2 5 - 3 4 ye a r s o f a g e a n d 9 1 % o f u s e r s a r e o v e r 1 8 ye a r s o f a g e ( 1 , 2 8 6 , 9 6 0 i n t o t a l ) . In I r e l a n d 1 2 4 i s the average number o f friends on Facebook and over 467 ,000 users access Facebook by mobile (De, 2010). Twitter is a micro -blogging site, allowin g users to post messages up to one-hundred and fort y characters i n length. Frequentl y described as an „online water cooler ‟ due to the random chit -chat which o ften takes place, it was established in 2006 and formall y launched to S i l i c o n V a l l e y i n 2 0 0 7 . I t s f o u n d e r s J a c k D o r s e y, a n e n g i n e e r w i t h O d e o 10 a n d E v a n W i l l i a m s , f o u n d e r o f B l o g g e r 11, s a w T w i t t e r a s b e i n g a w a y t o p o s t a u n i v e r s a l s t a t u s u p d a t e , t o l e t e v e r yo n e k n o w w h a t yo u w e r e d o i n g , e . g . “ b u s y t r y i n g t o m e e t a d e a d l i n e ” , o r “ f r e e f o r a chat” etc. The status update is visible on users‟ mobile phones, i n t e r n e t b r o w s e r a n d d e s k t o p i f t h e u s e r s ‟ w i s h e s . It c a n n o w a l s o b e c o n n e c t e d w i t h b o t h Li n k e d I n a n d F a c e b o o k .

10

Odeo is a firm who provide a directory and search engine for audio and video, initially established by Williams to focus on the latest phenomenon of pod-casting 11 Blogger is a free blog publishing tool, founded by Williams and later sold to Google 30 | P a g e

“It‟s not what you know, but who you know”

Jenny Navan

H.Dip in e-Business

Whilst man y see it as useless and creating an abund ance of point less information, its founder‟s vision is that it will help create mo re intimate friendships and relationships, with people sharing more details about their lives, instead of just givin g the headl ines during a catch-up conversation . Twitter is now also being viewed as a search engine, handling 800 million search queri es per day (Sch roder, 2010). As of Jun e 2010, Twitter has 190 million users and the y post messages, or „Tweet‟ 65 million times a da y. Chief Operating Officer ( C O O ) o f T w i t t e r , D i c k C o s t o l o s a ys t h a t m o s t u s e r s d o n ‟ t a c t u a l l y „tweet ‟

but

instead

use

Twitter

as

a

“consumption

m e d i a 12”

(Schonefield, 2010) Twitter have not provided figu res on membership in Irel and, however according to Ronan Mo rris o f W eb Together, the number of Irish Twitter users is estimated at 150,000 (Mo rris, 2010) Li n k e d In i s a n o n l i n e n e t w o r k i n g s i t e , t a i l o r e d m o r e f o r b u s i n e s s than pleasure. It was founded in 2002 and launched in 2003. There are more than 70 million users wo rldwid e, coverin g 150 industries and has over 1 million company profiles. The site allows these users to create a profile, which looks similar to an online resume, and connect with people they know directl y (1 st connections),

those

known through a mutual connections or groups (2 nd connections) and those known th rough a thi rd part y (3 rd connections). Fo r ex ample, b y l o o k i n g a t o n e p a r t i c u l a r Li n k e d I n a c c o u n t , w e s e e t h a t i f yo u h a d 471

1st

connections,

yo u

could

be

linked

with

5,025,328

professionals . This is depending on several facto rs such as how well c o n n e c t e d yo u r f i r s t a n d s e c o n d d e g r e e c o n n e c t i o n s w e r e t h e m s e l v e s . Li n k e d In

has

not

provided

fi gu res

on

membership

in

Ireland,

however acco rdin g to Irish blo gger, Barr y Hand, the number o f Irish Li n k e d In u s e r s i s e s t i m a t e d a t 2 5 , 0 0 0 a l t h o u g h t h i s f i g u r e a p p e a r s t o be very approximate. (Hand, 2010) 12

Many users of Twitter do not actually post messages; they purely read others „tweets‟. This is harking back to Web 1.0 where media was consumed, rather than with users engaging and participating in the conversation. 31 | P a g e

“It‟s not what you know, but who you know”

Jenny Navan

Other

SNSs

popular

with

the

Irish

online

H.Dip in e-Business

population

include;

Fou rsquare, confirmed that in January 2010 it had 3000 Irish u sers and Boards.ie which had ove r 5 million visitors between Januar y and April 2010, 76 % of which was Iris h traffic and a total of 88,003 active

users

since

January

2010

according

to

Boards.ie

C o m m u n i c a t i o n s M a n a g e r , D a r r a g h D o yl e . ( D o yl e , 2 0 1 0 ) Some fi gu res from Dave Davin, Di recto r at

RAIC Productions ,

compiled in October 2009, show ; Travel is the top activit y online in Ir eland, 51% of Iris h people use the Intern et to source t rav el info rmation . Each day clo se to one million people or 28 % of the adult p o p u l a t i o n i n Ir e l a n d u s e t h e n e t . 1 0 0 , 0 0 0 , 0 0 0 F a c e b o o k u s e r s l o g o n e v e r y d a y. The greatest concentration of online shoppers in Ireland is among 2 5 - 3 4 ye a r o l d s a t 5 2 % , f o l l o w e d b y 3 5 - 4 4 ye a r o l d s a t 4 4 % a n d 1 6 - 2 4 ye a r o l d s a t 3 4 % . Today there are 1.2 million broadband subscriptions in I reland. (Davin, 2010)

A c c o r d i n g t o t h e I n t e r n a t i o n a l T e l e c o m m u n i c a t i o n U n i o n ( IT U ) , a s of June 2010, 65.8% o f the Irish population are now u sing the In t e r n e t . T h i s i s a n i n c r e a s e f r o m 2 0 . 9 % o f t h e p o p u l a t i o n i n 2 0 0 0 (Internet W orld Stats, 2010) . Irish us age o f the internet is ever growin g and with faster b roadband speeds no w slo wly becoming available, gro wth is set to continue o v e r t h e n e x t f e w ye a r s . M o b i l e i n t e r n e t u s a g e h a s b e e n t h e f a s t e s t g r o w i n g a r e a o f i n t e r n e t u s a g e i n t h e p a s t f e w ye a r s . W i t h g r o w t h s e t to continue, we can ex pect the usage of soci al networking sit es to

32 | P a g e

“It‟s not what you know, but who you know”

Jenny Navan

H.Dip in e-Business

ri se acco rdi n gl y, howeve r t h e pu rpo s e o f t hi s us a ge i s st ill to be established. For the purpose of this research it was important to first establish h o w m u c h t i m e b o t h j o b s e e k e r s a n d e m p l o ye r s s p e n t o n S N S s a n d a l s o , w h i c h s i t e s t h e y u s e d . B o t h j o b s e e k e r s a n d e m p l o ye r s w e r e a s k e d t h e s a m e q u e s t i o n , h o w e v e r e m p l o ye r s w e r e a s k e d t o a n s w e r about their use purel y in a professional manner, rather than in their own personal time. The results clearl y identified the same three sites as being the most popular

with

both

job -seekers

and

e m p l o ye r s

alike;

Facebook,

T w i t t e r a n d Li n k e d I n . S e v e r a l o f t h e s i t e s w h i c h w e r e l e s s b u s i n e s s o r i e n t e d w e r e n o t u s e d a t a l l b y e m p l o ye r s , a l t h o u g h m a n y o f t h e s e also had onl y a sma ll followin g b y job -seekers .

