3 Research findings
This chapter will introduce and analyse the empirical studies conducted by the author. The interviews will be analysed under the qualitative research sub-chapter, followed by the survey analysis under the quantitative research sub-chapter. This is the supporting data found for this thesis.
3.1 Qualitative Research
Qualitative research was conducted with a single company and two senior recruiting representatives of that company. This consisted of two individual interviews, allowing each interviewee to answer the questions without the influence of the other’s opinion. The interviewees were prepped to know the topic of the interviews, the length of the interviews and the aims of the interview. The author separates the first interviewee respectfully by the label “I1” and the second interviewee by “I2”. I1 has been a recruiter for 8 years and I2 for 5 years. Both recruiters presently work at HERE.
The purpose of the interviews was to focus on the opinions of a large corporation, like HERE, and to find out how recruiters perceive the way the recruitment process is developing and trending. The recruiters recruit for two separate fields (I1 for marketing positions and I2 for technical positions like software engineers) at HERE, allowing their feelings to differ towards social recruiting. As a survey was being distributed, the author felt that only one company was needed to find empirical studies to support the thesis and that multiple opinions were not needed.
3.1.1 Company Profile: HERE
HERE is the cartography company owned by Nokia. Established in 2012, HERE employs around 6,000 employees, with an international presence around the globe. HERE was chosen the representative as a large corporation, because the author had worked for HERE for a six month mandatory internship for school. Therefore, these were former colleagues of the author who volunteered to take part.
3.1.2 Interview structure
The interviews were formulated using a semi-structured and in-depth method. The questions designed for the interviews were arranged to focus the interviewee on the study’s purpose. Each question was formed to get a specific response from the interviewee without setting a limitation. All of the questions asked during the interview are shown in Appendix I, on page 46. The interviews were conducted on 23 July 2014 and took approximately 45 minutes, face-to-face.
3.1.3 Searching for candidates
In the beginning, the author wanted to find out what the Senior Recruiters knew about recruiting and how they conducted recruitment activities. As both recruiters recruit for different areas of expertise, the answers were expected to be varied. Each interviewee had different approaches to the question, “How do you search for candidates?” but concluded with similar methods. Much like other companies today that have managed to adapt and modify their talent acquisition to today’s recruitment trends, HERE utilises the Internet as a striving tool for recruiting. The preferred channel of attracting and procuring potential employees are through the Internet, utilising the corporate career’s site, job boards, and social media. Naturally, the search depends on what the level of seniority of the position is and the requirements of the job.
I1 remarked that “searching for candidates can be conducted actively or passively”. Those who are actively searching for a job will be easily attainable if the vacancy and company is represented on social media. This would indicate that the recruiters need to be already present in the digital world. Today, companies across the globe are adopting social recruiting into their daily recruiting practices. According to Jobvite (2013), “94% of recruiters in the United States use or plan to use social media in their recruitment practices”.
Passive candidates are those who may have a job already and are not searching for a new one, at the time. These candidates are reachable through postings on job boards, social media and employee referrals. Both interviewees agreed that employee referrals are valuable sources of hiring. Jobvite (2014) found that 64% of recruiters surveyed in their 2014 Job Seeker Nation Report felt candidates of “high quality” came from a personal connection. Four out of 10 job seekers felt this was the way of finding their “favourite” or “best” job, as well.
The best candidates are typically coming through referrals directly from employees. People know the strengths of their peers, they know their background and they would only refer them if they are a good match to the company. Therefore, it’s an excellent preselection. It also shows that employees are appreciating the company culture and
consider it a great place to work for. (I2, 2014)
3.1.4 Advantages and challenges
Whilst employee referrals are the most preferred, searching for candidates through online channels is the next preferred method. There is no better way to attract candidates than to find them proactively through the Internet. The advantages outweigh the challenges; it was brought to the attention of the author during the interviews that there were not disadvantages but challenges. The interviewees gave what their thoughts on the advantages and challenges were, as shown in Table 4:
Table 4. The advantages and challenges of E-recruitment as provided from I1 and I2, 2014.
