Social Media Use at Human Resource Management: The HRM Performance Effect
Social Media Use at Human Resource Management: The HRM Performance Effect
Social Media Use at Human Resource Management: The HRM Performance Effect
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ISMC 2017
th
13 International Strategic Management Conference
SOCIAL MEDIA USE AT HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT:
THE HRM PERFORMANCE EFFECT
Pelin Vardarlıer (a)* , & Mehtap Özşahin (b)
* Corresponding author
Abstract
Presence of qualified personnel is the main key for the productivity and performances of the enterprises.
Thus, discovering and selecting the staff with the required qualifications and quantities have constituted
the primary priority of HRM. Staffing process, covering the activities of attracting and selecting
individuals for positions, has been affected by development of the technology. Today internet becomes
one of the first places for application of the job seekers and the recruiters. Except interviewing process,
social media has been effectively used almost in all the processes of staffing as like candidate pool,
creation of social network, interview and reference investigation. However, there is very limited quantity
of data and literature knowledge to compare the impacts of usage of social media since the practical
results at this field have just been formed recently. In this context, this survey aimed to examine the
impact of social media usage frequency at human resource management (SMU@HRM) –specifically at
staffing process (SMU@HRM-Staffing)- on the HRM performance. To reveal the relationship between
those two construct, SMU@HRM-Staffing and HRM performance, a field survey using questionnaires
was conducted on human resource managers of 386 firms operating in manufacturing and service industry
in Turkey. Descriptive analysis, exploratory factor analysis, reliability analysis, correlation and regression
analyses have been conducted on data obtained from 374 complete questionnaires. Analyses results
revealed that social media usage frequency at HRM-Staffing process affected HRM performance in a
positive way.
1. Introduction
High competition and prompt changing environment have been characteristics of today’s business
world. In this world, qualified human source is one of the leading strategic sources enabling the
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0
Unported License, permitting all non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is
properly cited.
http://dx.doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2017.12.02.11
Corresponding Author: Pelin Vardarlıer
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committee of the conference
eISSN: 2357-1330
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eISSN: 2357-1330
Staffing is an activity to find the candidates for newly opened or vacant positions. It includes
selection and placement activities such as forming job applications required for the vacant positions,
accessing to the candidates, elimination of these candidates, and selection of the candidate having the
required qualifications (Guncaglayan, 2007). The main aim of the recruitment process is to provide
sustainability of the organizational activities by means of its available methods and applications in the
competitive environment. The first step in staffing is to determine strategies of recruitment. After the plan
on where and how and in which way is staff will be find out, investigation is made accordingly
(Sabuncuoglu, 2000)
The enterprises apply to internal and external sources in order to meet the staff need. Internal
source means the existing employees. In case that supply of personnel is materialized through internal
sources, records, performance assessments, and labour inventories are taken into consideration. The
importance of closing out the newly formed positions by utilization of the internal sources of the
enterprise can be stated as finalization of this process in a short period of time, accessing the candidates
easily, and showing the other employees that there is a possibility of carrier growth within the enterprise
(Cetin, & Dinç-Özcan, 2014). In case that there are no such personnel having the required qualifications
at the enterprise, external source is mandatorily used (Sabuncuoglu, 2000).
Recruitment processes covering the need of human resource for the enterprises have also been
transformed with the wider use of internet. Before the invention of internet the announcement of a
vacancy had been traditionally carried via daily newspapers, announcement boards, and carrier days but
today internet becomes one of the first places for application of the job seekers and the recruiters (Jansen
et al., 2005). Many internet sites have come into operation; LinkedIn, Twitter and also other social
networking sites are also used for the purpose of recruitment and job searches (Jacques, 2009)
The huge success of social media is currently challenging organizations by requiring them to
rethink their human resources management practices, specifically their staffing activities (Martin,
Reddington, and Kneafsey, 2009). Except interviewing process, social media has been effectively used
almost in all the processes of staffing as like candidate pool, creation of social network, interview and
reference investigation.