Fi gu r e B : Usage of SNS s

In t e r m s o f t i m e s p e n t o n l i n e , t h e a v e r a g e a m o u n t o f t i m e s p e n t o n S NSs b y job -seek ers was 90.52 minutes and the av erage time spent b y a n e m p l o ye r w a s 4 5 . 7 2 m i n u t e s p e r d a y.

33 | P a g e

“It‟s not what you know, but who you know”

Jenny Navan

H.Dip in e-Business

Social Media in Recruitment in Ireland

To understand social media in recruitment, we must understand what recruitment is.

Recruitment, for the purpos es o f this paper, refers to both agencies and in-hous e rec ruiters, attempting to source and s ecure suitable candidates for vacancies within thei r organisations o r within their clients‟ organisations.

Traditionall y rec ruitment took place through postin g adverts in the broadsheet newspapers o r indus t r y m agazines and usin g a „rolodex‟ s ys t e m , w o r k i n g t h r o u g h b u s i n e s s c a r d s a n d c o n n e c t i o n s w h i c h t o o k many years to establish.

Since the earl y 1 990s, recruitment has been moving slo wl y awa y from traditional print media to online jobs boards and the „rolo dex‟ s ys t e m h a s l a r g e l y b e e n r e p l a c e d b y c o m p u t e r i s e d d a t a b a s e s . W h e n n e w s p a p e r s s t a r t e d p o s t i n g c o n t e n t o n l i n e 13, t h e i r d i s t r i b u t i o n a n d s a l e s o f f l i n e s t a r t e d t o d e c l i n e . O v e r t h e l a s t f e w ye a r s , a l l newsp aper sales have been adversely affected b y the recession in s e v e r a l w a ys . A d v e r t i s i n g a n d r e c r u i t m e n t b u d g e t s h a v e b e e n s l a s h e d in most companies, leading to a reduction in the amount of job listings in paper s. Coupled with a decline in newspaper circulation figu res and the belief that “ We no longer sear ch for the news – it finds us” (Qualman E. , 2009) m edia has been movin g more and more online. With this shift to online (social ) media, there has been a correlating shift to online recruitment.

Online jobs boards in Ireland have been steadil y increasing their fees ye a r o n ye a r f o r t h e l a s t f e w ye a r s a n d s e v e r a l o f t h e l a r g e r 13

Th e I r i s h T i m e s , t r a d i t i o n a l l y o n e o f t h e m o s t p o p u l a r I r i s h b r o a d s h e e t s f o r posting job adverts, launched their online newspaper in 2008 34 | P a g e

“It‟s not what you know, but who you know”

Jenny Navan

H.Dip in e-Business

r e c r u i t m e n t a g e n c i e s a n d e m p l o ye r s a r e n o w s h i f t i n g a w a y f r o m t h e mainstream jobs boards such as Monster.ie and IrishJobs.ie to move towards their own in-house websites or different portals. Some companies such as Microsoft have their own careers website and also their own careers Twitter profile. Other companies and agencies have established a pr esence on Twitter, Facebook and Bebo where they can connect and engage with job -seekers directl y and post regular u p d a t e s o n t h e v a c a n c i e s t h e y h a v e , t h e t yp e s o f i n d i v i d u a l s t h e y a r e seeking to recruit and snap -shots of their business and how they o p e r a t e . Li n k e d In i s a p r i m e e x a m p l e o f t h e s h i f t t o w a r d s s o c i a l recruitment.

This latest shift awa y from online recruitment, to social recruitment can be summed up as “simply using social channels to find the best people for an organisation” (Alder, 2009).

Alder also stated th at: “Every single employer won‟t use social media for recruitment in year s to come. Th e adoption curve for those who do take it up

will

be

steeper

and

faster

than

we

saw

with

online

recruitment however, rapidly ramping up over the next 18 to 24 months.” Whilst we do not have empirical evidence to back this belief up, it does ti e in so far with the increased prevalence in social recruitment in both the UK and Ireland, albeit jus t an increased prev alence, not necessaril y an increased success rate. Lu c i a n T a r n o w s k i o f B r a v e N e w T a l e n t ( B N T ) e x p l a i n e d t h a t : “Social recruitment offers both a method for alerting people to job

opportunities,

as

well

as

a

channel

for

engaging

in

conversations about the role and the candidate. Placing social media communications within these two distinct groupings both si mplifies the theory and makes sense of the practice”. 35 | P a g e

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Jenny Navan

Tarnowski

fo rmed

this

opinion

on

the

basis

H.Dip in e-Business

of

his

ex perience

w o r k i n g w i t h e m p l o ye r s i n t h e U K t o c o n n e c t w i t h j o b - s e e k e r s through the u se of social media. Tarnowski is CEO of BNT, an o r g a n i s a t i o n w h i c h h e l p s e m p l o ye r s t o r e d u c e a n d c o n t r o l t h e i r s o c i a l m e d i a f o o t p r i n t m o r e e f f e c t i v e l y. A n e x a m p l e h e p r o v i d e s i s a project with One Youn g World, an annual global leadership summit, w h e r e h e w a s c h a l l e n g e d t o f i n d 1 5 0 0 yo u n g l e a d e r s f r o m 1 9 2 countries with a $0 marketing bud get. They h ad to achieve fair and proportionate

representation.

Through

the use

of

various

social

m e d i a p l a t f o r m s , t h e y e n g a g e d w i t h 1 0 0 , 0 0 0 yo u n g p e o p l e a n d 2 5 0 0 world class Gen Y leaders were id entified from 140 countries. Although this research and case study i s based in th e U K, these are the

types

of

ex amples

discussing their move to

Irish

companies

use social

are

mentioning

recruitment.

wh en

The empirical

evidence for Ireland is lacking and onl y time will tell if Irish e m p l o ye r s w i l l h a v e a n y s u c c e s s w i t h s o c i a l r e c r u i t m e n t .

36 | P a g e

Jenny Navan

“It‟s not what you know, but who you know”

H.Dip in e-Business

Employers Responses The stud y was concerned m ainl y with job -seekers opinions; however there were som e questions which warranted gainin g the view of e m p l o ye r s . A s m a l l s e c t i o n o f t h e s u r v e y w a s d e s i g n e d f o r e m p l o ye r s to answer to provide som e material for comparing job -seekers and e m p l o ye r s r e s p o n s e s . Lo o k i n g f i r s t l y a t t h e e m p l o ye r s s e c t i o n o f t h e s u r v e y, w e c a n s e e w h y e m p l o ye r s u s e S N S s . T h e r e s u l t s t o t h i s q u e s t i o n s h o w t h a t f o u r t e e n o u t o f t w e n t y- t w o r e s p o n d e n t s a r e c u r r e n t l y u s i n g s o c i a l media sites for recruitment purposes.