Advantages Challenges
- Easier to share profiles with colleagues
- Communication is quicker
- Efficiency
- Lower costs
- Reporting is easier
- E-recruiting can be more anonymous than traditional recruitment
- Overall, saves you time - A lot more CVs are received o More difficult to keep one profile in mind
- Expectations from candidates’ wants o Faster feedback
o Availability of recruiters
- More competition o “War for Talent”
- Candidates not present online
The advantages align with Carolien Handlogten’s (2009) list of advantages of Erecruitment as reported in Chapter 2 Literature Review. The challenges are an interesting feed, as we can see that the generations are changing the way recruiting is performed and conducted. Generation Y understands the technology and prefer E-mail and digital media applications, like Taleo . For those who are not on-board with the latest trends, it is up to the recruiter to provide personal contact through phone calls or connecting on social media. Candidates now expect recruiters to be focused only on them, thus, a faster response time. There are the challenging cases where candidates are not present on any social media network.
However, this is also where job fairs come into play. Though job fairs are still a traditional method of recruitment, they still fall relevant for companies today. This allows those who are not available online or comfortable with applying through the internet, a chance to see what opportunities are there and to network in person.
Recruitment is a personal business. Therefore, it is absolutely crucial that you meet people directly – that you have direct conversations, ideally face-to-face. No social media channel can replace that. (I2, 2014)
3.1.5 Shorter application cycle; same recruitment process
The common recruiting practices today have shortened the application cycle but not the recruitment process. The interviewees pointed out that they use SM for networking and industry news mainly, and use career networks and HERE’s corporate website for recruiting purposes. With the amount of CVs received, it is difficult to keep one particular profile in mind, which slows down the process on the recruiter’s side just slightly. When asked how long it takes for the process to begin between the recruiter and the candidate, I1 said, “There are a lot of dependencies on how quick the candidates get back to you.” One of those is the current status of the company in the media; if recent bad news has arisen, candidates may be put off from responding to job ads and E-mails. The second one was referred to as “the nature of the position”. This could be the seniority level or the level of need (availability to start, specific job skills). Other than these, “you can say it takes around a week maximum before a candidate gets back to you”.
3.1.6 SM hindering the chances of hire
As the interview was split in to three different sections, for the ease of analysing, it was a direct hit to find out how the recruiters felt about SM and the hiring decision. It was asked of the interviewee if SM hinders the applicant’s chances of being chosen. Each interviewee agreed that it has not ever hindered a candidate of their responsibility from being hired as they do not take time to check the profiles. When given the options about having drunken photos, racism or vocal political stances present; the responses were interesting. Both interviewees felt that candidates are expected to have a private life and drinking was not a crime. Neither would penalise a candidate for having drunken photos, but would need to consider the second two in the equation. Racism was a direct no-go and strong political stances that did not agree with the company would have to be considered.
A follow-up question asked how the assessment for candidates that did not have a social media network would work. I1 said it would not affect the hiring decision. I1 provided the example of lawyers and associates and the lack of use Twitter was for them. On the other hand, I2 said it would depend on the position applying.
It depends on the job that they are applying for. I would rather not hire any recruiter, for instance, that does not have a social media profile. I cannot imagine that they would be able to do the job the way we’re doing it right now; but in other jobs, where it’s not usual and not necessary to connect with many people, then that’s surely fine. (I2, 2014)
The interviews were concluded with the question “what predictions do you have for the future of recruiting? Do you think recruitment will continue to be outsourced by companies or will they become more in-house?” The responses were quite similar. Both mentioned that companies will be moving the talent acquisition back to in-house recruitment and that “War for Talent” will continue to have a large impact on the recruiting methods. It is more attractive for candidates to have an in-house recruiter approach them and for the aftermath, when the candidate joins the company.
3.2 Quantitative Research
3.2.1 Questionnaire Design
The author chose to support the study by conducting an online questionnaire. This is convenient, short and efficient for collecting data. The questionnaire was designed to allow respondents to find a suitable answer that best fit their opinion. Majority of the questions were closed questions, leaving room for only two open-end questions. The closed questions varied of different scales (e.g. likert scales) and multiple choices (e.g. yes or no). All of the questions were set to be mandatory to answer; thus, a participant could not skip a question without abandoning the questionnaire. The purpose for this was that all the questions had importance to the next, and if one question was skipped, some of the relevance would be lost in the survey.