The most efficient way to add the qualified job seekers into the candidate pool is the effective
announcement and advertisement within the first stage of staffing, formation of candidate pool. The
main objective of job announcement is to access the target audience for success. Here the integration of
social networks incorporated into system enables accessing a lot of candidates over job search portals
and interne, making easier for a candidate’s application process, and enhancing the quality and quantity
characteristics of the candidate pool. On the other hand, enterprises may add various tests and
questionnaires to their web based announcements by means of links and interconnections. These tests and
questionnaires assess the candidates’ decision making techniques, their behaviours to be shown in
different situations, their point of views, and their abilities for critical thinking and for acting, and these
results can be used in interviews. Aim of this application is to assess the degree of matching between the
corporate culture and the candidate’s behaviours (Oksuz, 2011).
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Corresponding Author: Pelin Vardarlıer
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committee of the conference
eISSN: 2357-1330
Staffing process proceeds with accessing proper candidates with required knowledge, ability and
qualification by utilising social networks, then continues with invitation to the interview. Interview
process is completed by the selection of the most appropriate candidate within the held interviews and the
assessment of the department executive who needs the candidate. The information given by the candidate
during the interview shall be subject to the cross-control by means of reference investigation. In this
control process, an assessment is made for the candidate’s relations with superiors, subordinates and other
peripheral departments, job performances, reason of leave, wage information, and achievement regarding
the job in the previous experience: and then the information provided by the candidate in the interview or
in the application forms are matched with those information obtained from reference check of previous
job experience (Ibicioglu, 2006). Candidates' reference investigation on past work experience reinforces
all the information obtained about the candidate and makes a proper choice (Ozgen, and Yalcin 2010).
Although it is argued whether consideration of information based on the social media platforms such as
Facebook and Instagram is ethical or not during recruitment decision, social media has been used during
reference investigation process by a lot of large scale companies as part of recruitment process especially
for white collar candidates. As in the cases of other processes, one of the reasons to use social media
frequently in the reference investigation is that the candidates are more honest in their profiles published
open-to-all in the social media platforms such as LinkedIn. It was revealed that the resumes in LinkedIn
contain less lies according to the study made by the Cornell University on this subject (Culculoglu, 2013).
The reason of this honesty here is that misleading information written in these profiles published as open-
to-all could also be noticed by the colleagues or the reference persons. This provides also great
advantages for the companies seeking an employee (Culculoglu, 2013).
According to a research made in the U.S.A, 90 % of the job seekers believe that their social media
accounts are checked prior to the companies’ invitation to the interview or job proposal (Koetsier, 2012).
Indeed, 98% of the companies in U.S. check the social media sites during their personnel selection
process as per the report published by the Research Company of Bullhorn. According to research data,
LinkedIn is placed with 98% in the search, and after LinkedIn, Facebook with 51% is followed. As for
Twitter, it is placed at the 3rd rank with 49% (Culculoglu, 2013).
LinkedIn enabling business connections by creation of a detailed resume or company page is a
social network focusing on business world with a fast growth in Turkey and in the world. As of May
2009 it was hosting 40 million registered users and over 170 business sectors, and today it became the
biggest social network tool with approximately 500 million users
(http://webrazzi.com/2013/05/06/linkedin-10-yil/). LinkedIn profiles provide important information on
the users’ business backgrounds, their connections in the business world, and their activities in business
environments. The whole of these data may affect positively or negatively in the decision making process
of a person recruitment. At this context, it has been researched in this study that usage frequency of
LinkedIn, one of the social media network and the platform most often used in business world at the
staffing process out of HRM processes, and its impacts on HRM performance.