Of these fou rteen, six operate

within the HR and Recruitment sector and nine are in companies e m p l o yi n g o v e r o n e h u n d r e d s t a f f i n I r e l a n d . O f t h e t e n w h o u s e S N S s t o b a c k g r o u n d o r r e f e r e n c e c h e c k p o t e n t i a l n e w e m p l o ye e s , s i x again operate within the HR and Recruitment secto r and five are c o m p a n i e s e m p l o yi n g o v e r o n e h u n d r e d s t a f f i n I r e l a n d a l o n e . A l t h o u g h t h e e m p l o ye r s e c t i o n o f t h e s u r v e y w a s m o r e o f a n a s i d e , should there be further research carried out in this area, a question a b o u t a n e m p l o ye r ‟ s p l a n n e d u s e o f S N S s o v e r t h e n e x t t w e l v e months would be interesting to examine to see if there is a large change planned in use of S NS s or i f t he usage will remain as is.

37 | P a g e

“It‟s not what you know, but who you know”

Jenny Navan

H.Dip in e-Business

Fi gu re C : Emp loyer s Us e of S oci a l M edia

With

the

majority

of

e m p l o ye r s

using

Li n k e d I n

p r i m a r i l y,

the

responses to this question tie in very closel y with the main function s o f Li n k e d In v e r s u s o t h e r S N S s .

F o c u s i n g f u r t h e r o n t h e c u r r e n t u s e b y e m p l o ye r s o f S o c i a l M e d i a , e m p l o ye r s w e r e a s k e d t h e q u e s t i o n : „ A s a n e m p l o y e r , h a v e y o u e v e r used social media sites for any of the following reasons? To advertise a vacancy within your organi satio n? To background check a potential employee? To verify anything about a current / potential em ployee? To success fully hir e som eone? None of the above? ‟ E i g h t o u t o f t h e t w e n t y- t w o h a d s u c c e s s f u l l y h i r e d s o m e b o d y t h r o u g h the use of SNSs, making that a 57% success rate out of those who had advertis ed a vacanc y th rou gh S NS s.

S i x o f t h e t w e n t y- t w o r e s p o n d e n t s h a d n e v e r u s e d s o c i a l m e d i a f o r any recruitment purposes.

38 | P a g e

Jenny Navan

“It‟s not what you know, but who you know”

H.Dip in e-Business

A g a i n , i t w o u l d b e u s e f u l t o v i e w e m p l o ye r s p l a n n e d u s e o f s o c i a l m e d i a i n r e c r u i t m e n t o v e r t h e n e x t t w e l v e m o n t h s a n d b e yo n d a n d t o s e e i f t h e b r e a k d o w n o f t h e u s a g e c h a n g e s m u c h , o r i f i t s t a ys relativel y similar.

Fi gu re D: E mp loyer s R eas on s for Usi ng S ocia l M edia

The results to this survey vary fr om those carried out by online jobs board, RecruitIreland.com who recentl y carried out some research with 100 recruiters. Unfo rtunatel y the term „recruiters ‟ hasn‟t been clarified b y Recru itIreland. com as to wh ether it refers to agenc y recruiters, in -house recruiters or b y hiring managers. For the purpose o f t h i s r e s e a r c h , t h e t e r m „ e m p l o ye r ‟ h a s b e e n u s e d , w h i c h t a k e s a c c o u n t o f a n yo n e i n t h e p o s i t i o n t o h i r e o r h o s t t h e r e c r u i t m e n t process. The research b y Recruit Ireland.com found that 46% of recruiters check out applicants online durin g the recruitment process. Thes e checks varied from Goo gling the candidates name to checking their Facebook page or their recent Twitter postings, commonl y known as Tweets and checking the candidate‟s personal blogs. The surv e y also showed the recruiters check out 53% of candidates online after t h e y‟ v e c o m p l e t e d t h e i r f i r s t r o u n d i n t e r v i e w . They al so found that one in five recruiters have reject ed a candidate because of somethi ng they have seen online. The reasons for thes e 39 | P a g e

Jenny Navan

“It‟s not what you know, but who you know”

H.Dip in e-Business

r e j e c t i o n s i n c l u d e d i d e n t i f yi n g c o m m e n t s w h i c h w o u l d c o n f l i c t w i t h t h e b u s i n e s s e t h o s , p r o o f o f l yi n g o n t h e C . V . o r o f f e n s i v e c o m m e n t s a b o u t t h e c a n d i d a t e s ‟ c u r r e n t e m p l o ye r . Of the 54% of recruiters who did not check out candidates online, the main reason given fo r not doing so was that the y felt it was irrelevant and 20% of the recruiters fel t it was unethical. The

e m p l o ye r s ‟

questionnaire

also

featured

several

questions

i d e n t i c a l t o t h o s e p o s e d t o j o b - s e e k e r s . T h e s e w i l l b e a n a l ys e d i n more detail l ate r on in this paper. T h e e m p l o ye r s s e c t i o n o f t h e s t u d y p r o v i d e s s o m e c o n t e x t f o r t h e ex amination of job -seekers responses. It also sho ws us that in terms of the use of social media in recrui tment, Irish emplo yers , with an 8 7 % p a r t i c i p a t i o n r a t e 14, a r e a t a f a i r l y s i m i l a r l e v e l t o t h e U S A w h e r e 8 3 % o f e m p l o ye r s s u r v e ye d i n 2 0 1 0 b y J o b v i t e a r e n o w u s i n g , or planning to use soci al media fo r recruiting (Jobvite, 2010). Due to the questionnaire having some non -compulsory questions included, there was a lo w par ticipation rate with some of the questions, and as a result, these had to be discarded. These questions focused on what percentage of recruitment had been done throu gh v a r i o u s m e d i u m s o v e r t h e p a s t t w e l v e m o n t h s , a n d w h a t p e r c e n t a ge where ex pected to be ca rried out over the coming t welve months. These questions could have shed important light over the potential increas e of recruitment via social media and this would be an area which should be ex amined in future research.

14

87% comprises of respondents using social media currently in the hiring process, in any capacity. 40 | P a g e

Jenny Navan

“It‟s not what you know, but who you know”

H.Dip in e-Business

Job-seekers R esponses

W h e n d e s i g n i n g t h e m a i n p a r t o f t h e s u r v e y, t h e q u e s t i o n s d i r e c t e d t o job-seekers, the aim was to est ablish which social media sit es the y use, the reasons wh y people us e social medi a, how the y view soci al media in relation to recruitment, wh ether the y had ev er had an y e x p e r i e n c e o r c o n t a c t w i t h e m p l o ye r s o r r e c r u i t e r s v i a s o c i a l m e d i a and their general opinions in this area. The idea of “It‟s not what you know, but who you know, that makes a difference” was also ex plored in more detail, to see if t hat belief was held, and if it was, did job -seekers leverage their offline or online connections to any great ex tent to assist them in finding n ew e m p l o ym e n t . T h i s q u e s t i o n w a s a l s o p o s e d t o e m p l o ye r s t o s e e i f there was an y correlation between the opinions of both group s and t h e r e s u l t s w i l l b e a n a l ys e d f u r t h e r i n t h e p a p e r . To establish how much the respondents use social media, some general questions of so cial media usage were pos ed.