The questionnaire was hosted on esurveycreator.com where no survey software was required. When analysing the data, the author used Microsoft Excel for statistical analysis. The full questionnaire can be seen in Appendix II on page 47.
The survey was distributed through two different social media (Facebook and Twitter) to reach a wider audience than what a paper survey could reach. The target intended for the survey was for job seekers and/or social media users. Initially, there were 113 participants who began the survey. 13 submissions were eliminated from the study as they had not completed the survey entirely and 17 were eliminated due to a survey error, causing lack of information. In the end, the questionnaire was thoroughly completed by 83 participants.
It is important to note that the author had selected the known social media for its popularity. To keep the social medias as representative as possible to all types of social media, the author chose LinkedIn, XING, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube,
Pinterest and Tumblr. LinkedIn and XING both covered the professional career networks. Facebook, Twitter and Google+ represented the community based social media networks. Pinterest, a new different style of social media, focused on hobby and projects that people can share to others. Lastly, Tumblr was the representative for blogs. These media were chosen from previous recruitment trending researches.
3.2.2 Demographics
Of the 83 participants, 33 (39%) were male and 50 (61%) were female. Illustrated in Figure 4, a breakdown of the ages of all 83 participants can be seen. Five out of the six age groups were represented from the survey, the majority (48%) being from ages 25 to 34. Much to the author’s surprise, there were more respondents between the ages 55 to 64 than the two age groups containing ages 35 to 44 and 45 to 54. The 55 to 64 age group represent the Baby Boomers generation. Despite not being born of the “digital era”, they have established to make a presence on a social media network.
These participants are located in different parts of the world. North America and Europe were mainly represented: USA(18), Canada(12), Finland(23), Germany(11), United Kingdom(11), and other European countries had one or two representatives. The first wave of response reflects the author’s primary contacts, followed by secondary additions of the social media ‘sharing’ process.
3.2.3 Employment
It was discovered that 73 (88%) of the participants were currently employed or had been in the past three years. The follow-up question asked how they had found their current job. In Figure 5 below, a bar graph is used to demonstrate the different methods of how each participant who answered found or heard about their job. This question was a multiple choice question; it is fair to mention that more than one answer was able to be selected. A tremendous discovery with this question was that WoM (Word of Mouth) or referrals had more than expected responses with 41%. This result appears to have no effect on E-recruitment, the research’s focus. The second most response was the option, “Other”. This option gave the participants a chance to fill out with their own words other job finding. The open responses were rather askew and random. The most occurrences (7) were through University or school related activities. The others were family and friends(3), from the internet: search engine, Craigslist, and sector-specific job site (3), created my own position(2), job fair(2), recruited by employer(1), and lastly, walk-in(1). The interesting similarities about these are that they are following a network pattern.
Figure 5. Different methods that were used to find a job.
3.2.4 Social media usage
When asked about the time spent on social media, the vast majority (59%) mentioned they spent one hour or more. As previously mentioned, 94% of recruiters are actively searching on social media, one can approach the idea that these participants have a high possibility of finding a new job opportunity through the internet, despite whether they currently were employed or not. The idea of this question was to mould together the next few questions that were asking about what type of social media networks the participants belonged to and how often did they used them.
In Figure 6, it can be seen which social media networks are actively in use. Facebook has an unarguably high activity from the participants compared to the other social media networks, followed by YouTube and Twitter. Jobvite found in 2013 that Facebook is 65% of recruiters’ top social networks choice for recruiting; YouTube followed with 15% and Twitter with 55%. To compare this data, it is interesting to note that Facebook and YouTube do not have a higher usage rating from recruiters.
Figure 6. The amount of uses of different social media networks.
