7. Social media in Human Resource Management

7. Social media in Human Resource Management

Over the past 10 years, with the rapid emergence of social media platforms, social media usage in Human Resource Management has emerged as a significant area of interest. Traditional HR practices has widely undergone significant changes with the social media influences. Nordstrom (2014) has stated that, “Before internet become widely used, companies had relatively limited possibilities for drawing people’s attention; either they bought costly advertisements or tried to get third-party ink for the media.” This adoption of social media strategies in HRM is not merely a trend, but a strategic response to the evolving expectations of both employers and employees. (Gratton, 2024).

 

Social media usage in pre-employment life cycle stage:

1.   1. Talent acquisition strategy:

Social media usage has become the recruitment process more efficient by allowing organizations to gather more data about candidates, cost saving, reach of higher number of potential candidates etc. However, it is essential to be ethical and legal, ensuring the fairness and privacy protection of candidates and adhering to the laws and regulations.

2.   2. Employer brand strategy:

Organizations can use social media to enhance their brand reputation and show their values and culture to attract more employees since the candidates are more sensitive on their employers brand when applying.

3.  3. Learning and development strategy:

Social media has allowed vast opportunity for employees to get information about the organizations which will affect their decisions on employment.

 

Employment life cycle stage:

1.   1. Engagement strategy:

Social media improves the employee engagement. Tran, 2019 has asserted that in-order to increase the employee engagement, organizations need to create valuable contents in form of behind-the-scenes videos, or inside photos etc.

2.   2. Talent development strategy:

Social media has simplified employee development by enhancing employee development programs and providing more knowledge sharing platforms. Social media has facilitated knowledge sharing by increasing knowledge reuse by employees and by eliminating reliance on rigid organizational structures (Kluemper et al. 2016)

3.   3. Employee relation strategy:

By allowing employees to raise their concerns and communicate with employers, social media platforms can contribute to improve the employee engagement and relations.

4.   4. Compliance strategy:

Organizations need to have rules and regulations to monitor employees’ actions on social media to avoid any abuse. According to Hysa et.al (2015) monitoring the web activities is important and employees need to aware that their actions are observed and any fail of adherence can result disciplinary actions.

 

Social media use in alumni life cycle stage:

1.   1. Collaboration strategy:

Social media can be used in facilitating discussions or online programs with alumni.

2.   2. Engagement strategy:

 

However there are challenges of social media also.

• Reputation of employer brand can damage due to spread of negativity by employees or from other different sources.
• Excessive use of social media at work

 

References:

1.   1. Gratton, T, (2024) Social Media in Human Resource Management - Archival Research based on Secondary Sources in form of Relevant Publications

2.   2. Tran, V. D, (2019) Does Cooperative Learning Increase Students’ Motivation in Learning?, International Journal of Higher Education, 8(5), pp 12 [Online]. Available at https://www.researchgate.net/. Accessed on 05^th November, 2024.

3.   3. Davison, H. K., Bing, M. N., Kluemper, D. H., and Roth, P. L. (2016). Social media as a personnel selection and hiring resource: Reservations and recommendations. In R. N. Landers & G. B. Schmidt (Eds.), Social media in employee selection and recruitment: Theory, practice, and current challenges, pp. 15–42, Springer International Publishing/Springer Nature