41 | P a g e

“It‟s not what you know, but who you know”

Jenny Navan

H.Dip in e-Business

Fi gu r e E : J ob -S e ek er s U sa g e o f S oc i a l M ed i a

The responses to this question ties in with the overall p opularit y of Facebook

( s i x t y- n i n e

( t h i r t y- t h r e e u s e r s ) .

users),

Li n k e d In

(fifty users)

and

Twitter

The “Other” option included FourSquare, a

l o c a t i o n b a s e d s i t e , F o r m S p r i n g 15, B l o g g e r , A S m a l l W o r l d 16, Q u b e 17, B o a r d s . i e a n d X b o x Li v e 18. When it came to the „ Why‟ question, results again were broadl y in line with the designed and widel y accepted uses for each of these sites, with the majorit y o f users (44% ) st atin g “keeping in touch” as the primar y reason. To look briefl y a t this point at social media in recruitment; thirt y-fiv e of the ei ght y-fiv e respond ents did state that they used social media to “look for employment”.

15

FormSpring is a questions and answers website. ASmallWorld is a private online social networking community, accessible by invitation only. 17 Qube is a luxury and exclusive online professional networking site, which requires a paid subscription. 18 Xbox Live is an online multiplayer gaming website. 16

42 | P a g e

“It‟s not what you know, but who you know”

Jenny Navan

H.Dip in e-Business

Fi gu r e F: Job - S eek er s R ea son s fo r Usi n g S oci a l M ed i a

Respondents were then asked “What do you think is the main purpose of each of the following sites? ( I.e. is it for work use, personal use, both, advertising, youn g people, etc. ) You can answer these even if you do not use each of these sites.”

At this point, there was onl y a small proportion of respondents holding the opinion that the sites m ain purpose was fo r recruitment with onl y a ver y small percentage viewin g

„Recruitment‟

as

a

purpose for the site, given that 41% use social media sites to look f o r e m p l o ym e n t , i t s h o w s t h a t p e r h a p s t h e r e i s s o m e i m b a l a n c e between what users are looking for, versus th e services on offer with these social media sites. 19% felt that the main function of Twitter was „ Wo rk Purposes or Networking‟,

54%

shared

that

opinion

for

Li n k e d I n ,

16%

for

Facebook and 25% fo r Blo gs. Despite the majority o f the research to date b ein g fo cused on social media and marketing, and this being the init ial purpose firms use soci al media for, less than 14 % respondents view marketing as bein g the main purpose of either Twitter or Facebook, and only 6.25% see 43 | P a g e

Jenny Navan

“It‟s not what you know, but who you know”

H.Dip in e-Business

it as the function of Blo ggin g and 2.7% as the function of Bebo. 0 % s e e a d v e r t i s i n g a s b e i n g t h e m a i n f u n c t i o n o f Li n k e d I n .

Fi gu r e G: J ob S eek ers Op i n i on s o f S oc i a l M ed i a Si te s

19

Lo o k i n g s p e c i f i c a l l y a t j o b - s e e k e r s t h o u g h t s o n s o c i a l m e d i a i n recruit m ent , aft er as k i ng: “Have you p ers on al ly ever us ed soci al media sites for any of the f ollowin g purposes ?”, we see that 58 % o f r e s p o n d e n t s d o n o t u s e s o c i a l m e d i a t o e n g a g e w i t h e m p l o ye r s , they us e it more as a tool to obtain info rmation, to look for v a c a n c i e s a n d t o r e s e a r c h t h e c o m p a n y. 2 6 % o f r e s p o n d e n t s a c t u a l l y u s e s o c i a l m e d i a t o e n g a g e , o r c o n v e r s e w i t h e m p l o ye r s .

19

This question was a free-text question and the results have been grouped together by similar answers to form an easier to analyse set of responses. 44 | P a g e

Jenny Navan

“It‟s not what you know, but who you know”

H.Dip in e-Business

When this is compared with UK research b y Brave New Talent, 67% of Generation Y is happy to be invited to engage or converse with e m p l o ye r s o n l i n e a n d 6 2 % a r e h a p p y t o b e i n v i t e d t o j o i n e m p l o ye r communities. Further research shows that 79% of UK Generation Y use So cial Media to find out about opportunities whilst 81% are r e c e p t i v e t o e m p l o ye r s . What is not apparent from this is whether there is a cultura l d i f f e r e n c e b e t w e e n t h e U K a n d Ir e l a n d , w h e t h e r I r e l a n d w i l l f o l l o w suit, and if Ireland does, when that will be.

Fi gu r e H : J ob - S eek er s : Soc i a l M ed i a i n R ec ru it m en t

To see the ex tent of u sage o f so cial media for recruitm ent purposes, r e s p o n d e n t s w e r e a s k e d i f t h e y h a v e b e e n c o n t a c t e d d i r e c t l y t h r o u gh a s o c i a l m e d i a s i t e a b o u t j o b o p p o r t u n i t i e s . O f t h e s e v e n t y- f i v e respondents, thirt y-three h ad been previousl y contacte d through a S N S i n r e l a t i o n t o a j o b o p p o r t u n i t y. Of th e 44 % who had been contacted about job opportunities th rough S NSs, 64% of those had previousl y st ated that the y themselves used S NSs as a wa y to look for vacanci es and 55% used S NS s to p romote t h e m s e l v e s i n o r d e r t o s e c u r e e m p l o ym e n t a n d o n l y 1 2 % h a d u s e d

45 | P a g e

“It‟s not what you know, but who you know”

Jenny Navan

H.Dip in e-Business

S N S s t o s p e a k w i t h a n e m p l o ye e o f a n o r g a n i z a t i o n w i t h r e g a r d s t o an interview. 45% of thos e who had never been contacted th rough S NSs regardin g job opportunities did not use soci al media for an y rec ruitment purposes themselves.

Fi gu re I: J ob -S eek er s C ont act Th rou gh S ocia l M ed ia

To

establish

the

respondents‟

opinions

of

soci al

media

in

recruitment, they were posed with the question “How do you f eel about being

contacted

through

Social

Media Sites

about

job

opportunities?”

46 | P a g e

“It‟s not what you know, but who you know”

Jenny Navan

H.Dip in e-Business

Fi gu r e J : Job -S eek er s Th ou gh t s on S oci a l M ed i a in R ec ru it m en t

The majorit y o f r espondents held a generall y positive opinion on being contacted via so ci al media with regards to job -opportunities, with only 10% of respondents holding a negative point of view. The one respondent to answer “Other” held the opinion that it is “Fine to be contacted by companies, but definitely NOT by agencies” and a second respondent who ans wered t hat they p refer to hear about vacancies in this manner also said that: “As long as they are target ed and relevant opportunities , then definitely I expect to hear fro m th em about jobs. Social media is so much better then as you usually hear from decision makers, not time wasting agencies!”

From

a

recruitment

agency

perspective,

th ese

are

interesting

opinions and ones which would raise many questions about privacy and ethical behaviour. As with the 22% who indicat ed that they are „open to hearing about vacancies once they have indicated that this is acceptabl e‟, the question o f ho w this stance can be communicated must be rai sed. Lin kedIn is the only S NS which allows u sers to 47 | P a g e

Jenny Navan

“It‟s not what you know, but who you know”

H.Dip in e-Business

i n d i c a t e t h e i r w i l l i n g n e s s t o b e c o n t a c t e d r e g a r d i n g e m p l o ym e n t o p p o r t u n i t i e s , a n d t h i s i s n o t n a r r o w e d d o w n t o „ b y a n a g e n c y‟ o r „ b y e m p l o ye r s o n l y‟ . F r o m a w e b s i t e d e v e l o p m e n t p o i n t o f v i e w , t h i s could be an in t eresting avenu e to ex plore and an area which warrants further research into attitudes and behaviours.