3.2.5 Twitter versus Facebook
These two social media have many reasons for why they are comparable. They both are a community based network. These networks strive on the fact that people have other people with which to communicate, network and share. Without this capability, the media would be deemed as useless as the SMN SixDegrees.com found (Boyd & Ellison,
2007). This research has found some interesting comparisons between these two media. Firstly, these media are used for different functions. Twitter’s greatest use for 41% of the participants is for news and articles. Facebook’s greatest use is for photos and videos, but followed quite closely for messaging. Secondly, the number of users that use either media for networking is considerably low, especially when the factor of existence of these media is for networking with others. Thirdly, it is interesting to see that hardly any of the participants use Twitter or Facebook as a source of job searching. The results from this study find that only 4% of Twitter users and 2% of Facebook users utilise these media for job searching. A comparison between the two social mediums is illustrated in Figure 7 on page 32.
Twitter
News and
articles
Messaging
4%
Photos and videos Job
Searching
Networking Facebook
2% News and
articles
Messaging
Photos and videos Job
Searching
Networking
Figure 7. A comparison of survey results between Twitter and Facebook usages.
Because of this low percentage, the author thought how interesting it would be to compare the companies who utilise these two mediums for candidate recruiting sourcing to these low percentages. Though the survey conducted by the author had a considerably low sample for making assumptions for a population, it is worthy to note that these recruiters who utilise these social networks for recruiting may consider researching what audience truly receive their postings.
3.2.6 LinkedIn versus XING
The two chosen career networks were LinkedIn and XING. LinkedIn appeared to have an overpowering advantage over XING. A comparison of these two networks is unnecessary because of impartial respondents. From the question, “How often do you use the following social media networks”, you could see that over 80% did not use XING. This could be due to the case of having more than one professional website would mean more work for up keeping and updating; or simply not many of the participants had heard of XING as it a regional career network. There were 32 respondents who do not have a LinkedIn account, which accounts for 38.5% of the 83 total respondents. However, it is important to see that the most uses for LinkedIn and XING from the respondents that did respond use these mediums for networking and job searching mainly. Table 5 on page 33 indicates what the 83 respondents responded to each activity for LinkedIn and XING. The importance of career networks for companies is that they can access potential employees who are looking or may be looking for a new career.
Table 5. LinkedIn and XING’s responses for “What do you use the following social media networks for? (Select all that apply.)”
News &
Articles Messaging Photos & Videos Job
Searching Networking N/A
LinkedIn 23 15 3 38 41 32
XING 1 2 0 7 7 74
The results for the rest of the mediums can be seen in Appendix III on page 50.
3.2.7 Traditional versus online job applying
The comparison between those who have applied for a job through traditional means (finding a job through newspapers, employment offices, temporary agencies, helpwanted posters) and those who have applied for a job through a social media network (finding a job on LinkedIn or Facebook then applying through an electronic channel) differ greatly. Figure 8 lists the responses for the two questions regarding applying for a job through traditional and online channels. 80% of the participants have found a job through traditional means whereas only 32% of the participants have applied through an online channel. It was intriguing to see that 26 respondents said they have applied for a job using both traditional and online channels.
Have you ever applied for a job that you found through...

70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Traditional Online Both
yes no
Figure 8. The comparison between the traditional applying and online applying for jobs questions.
The questions did not offer a “both” option because they were split questions, however, it was made possible for participants to select “yes” and “no” on both questions. In the figure above, it is illustrated under “Both”. The author pondered about the responses that said no to both, this totalled to 11 out of the 83 respondents. After exploring to see if the reasoning behind this was due to never having a job, however, the author did not find a correlation. Each respondent that answered no to both questions said they were either currently employed or have had a job within the last three years. The next reasoning that could be behind these responses is that they have never had to apply for their work; perhaps working at a family business or was passively recruited for their role. There is also a possibility that the respondents misunderstood each question.
3.2.8 Job searching – preferred online channel
As a part of the survey, there were two open questions. One of them asked participants, “If you were job searching today, which online channel would you most prefer and why?” Some of the responses were quite vigorous and others were straight to the point.
Majority of the responses (around 40 responses) supported career networks like
LinkedIn and XING. The least mentioned channels were newspaper companies and
Twitter. Since the statistics from this survey have thus far pointed out that Twitter is a long way from participants’ choice of channel for job searching, this is not a surprise.