There is very limited quantity of data and literature knowledge to compare the impacts of usage of
social media since the practical results at this field have just been formed recently (Sozer, 2013). Another
issue in this field is measurement problem of effectiveness and productivity of social media use in HRM
(unlike usage in the sales and marketing field). As a matter of fact, in this study, investigating the
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http://dx.doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2017.12.02.11
Corresponding Author: Pelin Vardarlıer
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committee of the conference
eISSN: 2357-1330
relationship between usage frequency of social media tool (LinkedIn) and effectiveness and productivity
of HRM (namely HRM performance), a non-numerical method has been executed to measure HRM
performance, and respondents were asked whether they agree or disagree with the statements about the
contribution of social media use to decrease of recruitment costs, increase of quality and diversity of
candidate pool, decrease of job leaving rate, increasing the efficiency of the company, and increasing the
company's recognition in the terms of establishing the employer brand. Consequently this measurement
based on the opinions and convictions of the respondents has been focused on the qualitative aspect of
HRM performance.
Most studies on social media use in the past decade have focused on the impact of social media on
enterprise performance. For example, Evans, in his survey in 2010, tackled the transition of social media
from Web 1.0, where users can view only internet sites, to second generation Web 2.0, where they can
interactively contribute content, and the impact of these transitions on performance businesses.
In the researches related to the use of social media in HRM, the usage of virtual social networks
out of social media tools in the process of recruitment is mainly examined topic (Kluemper, & Rosen,
2009; Capa 2011; Arthur, 2012; Culculoglu, 2013; Oz, Keklik ve Kilic 2015). A study, conducted by
Rees in 1966-before the invention of internet, has revealed that recruitment through social networks
decreases the personnel circulation and increases the quality (Rees, 1966). Parallel to Rees, Lin et al
(1981), after describing closed and off-line social networks, have revealed the positive roles of these
networks at recruitment process. Considering previous studies, in this study it has been proposed that
usage frequency of virtual social networks (LinkedIn usage- as an social network tool) at HRM processes,
especially staffing process, would increase HRM performance.
H1: The frequency of social media (Linkedin) use at staffing related HRM practices will increase
the HRM performance.
3. Research Method
This survey aimed to examine the impact of social media usage frequency at human resource
management (SMU@HRM) –specifically at staffing process (SMU@HRM-Staffing)- on the HRM
performance. To reveal the relationship between those two construct, SMU@HRM-Staffing and HRM
performance, a field survey using questionnaires was conducted
The survey is conducted on human resource managers of 386 firms operating in manufacturing and
service industry in Turkey. 12 questionnaire forms are eliminated because they did not meet the
requirements. Data obtained from those 374 questionnaires were analysed through the SPSS 21.00
statistical packet program. Proposed relations were tested through linear regression analyses.
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Corresponding Author: Pelin Vardarlıer
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committee of the conference
eISSN: 2357-1330
3.2. Measures
Researchers benefit from the measures frequently used in literature (e.g. Khandwalla, 1977;
Mowday, Porter and Steers, 1982; Huselid, 1995; Truss, 2001; Cho, 2004) to develop HRM performance
scale. To measure SMU@HRM-Staffing, 7 items are used. For HRM performance scale 9 items are used.
Besides, respondents are asked to indicate primary HRM practices that predominantly use social media,
in order to reveal which HRM functions mostly use social media.
Descriptive analysis results revealed that, social media is mostly used staffing related practices as
like as like reference check, recruiting, creating social network and building candidate pool (Table 1). A
huge number of respondents (230 respondents, 61,5 %) indicates they use social media predominantly at
reference check process. Recruiting is another HRM practices that respondents use social media
predominantly (113 respondents, 30,2 %). Briefly, about 96 % of respondents use social media
predominantly at staffing related practices.
Exploratory factor analysis resulted in elimination of 5 items which did not loaded on any factor.