To look at the evolving attitudes of respondents, the surve y was designed to take a snapshot of the current usage of SNSs as a tool for job hunting. In order to gain this image, a number of questions were asked about respondents‟ current usage of social media and their expected use of social m edia over the nex t twelve months. The respons e to the question: „Do you use social med ia as a job h u n t i n g t o o l ? ‟ w a s f o r t y- o n e s a yi n g „ Y e s ‟ a n d t h i r t y- f i v e s a yi n g „No‟. This compared with a pl anned increase of the „Yes ‟ group, i n c r e a s i n g t o f i f t y- t h r e e u s e r s o v e r t h e n e x t t w e l v e m o n t h s a n d w i t h „ N o ‟ g r o u p d e c r e a s i n g a c c o r d i n g l y t o t w e n t y- t h r e e .

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“It‟s not what you know, but who you know”

Jenny Navan

H.Dip in e-Business

Figure K: Do you use social media as a job hunting tool? No 46%

Yes 54%

Figure L: Do you intend to use social media as a job hunting tool in the next 12 months? No 30% Yes 70%

This would perhaps indicate that we are following both the UK and USA in terms of our use of social media sites.

To

establish

the

Irish

success

to

date

using

SNSs

to

find

e m p l o ym e n t , r e s p o n d e n t s w e r e a s k e d a b o u t t h e i r o w n e x p e r i e n c e w i t h S NSs in terms of securing an intervi ew o r a job. To ex plore full y the success

rat es,

respond ents

were

asked

to

diffe rentiate

b et ween

actuall y securin g a job throu gh S NS s and s ecurin g an interview. Respondents

were

asked

about

their

own

experience,

and

their

k n o w l e d g e o f a n yo n e e l s e w h o m a y h a v e s e c u r e d a n i n t e r v i e w o r j o b through the use of SNSs.

This second question does hav e its limitations in the fact that man y of the respondents ma y have known each other and therefore ma y have been answering about the sam e person ho wever, w ithout being 49 | P a g e

“It‟s not what you know, but who you know”

Jenny Navan

able to

go

into

too

much

detail

in

the limited

H.Dip in e-Business

space

on

the

questionnaire, the r esponses should still be able to give us an initial i d e a a b o u t t h e p r e v a l e n c e o f s o c i a l m e d i a i n r e c r u i t m e n t . It i s a n area that could be ex plored in more detail in further research.

Fi gu re M : S ecu rin g Emp loym en t …M ed i a

Fi gu re N : Kn o wl ed ge o f Ot h ers …M ed ia

To look at the success rates o f ou r respondents, 26%, or t went y respondents, secu red at least an interview throu gh the use of S NS s. J u s t f o u r o f t h e s e r e s p o n d e n t s , s e c u r e d e m p l o ym e n t t h r o u g h S N S s . When we compare this with their usage of SNSs, all respondents stated that they do use S NS s as a job hunting tool. Onl y one of thes e respondents has stated that they no lo nger intend to u se SNSs in the nex t twelve months as a job hunting tool. This person had s ecured an interview through SNSs. I f c a r r yi n g o u t t h i s r e s e a r c h a g a i n , i t w o u l d b e b e n e f i c i a l t o h a v e a n open tex t box after these two qu estions to ask fo r the reason the respondents would or would not use S NSs for recruitment purposes in the nex t twelve months, if the y were alread y usin g them.

To ex plore the main theme of this paper a little further, a nd to get an overview o f the point of view the respondents may have held, each respondent was asked how they secured their most recent job.

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“It‟s not what you know, but who you know”

Jenny Navan

H.Dip in e-Business

Fi gu r e O : J ob - S eek er s C u rr en t Emp lo ym en t

Over a q uarter o f respondents, the majorit y at 27%, secured thei r most recent position through

„Recruitment

Agencies

or

through

Career Guidance Advice‟ . Should this research be conducted again, dividing these into two separate options would be beneficial. 18% of respondents answered that the y obt ained their most recent position through a „ Head-hunter ‟. A definition of what is a head hunter should have been provided in the questionnaire.

There has

been confusion in the past about what is a head -hunter versus a r e c r u i t m e n t a g e n c y. S o m e p e o p l e b e l i e v e t h a t i f t h e y a r e n o t a c t i v e l y l o o k i n g f o r n e w e m p l o ym e n t a n d a r e t h e n c o n t a c t e d b y a r e c r u i t m e n t agenc y who th e y h ad previousl y regi stered with, then this indicates that they were „head -hunted‟. A more accurate definition of head h u n t i n g w o u l d b e t h a t a c o m p a n y o r e m p l o ye r i n d i c a t e d t h a t t h e y wanted to meet particular individuals, such as Mr X, Mrs Y and Ms Z and gave this requirement to a head -hunter or recruitment agenc y on the provision that they would locate these sp ecific individuals and g e t t h e m t o s p e a k w i t h t h e c l i e n t c o m p a n y. A s n o d e f i n i t i o n w a s provided

and

the error

of definition

is

frequentl y made,

it

is

important to keep in mind that some of this 18 % m a y h ave actuall y s e c u r e d e m p l o ym e n t t h r o u g h r e c r u i t m e n t a g e n c i e s . 51 | P a g e

“It‟s not what you know, but who you know”

Jenny Navan

H.Dip in e-Business

T h e s e c o n d m o s t c o m m o n w a y t o s e c u r e e m p l o ym e n t w a s t h r o u g h a „personal connection‟. This was matched at 19% b y a combination of both online and traditional advertisements. Just 4 % of respondents, or t wo individuals, secured their most recent position throu gh SNSs. Of thes e two respondents, on e wo rks in IT and the second in Marketing. The marketin g respondent further clarified thei r position b y ex plaining the y replied to an advert on Li n k e d In . W h a t w o u l d b e b e n e f i c i a l a t t h i s s t a g e i s t o k n o w w h e t h e r t h i s r e s p o n d e n t r e p l i e d t o a p a i d a d v e r t o n Li n k e d I n ( a p p r o x . $ 2 5 0 t o post a paid advert) or if the respondent replied to a free job posting o n Li n k e d I n w h i c h w o u l d b e p a r t o f t h e „ G r o u p s ‟ s e c t i o n , w h e r e l i k e minded individuals, or those with somethin g in common, such as geo graphical area, industr y etc., can post jobs on a discussion board. This would be important to look at in further research as it would give a much clearer picture as to whether this particular individual d i d t r u l y s e c u r e e m p l o ym e n t t h r o u g h s o c i a l n e t w o r k i n g , v e r s u s a newer version of the an online jobs board. The 19% who secured their most recent job through a personal c o n n e c t i o n a r e o f g r e a t i m p o r t a n c e t o t h i s s t u d y. O f t h e 1 9 % ( t w e l v e respondents)

who

secured

their

most

recent

pos ition

through

a

„Personal Connection ‟, five do not currentl y use SNSs as a job hunting tool, four do not intend to use it as a tool and nine have not secured an interview or job throu gh SNS s. Th ree personall y secured interviews and four knew people who sec u red interviews and a f u r t h e r t w o k n e w p e o p l e w h o h a d s e c u r e d e m p l o ym e n t t h r o u g h S N S s . It i s i m p o r t a n t t o e s t a b l i s h t h e s e r e s p o n d e n t s b a c k g r o u n d a t t h i s s t a g e i n o r d e r t o a n a l ys e i t c o n t e x t u a l l y a g a i n s t t h e b e l i e f t h a t „ I t ‟ s not what you know, but who know ‟. A t t h i s p o i n t o f t h e s u r v e y, b o t h j o b - s e e k e r s a n d e m p l o ye r s w e r e asked th e same questions. Both were fi rst ask ed „Have you ever asked a friend / fam ily m ember to help yo u secur e a job (u sing any personal connections?).‟ 52 | P a g e