There were a few responses that intrigued the author. At least three participants mentioned that they would use Craigslist as a source for searching for jobs. Craigslist is forum for classifieds where one may post advertisements for practically anything, ranging from: services, jobs, housing, and items for sale to romance. As a place where there are no rules and official accounts, one must remember to beware of the scams and misleading articles posted on the website.
The question had specifically asked which online channel was preferred; seven responses stated they would prefer face-to-face applications, phone applications, and even the traditional hard copy application.
One response had a strong opinion about the use of online job searching:
I would like to be able to access HR departments personally and face a person one on one. I think that it becomes a lottery for jobs through computer sifting through countless CV’s and choosing by filters that aren’t public knowledge. (Participant, 2014)
Another respondent agreed, feeling that online forms are the bane of the 21st century job searching.
[I would prefer] direct human contact with the company in question either by phone or meeting. Everything else wastes every else’s time and effort. Company’s presence in [a] career network site should immediately transfer into available human resources to meet applicants. Passive presence and online forms are the bane of the 21st century job searching. (Participant, 2014)
After reading these responses, the author became quite curious about what generation each belonged to. The first opinion belonged to a 55 to 64 year old, who would fall into the Baby Boomers generation. As stated in Chapter 6, the Baby Boomers have a more face-to-face communication style. After knowing this fact, it is expected of a person born in this era to feel this way about today’s recruiting styles. What truly became intriguing is that the latter opinion was commented from the 25 to 34 years old category, a Gen Y digital world native. This response, however, contradicts the responses later used in this particular participant’s survey. When asked, “How do you feel most comfortable applying for a job?” this participant said the traditional method of applying is their least preferred.
Of course, there were responses that did not agree with these responses. There was one response that covered the opinions of many and holds a strong stance against the traditional recruitment process:
I prefer to use LinkedIn. I find LinkedIn most beneficial with the job search process because it provides you with a lot more details about a position and company. You also have access to how many other people applied to the same position, what your ranking is compared to your competition…, and whether anyone interested has viewed your profile. …LinkedIn is also a great way to connect with people you went to school with, previously worked for/with, and friends. You get up to date feed with what everyone is currently up to (career wise) and this is a great gateway for using the referral/word of mouth method in your job search. (Participant, 2014)
As the trends of recruiting have moved deeply into social media, it is wise to catch up with these trends. Newspapers print advertisements have no room in the competitive spectrum of attracting candidates. Today, with the amount of Internet users and the movement of technology, joining the popular scenes for recruitment will support the job search.
3.2.9 Job searching – using SMN?
As a concluding question for the survey, the author asked if the participants would use social media networks to find employment and why. Figure 9 below gives a visual comparison of the responses. It was not a surprise to see that majority (70%) of them said yes they would. There were 7% that said maybe and 4% were unsure.
Figure 9. Responses to using social media to find employment.
The author found that the responses for this open question also supported the responses for the likert scale question, the second to last question. Three statements were “SMNs has helped me find a job quicker than traditional channels”, “SMNs helped my decision-making about a job” and “I think SMNs make job searching easier than traditional channels.” Surprisingly, the responses were more positive than negative; these responses are illustrated in Figure 10 (page 37). One comment was supporting the use of social media for job searching; however, felt it depended on the job sector:
I will continue to use social media to look for employment. I feel a company is up to date if they show that they post openings also online, and keep their available positions current. Depending on the job I want, it depends on how I look. For mall jobs and restaurant jobs, walking in after seeing a hiring sign is acceptable and Ive gotten interviews faster that way since I was able to establish a quick connection with the manager during my search and I give them my CV right then and there. While applying online, you never know if they actually seen your CV or took the time to even open it. I know that since Im looking for office jobs, they are not posting hiring signs in the office and there are so many offices, its nice to see them all in one spot online. If companies want to be known, they have to be present online because if they arent, I think people won’t know about them and the fact they are hiring or even know such a curtain business exist. (Participant, 2014)
Figure 10. Comparison of agreements between three statements asked in Question 11 of survey.