Remaining 11 items are loaded on 3 factors named as SMU@HRM-Staffing, HR Staffing Performance,
and HR Maintenance Performance. Those items with factor loadings and Cronbach’s Alpha values for
each factors are depicted on the Table 2
Table 02. Exploratory Factor Analyses Results and Cronbach’s Alpha Values
Performance-
SMU@HRM-
Performance-
Maintenance
Measures
Staffing
Staffing
HRM
HRM
SMU@HRM 7 ,893
SMU@HRM 2 ,873
SMU@HRM 1 ,793
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Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committee of the conference
eISSN: 2357-1330
SMU@HRM 3 ,708
HR Staffing Performance 6 ,844
HR Staffing Performance 2 ,813
HR Staffing Performance 1 ,780
HR Staffing Performance 3 ,766
HR Staffing Performance 9 ,557
HR Maintenance ,855
Performance 8
HR Maintenance ,850
Performance 5
Cronbach’s Alpha α= ,857 α= ,806 α= ,679
Values
Total Explained Variance %69,542
Performance
Performance
Maintenance
HR Staffing
SMU@HRM-
Deviations
Standard
Measures
Staffing
Mean
In order to define the direction of relations and to test the hypotheses, linear regression analyses
have been conducted through the SPSS 21.00 statistical packet program.
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Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committee of the conference
eISSN: 2357-1330
Regression analyses results revealed that the impact of social media use on the staffing related
HRM performance is statistically significant (β=,428; p= ,000; R2=,181). However the effect of social
media use on maintenance related HRM performance is not statistically significant (β=-,094; p= ,069;
R2=,006). Thus our hypothesis indicating that “Social media use frequency at HRM will increase the
HRM performance” is partially supported. On the other the significant effect of staffing-related-HRM
performance on maintenance-related-HRM performance (β=,115; p= ,026; R2=,011) may refer to
indirect relationship between SMU@HRM and HR-Maintenance Performance. In accordance with the
regression analyses results, research model is being shaped as it has been shown at Figure 1 attached:
0,428**
*
0,115*
-0,094
Supporte
Not Supported
d
In this study the relationship between social media use at HRM, specifically at staffing process
and HRM performance investigated. As Martin et al. (2009) indicated the success of social media
compelled organizations to rethink human resources practices, specifically their staffing activities. Social
media becomes one of the first places for applications of job seekers and the recruiters. Öz et al. (2015)
found out a positive relation between social media use at recruitment process and quantity and quality of
candidates. They stated that almost all of the companies use social media at recruitment process. This
survey results have also verified the previous studies. Descriptive analysis results of this survey revealed
that, social media is mostly used staffing related practices as like as like reference check, recruiting,
creating social network and building candidate pool. About 96 % of respondents use social media
predominantly at staffing related practices.
Moreover, correlation and regression analyses results explored a significant relation between
SMU@HRM-Staffing and HR Staffing Performance. Human resources departments have increased their
effectiveness throughout the social media use (Safko, 2012). Because quality and quantity of candidates
increased thanks the social media networks use at staffing process, more qualified staff are recruited. So,
recruitment through social media networks decreases the personnel circulation and increases the quality
(Rees, 1966), which leads to higher performance in organizations.
130
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eISSN: 2357-1330
Although there are noteworthy studies indicating a positive relationship between social media use
and performance, the relationship between social media use and HRM performance has been examined
rarely. Besides, measurement of HRM performance in terms of SMU@HRM has been fundamental
problem in this field. Researchers have developed 9-item HRM Performance scale derived from the
measures frequently used in literature (e.g. Khandwalla, 1977; Mowday, Porter and Steers, 1982; Huselid,
1995; Truss, 2001; Cho, 2004), which differentiates this study from the previous ones. Moreover the
findings of this survey, indicating positive effect of social media network (LinkedIn) usage frequency at
staffing process on HRM performance, contribute to literature substantially.
This survey focused on HRM performance in terms on staffing and maintenance, which was the
fundamental limitation of this study. Moreover, social media use at staffing have been examined. Further
researches may cover other functions of HRM, as like talent management, training and development,
compensation, employee relations, in order to explore the impact of social media use at HRM on HRM
performance as a whole.
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