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Respondents were given four cho ices at this stage in order to answer the question; a) Y es, b) No, c) Y es, but I wouldn‟t again and d) No, but I would in the future. To get a t rue overview o f sentiment towards „It ‟s not what you know, but

who

you

know‟

the

question

was

broken

down

into

t hese

c a t e g o r i e s . A s t h e h yp o t h e s i s a t t h e b e g i n n i n g o f t h i s q u e s t i o n n a i r e was th at people do leverage thei r „real-world‟ connections to help t h e m f i n d e m p l o ym e n t , ye t k n o w i n g t h a t t h i s c a n l e a d t o d i f f i c u l t i e s , putting strains of relationships and friendsh ips, it was important to gain a thorou gh overview o f the respondents‟ feelin gs in this area. Figure P: Job seekers: Have you ever asked a friend / family member to help you secure a job (using any personal connections?)

Figure Q: Employers: Have you ever asked a friend / family member to help you secure a job (using any personal connections?)

Yes No

Yes

No, but I would in the future

No

Yes, but I wouldn't do it again

No, but I would in the future

22% 4% 41% 33%

33% Fi gu re P : J ob -S eek er s : P er s on a l C on n ect i on s

4% 38% 25%

Fi gu r e Q : E mp lo yer s : Per s on a l C onn ec t i on s

T h e m a j o r i t y o f b o t h j o b s e e k e r s ( 4 1 % ) a n d e m p l o ye r s ( 3 5 % ) h a v e a s k e d p e r s o n a l c o n n e c t i o n s t o h e l p t h e m s e c u r e e m p l o ym e n t i n t h e past and would not hesitate in doing so again. A minority of both job s e e k e r s ( 4 % ) a n d e m p l o ye r s ( 1 1 % ) h a v e d o n e s o i n t h e p a s t b u t would not do it again in the future. At this stage the differences in opinion emerge with the second largest group of job seekers, at 33% never havin g asked for assis tance, and not planning to in the future, v e r s u s t h e s e c o n d s m a l l e s t g r o u p o f e m p l o ye r s a t 2 3 % s h a r i n g t h a t opinion.

Only

22%

of

job

seekers

would

ask

their

personal

c o n n e c t i o n s i n t h e f u t u r e v e r s u s 3 1 % o f e m p l o ye r s .

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Again, should further r esearch be carried out on this topic in the future, this would be an area whi ch could be ex plored further. The p s yc h o l o g y a n d l o g i c b e h i n d t h i s q u e s t i o n m a y p r o v i d e r e s e a r c h e r s with an insi ght into how influential personal connections can be in the workplace.

Fi g u r e R : J o b - S e e k e r s : It ‟ s N o t … K n o w

Fi g u r e S : E mp l o ye r s : It ‟ s N o t . . . Kn o w

When asked the all -impo rtant question about whether o r not „Do you believe that it‟s not what you know but who you know‟ both groups r e s p o n d e d „ Y e s ‟ o v e r w h e l m i n gl y . 7 5 % o f j o b - s e e k e r s a g r e e d a n d a s l i g h t l y s m a l l e r m a j o r i t y o f 6 2 % o f e m p l o ye r s . T h i s a n s w e r t i e d i n with the previous question and the fact that most respondents, e m p l o ye r s a n d j o b s e e k e r s a l i k e h a d p r e v i o u s l y a s k e d , o r w e r e willing

to

ask,

personal

connections

to

help

them

in

findin g

e m p l o ym e n t .

Of the 19% (t w elve) of job seekers who previousl y ans wered that they

have

secured

thei r

most

recent

job

through

a

personal

c o n n e c t i o n , a l l b a r t w o b e l i e v e t h a t ye s , i t i s w h o yo u k n o w r a t h e r t h a n w h a t yo u k n o w t h a t c o u n t s .

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In a t w i s t , t h r e e o f t h e s e r e s p o n d e n t s h a v e a c t u a l l y n o t , n o r w o u l d t h e y, a s k a p e r s o n a l c o n n e c t i o n t o h e l p t h e m s e c u r e a j o b h o w e v e r t h e s e t h r e e d o b e l i e v e t h a t ye s , i t i s a c a s e o f w h o yo u k n o w r a t h e r t h a n w h a t yo u k n o w t h a t c o u n t s w h e n l o o k i n g f o r w o r k . The two respondents who most secured their most recent job through a p e r s o n a l c o n n e c t i o n ye t d o n o t b e l i e v e t h a t i t ‟ s w h o yo u k n o w rather than wh at you know hav e bot h as ked pe rs onal co nnect i on s t o assist them in securing a job and would do so again.

Fi gu re T: J ob - S eek ers : Fri end s

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Fi gu r e U: E mp loyer s : Frie nd s

T h e f i n a l q u e s t i o n a s k e d t o b o t h e m p l o ye r s a n d j o b s e e k e r s w a s about the amount of online connections the y had, versus the amount of fri ends or acquaintances they had offline. Fo r job - seekers, th e m a j o r i t y h a d b e t w e e n t w e n t y a n d f i f t y o f f l i n e f r i e n d s a n d t yp i c a l l y between one and two hundred online connections. E m p l o ye r s h a d m a i n l y l e s s t h a n f i f t y o f f l i n e f r i e n d s a n d m a i n l y o v e r two-hundred and fift y online connections. T h e s e f i g u r e s i n d i c a t e t h a t e m p l o ye r s w e r e m o r e l i k e l y t o h a v e a larger soci al net work than the job-seekers who mainl y fe ll within the a g e g r o u p t w e n t y- s i x t o t h i r t y- f i v e . T h e a g e r a n g e f o r e m p l o ye r s w a s not collected but would be u seful for comparison purposes.

If

conducting this research again, it would be beneficial to clarify the meaning of this question in more detail, to ensure every respondent understands the term

connection,

friend,

acquaintance etc. This

w o u l d a l l o w m o r e d e t a i l e d a n a l ys i s b e c o n d u c t e d .

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Conclusion

The focus of this paper was to evaluate whether or not job -seekers in Ireland

were

interested

in

using

soci al

media

for

recruitm ent

purposes and to see whether th e y believed the adage o f „It‟s not what y o u k n o w , b u t w h o y o u k n o w ‟ . It w a s h o p e d t h a t t h e r e w o u l d b e a l i n k b e t w e e n b e l i e f i n t h e s a yi n g a n d a n i n t e r e s t i n u s i n g s o c i a l media fo r recruitment purposes, proving that job -seekers were usin g both their online and offline connections to assist them in finding e m p l o ym e n t .

W h e n w e l o o k a t t h e r e s u l t s o f t h i s s t u d y, a s a w h o l e i t a p p e a r s t h a t job seekers are cu rrentl y usin g social media to help them in securing new positions and that this figure is set to grow over the next twelve months. Results in actuall y securing a job have not been ver y high to dat e, however this could be due to a number o f factors, not least o f which is the recession whi ch has had a hold over Ireland fo r the last eighteen months and from which we are onl y beginning to emerge.