Despite the positive and neutral feelings about the previous statements, the reasoning behind the 19% that said no was unexpected; it was the fact that there were responses that stated their job sector was hardly advertised on social media. Note: Only a few of the responses said that they were retiring soon. Without clarifying which job sector that is, one can only consider that it is a career that searches for a niche sector or a sector that searches for part-time or unskilled labour.
Others were concerned about the lack of privacy SM provides:
No, because I do not want my employer to -spy- on me through [SM], e.g. Facebook. 1. Employers fire people due to posts on social media, so as soon as I would find out that my employer has a Social Media account, I would block him/her to prevent further scrutiny. 2. What I do in my free time, is none of my bosses business, so I try to keep social media/work related stuff separate. (Participant, 2014)
There is a valid concern behind “employers spying” or “judging one” from their social media behaviour. Jobvite (2013) found that 93% of recruiters are likely to look at a candidate’s social media profile with 42% reconsidering their decisions based on content viewed on a candidate’s social media profile, in positive and negative reassessments. In Figure 11 illustrates Jobvite results of each situation by positive, neutral and negative ratings. The results were intriguing as they support what the respondent from the author’s survey was concerned about.
Figure 11. Question asked how a recruiter would react to content on a social network profile in Jobvite’s Social Recruiting Survey (2013).
In the likert scale, two of the statements were referring to social media hindering the participant’s chances of hire and whether they censored content on social media to avoid future career problems. The results are graphed in Figure 12 below.
Figure 12. How participants felt about the statements “SMNs has hindered my chances of getting hired.” and “I censor my content in order to avoid future career problems.” in question 11.
In a fair assessment, the participants were not concerned that they have been judged wrongly for their social media networks, which correlates strongly with the fact that they censor their content on social media.
4 Conclusion
This paper provides an exploratory study of the recruitment process and the influence social media networks provoke. The purpose was to investigate how the recruitment process has evolved from the traditional paper-based process to the modern day recruitment process with E-recruitment. The author concentrated on two point-of-views:
recruiters and job seekers. The objective was to find how each side perceived the current trends and the effect on job search today.
The research was based from three hypotheses:
H1: Traditional recruitment is disappearing behind the scenes of E-recruitment.
H2: Social media is shortening the application cycle.
H3: Social media is hindering the applicant’s chances of hire.
With these three hypotheses in mind, the results from the qualitative and the quantitative researches were interesting. Firstly, traditional recruitment has not completely disappeared behind the scenes of E-recruitment. There are still traditional methods, i.e. job fairs that still remain highly viable and important in recruitment. Though newspaper ads are losing purpose in recruitment, word of mouth and referrals were found to still be successful and going strong. The personal connection between candidates and recruiters is still essential for the success of an application but establishing a personal connection without face-to-face contact is challenging. Erecruitment is the present and the future of recruitment; however, some aspects of traditional recruitment are here to stay.
Social media unquestionably shortens the application cycle. This does not affect the recruitment process as potential employees are quick to respond to adverts. They are able to feel confident and understand the technology used by recruitment websites. On the other hand, recruiters are able to communicate easily and quicker with potential employees, thus reassuring the candidate of the company integrity. The recruitment process still processes through all of the stages in E-recruiting, same as one who applies by the traditional means. In a world where technology is constantly changing and improving, one can foresee the recruitment process becoming more digital and less personal interactive. This could influence a shorter recruitment process, a shorter application cycle and less administration for recruiters.
Lastly, measuring if social media hinders the applicant’s chances of hire was difficult. Past studies with recruiters have found that recruiters are likely to look at SM profiles, with less than half utilising the content in decision making (Jobvite, 2013). The recruiters interviewed from HERE stated that they do not make it a practice to review SM profiles. While it is not a practice, they mentioned was the situation to arise, offensive content like racism and strong political stances would have an influence on the application process. Participants of the quantitative research felt they were not affected by their social media profile during job searching. Though, it was noted that most (52%) censor their content to avoid career problems.