B y a l a r g e m a j o r i t y, a l l r e s p o n d e n t s b e l i e v e t h a t i t i s w h o yo u k n o w r a t h e r t h a n w h a t yo u k n o w w h i c h m a k e s a d i f f e r e n c e a l t h o u g h t h i s i s not

completel y m i rro red b y the

respondents

behaviour

and

the

convergence bet ween leveraging „online connections‟ and „offline f r i e n d s ‟ h a s n o t h a p p e n e d ye t .

B y looking at several of the key questions in this survey we gain a sense o f user sentiment:  H o w d o yo u f e e l a b o u t b e i n g c o n t a c t e d t h r o u g h s o c i a l m e d i a sites about job vacancies? o 90% generall y positiv e opinion.  D o yo u u s e s o c i a l m e d i a a s a j o b h u n t i n g t o o l ? o 54 % currentl y u se so ci al med ia to aid in job hunting.  D o yo u i n t e n d t o u s e s o c i a l m e d i a a s a j o b h u n t i n g t o o l i n t h e nex t 12 months?

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o 70 % are planni ng on usin g so ci al media in the job hunting process .  H o w d i d yo u s e c u r e yo u r m o s t r e c e n t j o b ? o La r g e s t m a j o r i t y ( 2 7 % ) t h r o u g h r e c r u i t m e n t a g e n c i e s o r career guid ance a nd the second largest majorit y (19% ) through personal connections .  H a v e yo u e v e r a s k e d a f r i e n d / f a m i l y m e m b e r t o h e l p yo u secure a job (u sin g an y personal connections? ) o 63% of job seekers have or would be wil ling to and 71% o f e m p l o ye r s h a v e o r w o u l d b e w i l l i n g t o a s k f r i e n d s a n d family to assist them in securing a job.  D o yo u b e l i e v e t h a t " I t ' s n o t w h a t yo u k n o w , b u t w h o yo u know" that counts when looking for work? o 7 5 % o f j o b s e e k e r s a n d 6 2 % o f e m p l o ye r s b e l i e v e t h a t this

adage is

t rue and that

who

yo u

know is

more

i m p o r t a n t a n d i n f l u e n t i a l t h a n w h a t yo u k n o w .

W i t h t h e r e s p o n s e s t o t h i s s u r v e y, i t i s c o n c e i v a b l e t o b e l i e v e t h a t job

seekers

will

continue

to

adapt

to

using

social

media

in

recruitment and alth ough this may not replace other methods of recruitment, if the trend continues as it is, it will become a ke y job hunting tool in the job -seekers belt.

The research concluded that there was a connection between the b e l i e f t h a t i t ‟ s w h o yo u k n o w r a t h e r t h a n w h a t yo u k n o w w h i c h makes the difference when it comes to job -hunting and a willin gnes s to use social m edia to aid in the job search. This indicates that people are shifting from utilising onl y their offline family and f r i e n d s , a g r o u p w h i c h i s t yp i c a l l y l e s s t h a n f i f t y s t r o n g , t o n o w using th ei r social connections and online friends, a group which t yp i c a l l y c o n s i s t s o f b e t w e e n o n e a n d t w o h u n d r e d i n d i v i d u a l s . B y using this larger online networking group, job -seekers are casting the

net

wider

and

increas in g

their

chances

of

connecting

and

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engagi n g with someone who ma y be in a position to help them secure a job.

The use of social media in recruitment is alread y quit e widesp read in both the UK and the US A and the large multinational corporation s are making strong use of this in other markets with as many as 80% o f c o m p a n i e s i n t h e U S A s t a t i n g t h a t Li n k e d I n i s t h e i r p r i m a r y recruitment

tool

and

organisations

such

as

Brave

New

Talent

i d e n t i f yi n g 1 5 0 0 s u i t a b l e a p p l i c a n t s w i t h n o f i n a n c i a l b u d g e t a t a l l , all through the use of social m edia.

When we take into account the membership figures in Ireland of the main social networking sites, we can see that the majorit y o f the Irish public have readil y emb raced social networkin g. No w we are starting to see the uses of these sit es moving from being purel y a place to keep in touch with famil y an d friends to havin g a much more pro found impact.

In a d d i t i o n t o t h e c h a n g i n g u s e o f s o c i a l m e d i a , o v e r t h e n e x t ye a r o r so, we can ex pect to see a changin g demographic profile of users, with the launch of more smart phones and touch screen devices like t h e i P a d , b o t h a yo u n g e r a n d o l d e r a u d i e n c e c a n b e e x p e c t e d t o b e attracted to use social media.

T h e r e i s m u c h r o o m f o r f u r t h e r r e s e a r c h o n t h i s t o p i c , b o t h i n Ir e l a n d and furth er afield. Research areas could include a more in -depth a n a l ys i s o n t h i s t o p i c , a n e x a m i n a t i o n o f t h e r e l i a n c e c u r r e n t l y a n d ex pected

on

social

media

in

recruitment

by

job -seekers

and

e m p l o ye r s , a s t u d y o f t h e l e v e l a n d t yp e o f j o b s w h i c h s o c i a l recruiting is optimised at and an ex amination of social recruiting amongst the different demographic groups.

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To sum up m y fee lings to wards social media in recruitment and its evolution thus far and still to come: “There is no constant but change, as the saying goes, so much of this will continue to evolve as social networking sites find their role amidst more traditional recruitment methods. In the meantime, it is fascinating to watch the process unfold .” Anne Beitel, Managing Director, Executives Online

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g r o w t h - m e d i a - d i gi t a l - m a r k e t i n g - a n d - s o c i a l - m e d i a - a g e n c y ireland/facebook -statistics-in-ireland-april2010/122621301087647? ref=share# !/notes.php?id=11405611225 6 Executives Online. (2009). Fundamental Shift or Flash -In-The-Pan? Lo n d o n : E x e c u t i v e s O n l i n e . Finders, K. (2009, Jul y 2). www.computerweekly.co m. R etriev ed Jul y 29, 2010, from h t t p : / / w w w . c o m p u t e r w e e k l y. c o m / A r t i c l e s / 2 0 0 9 / 0 7 / 0 2 / 2 3 6 7 4 8 / L inkedIn-saved -Microsoft-16360000 -on-recruitment.htm Gordon, S. (2010, July 21). Facebook Notches Up 500 Million M e m b e r s . R e t r i e v e d J u l y 2 1 , 2 0 1 0 , f r o m w w w . s k yn e w s . c o . u k : h t t p : / / n e w s . s k y. c o m / s k yn e w s / H o m e / B u s i n e s s / F a c e b o o k - H i t s 500-Million-Users-Worldwide-Just-Six-Years -After-MarkZuckerberg-C reat ed It / A r t i c l e / 2 0 1 0 0 7 3 1 5 6 6 8 5 3 1 ? l i d = A R T I C LE _ 1 5 6 6 8 5 3 1 _ F a c e b o o kHits500MillionUsersW orldwideJustSix YearsAfterMarkZu ckerb ergC reatedIt&a Hand, B. (2010). How Many Twitter Users A re T her e in Ireland . R e t r i e v e d f r o m w w w . b a r r yh a n d . i e : h t t p : / / w w w . b a r r yh a n d . i e / b l o g / h o w - m a n y- t w i t t e r - u s e r s - a r e there-in -irel and/ In t e r n e t W o r l d S t a t s . ( 2 0 1 0 ) . I n t e r n e t W o r l d S t a t s ; U s a g e a n d Population Statistics . Retri eved Jul y 25, 2010, from www.intern et wo rldstats.com: http://www.internet worldstats.com/eu/ie.htm accessed Jul y 25th 2010 Jobvite. (2010). 2010 Social Reporting Survey . Retrieved Jul y 5, 2010, from www.jobvite.com: http://recruiting.jobvite.com/resources/social -recruitings u r v e y. p h p Jobvite. (2010). Social Recruiting Survey Results 2010. London. La c y, S . ( 2 0 0 9 ) . T h e F a c e b o o k S t o r y . G r e a t B r i t a i n : C r i m s o n Publishing. 62 | P a g e

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Morris, R. (2010). So ci al Media and Your Business. Business & Finance, June, 58-59. Qualman, E. (2009, July 30). Social Media Revolution: Is Social Media a Fad... Retrieved Jul y 1, 2010, from h t t p : / / w w w . yo u t u b e . c o m / w a t c h ? v = s I F Y P Q j Y h v 8 & f e a t u r e = r e l a t ed Qualman, E. (2009). Socialnomics - How Social Media Transforms t h e W a y W e L i v e a n d D o B u s i n e s s . N e w J e r s e y: J o h n W i l e y a n d Sons Inc. RecruitIreland.com. (2010 ). Google Yo ur Name and See What Comes Up. Retrieved Jul y 1, 2010, from http://www. recruitireland.com/careercentre/PR/Goo gle -YourName-and-S ee-What-/3902 Schonefield, E. (2 010, June 8). Twitter Has 190 Million User s . Retrieved Jul y 21, 2010, from www.techcrunch.com : http://techcrunch.com/2010/06/08/twitter -190 -million-users/ Schroder, S. (2010, June 8 ). Twitter s earch volu me up 33% since April . Retrieved Jul y 21, 2010, from www.mash able.com : http://mashable.com/2010/07/07/twitter -search -growth/ Universal McCann. (2008). Power To Th e People So cial Media T r a c k e r Wa v e 3 . U n i v e r s a l M c C a n n .

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Appendices Appendix I

Question Number 1

Question

Answer

Routing direction

Are you based in Ireland?

Yes / No

2

Are you a job seeker or an employer? (Please choose whichever option is most relevant to your current situation)

Job – seeker / Employer

If answer is ‘No’; skip to Q3, and then Q14, Q16, Q17, Q18, Q19, Q20, Q21, Q22, Q24, Q25, Q28, Q29, Q30 If answer is ‘job-seeker’; proceed to Q3 and then skip to Q12 and ask all remaining questions. If answer is ‘employer’; proceed to Q3 and ask all questions until Q11. After Q11, proceed to Q24, Q25, Q28, Q29, Q30

3

Do you wear a wristwatch?

Yes / No / Occasionally

4

As an employer, which social media sites do you currently use? (Please choose only those which you use in a work capacity)

Bebo / Blogster / Buzznet / Delicious / Facebook / Flickr / Flixster / Friendster / Hi5 / Jaiku / LinkedIn / MySpace / Ning / Twitter / WAYN / Xing / Other

5

How often do you use social media sites for work purposes in an average week? (Please answer in average minutes per week below)

Free - text

6

As an employer, for what purpose do you use social media sites?

For recruitment / To receive ...endorsements / To research ... employees / To connect with ...colleagues / To promote...business / To discuss...expertise / To...share...knowledge / Instead of intranet / To connect ...customers / To share...information / None...Personal use only / Other

7

As an employer, have you ever used social media sites for any of the following reasons?

8

What percentage of staff have you hired through each of the following mediums over the last 12 months? (Please ensure

To advertise a vacancy.../ To background check.../ To verify...employees / To...hire someone / None of above Recruitment Agencies / Social Media Sites / Direct Applicants / Traditional Media... / Online jobs boards

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9

10 11

12

“It‟s not what you know, but who you know”

answers add up to 100%)

/ Referrals

Over the next 12 months, what percentage of staff do you expect to hire through the following mediums? (Please ensure your answers add up to 100%) What is the main sector in which your business operates? Which category would your business mainly fall into? (In Ireland only) Which social media sites do you personally use?

Recruitment Agencies / Social Media Sites / Direct Applicants / Traditional Media... / Online jobs boards / Referrals

13

For what purpose do you personally use social media sites?

14

How long do you spend on social media sites on an average day? What do you think is the main purpose of each of the following sites? (I.e. is it for work use, personal use, both, advertising, young people, etc.) You can answer these even if you do not use each of these sites.

15

16

Have you personally ever used social media sites for any of the following purposes?

17

Have you ever been contacted through social media sites about new job opportunities?

18

How do you feel about being contacted through social media sites about job vacancies?

H.Dip in e-Business

(Multiple sector options) (Multiple options)

Bebo / Blogster / Buzznet / Delicious / Facebook / Flickr / Flixster / Friendster / Hi5 / Jaiku / LinkedIn / MySpace / Ning / Twitter / WAYN / Xing / Other To connect with like-minded people / To find...relationships / To keep in touch with friends / To keep...family / To look for employment / To share...photos / To promote myself individually / Other (Free-text)

(Free-text to fill in answers about Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Blogging sites in general)

To research an organisation.../ To look for vacancies.../ To promote yourself...to secure employment / To speak with...interviewed with / None of the above Yes / No

It’s nice to hear about regardless.../ I prefer to hear about ...in this manner / I expect to be contacted.../

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Jenny Navan

“It‟s not what you know, but who you know”

H.Dip in e-Business

Indifferent / It’s a violation of privacy / It’s unwelcome...sites are for personal use/ If I’ve indicated...I don’t mind/ It’s more convenient than traditional methods... / Other Yes / No

19

Do you use social media as a job hunting tool?

20

Do you intend to use social media as a job hunting tool in the next 12 months?

Yes / No

21

Have you secured employment (or an interview) through the use of social media?

Yes (interview only), Yes (job), No

22

Do you know anyone who has secured a job / interview through the use of social media?

Yes (interview only), Yes (job), No

23

How did you secure your most recent job?

24

Have you ever asked a friend / family member to help you secure a job (using any personal connections?)

Recruitment agency / Headhunted / Social Media / ...advert in (traditional media) / ...advert online jobs board / Applied directly to company / Through personal connection / Other Yes / No / No, but I would in the future / Yes, but I wouldn’t again

25

Do you believe that "It's not what you know, but who you know" that counts when looking for work?

Yes / No

26

What sector do you mainly work in?

(Multiple sector options)

27

Which age bracket do you fall into?

(Multiple options)

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“It‟s not what you know, but who you know”

Jenny Navan

28

29

30

Roughly, how many connections do you have on the social media sites which you use? (Average amongst all of the sites you use will suffice) Roughly, how many friends / acquaintances do you have? By friends, I am including people who you have met in person, and would meet with at least once every 3 months and speak with or contact more regularly? How do you mainly access the internet?

H.Dip in e-Business

(Free – text)

(Free – text)

Desktop / Laptop / Netbook / Smart Phone

Appendix II

CD-Rom with cop y of Thesis and Su rve y Responses att ached on rear cover.

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