4.1 Limitations
The analysis of the results warranted interesting discoveries; however, the sample size and reach were not large enough for a reliable census. Officially 113 respondents responded to the survey, however, only 83 of those responses were valid for consideration. This sample size can be seen as a full representation of social recruiting and job seekers; this survey is only a thumbnail of how the recruitment trend is currently moving. This study was only distributed through two social media networks, and not distributed through other means, which relied on participating respondents to forward the survey through E-mail or other means than SM. Naturally, this hindered the results to only those who use SM. There was a time constraint for the research. This limits the amount of participants for the survey, contributing to the lack of sample. Were there another study for this topic, a larger time duration and alternative distribution methods would be recommended for a wider range of responses.
There were faults in the mechanics of the survey, restraining the results from properly analysing; found after the survey closed. If a participant had answered “no” to a particular question, the survey came to an end; thanking the participant for their participation. This skipped over the demographics section, thus making those submissions less valuable. This limits the author in comparing those who did not have a social media network profile with the demographics to see if there was a correlation.
Another limitation for this study is the lack of information. As E-recruitment is a new phenomenon, there is not a widespread of empirical studies, confining the studies to be opinionated to the first investigators. The unfolding of this topic as more studies are explored will show how recruitment behaviour will develop over the years.
Though there were such limitations, the author wishes to note that the research conducted and the resulting analysis as a valuable exploration.
4.2 Future research
Further research examining the cultural differences should be carried out to discover how culture affects the applicant’s choice of job search channel. In addition, research searching to reluctance to use of social media could be investigated. This would have a positive outlook for the trends of recruitment. As the rollercoaster of electronic practises picks up speed, the faster changes will evolve in the recruitment process and the face of HRM will be unrecognisable.

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Appendices
Appendix I. Interview questions
1. What is your [current] role?
2. How long have you been a recruiter?
3. How do you search for candidates?
4. This is how you do [recruit] in your work place?
5. Is that how your method has been or is this how your company wants it done?
6. Do you use social media to network as well or is it just for E-recruiting?
7. How long do you search for candidates through social networks? For example, how long does it take you to find a candidate for a role? Do you ever approach candidates about a job because their profile is ideal for what you’re looking for and how long does that take you approximately through social media?
8. What do you find are the advantages of e-recruiting?
9. And what about the disadvantages?
10. Are there any limits to E-recruiting? Does it limit you to what you can find? Do you find the best candidates this way?
11. How do you think the applicant satisfaction is with e-recruitment? Do you think applicants enjoy/prefer to do job searching through the internet or do you think they’d prefer to do the traditional way of sending in CVs and cover letters through mail?
12. What are the trends of recruiting in general?
13. How are today’s recruiting styles clashing with traditional recruiting styles? Do you find there are any differences or do you think it’s the same as 10 years ago? For example, gathering CV’s from the mailboxes, sorting them, etc.
14. Do you still receive any traditional CVs? And if so, do you still accept them?
15. Do you use local newspaper ads?
16. In your opinion, do you think that Social Media shortens the application process?
17. And does it skip any of the typical recruiting process steps?
18. Because you do e-recruitment, do you still prefer to have cover letters to go along with the application?
19. Has Social Media ever hindered an applicant’s chances of getting hired at your company?
20. So if a candidate doesn’t have social media – Twitter or LinkedIn – that doesn’t necessarily mean that person won’t get hired?
21. If a candidate has poor choice of content on their social media profile, would that hinder their chances of getting hired? For example, having drunken pictures, posts against a certain policy in the world, or bashing their previous employer?
22. To wrap up the interview, what predictions do you have for the future of recruiting? Do you think it will continue to be outsourced more or do you think companies are starting to see the real need to keep recruiting in-house?
Appendix II. Survey questionnaire
Appendix III. The usage results of each social media network.
This table is for reference for page 32 of this thesis.
News &
Articles Messaging Photos & Videos Job
Searching Networking N/A
LinkedIn 23 15 3 38 41 32
Google+ 10 10 11 1 8 61
Xing 1 2 0 7 7 74
Tumblr 3 1 17 0 2 66
YouTube 11 1 72 0 2 10
Pinterest 7 1 21 1 5 57
Twitter 33 15 13 3 17 40
Facebook 60 73 73 5 54 3