The potential and the perils of online recruitment
pharmafile | September 11, 2008 | Feature | Business Services |Â Â careers, digi, recruitmentÂ
It's easy to be someone different on the internet – a recent conference on Second Life was attended by a yellow alien and a man on fire.
But while Web 2.0 is creating ever more interactive and attractive ways to communicate, it is also making it easier to misrepresent yourself or others. Photographs can easily be doctored and blogs and e-mails are difficult to verify. So what are the risks for companies trying to hire the right people and for individuals trying to get hired?
The problem with the internet
Let's start with Google. With my rather unusual name, I only get 289 hits, and luckily all the results are to do with me and not some stranger (until someone reads this article and decides to alter that). The downside is that some of the results are several years old. They're not embarrassing, just confusing, especially if you don't look at the dates.
A colleague is not so lucky. Her name is much more common and her first page of results (out of over 500,000) reveals that, among many other things, she is married to a New Zealander, works as a nurse in the US, has a rare disease, speaks Gaelic, recently visited Miami, and died in 1899. None of these is true.
But while googling yourself or a colleague is entertaining, it can be much more fun to look them up on a social networking site like Facebook or MySpace. There, you might find embarrassing photos of your boss at college, or discover that on the day they were supposedly off ill last week, they were actually at the races, and some friend has 'kindly' put the evidence up on the internet for all to see.
Harmless fun? Social networking costs companies a stunning £6.5 billion pounds a year, according to IT security firm Global Secure Systems. Their survey revealed that employees spend an average of 30 minutes per day during working hours on social networking sites, which adds up to a scary three weeks per year and a significant loss in productivity. At the same time, firms are finding that their internet access costs are increasing to keep pace with demand for bandwidth. Small wonder that another survey found that two-thirds of British companies have banned employees from using social networking sites at work.
But there are other costs that are harder to quantify. Nearly two-thirds of companies are concerned that damaging information posted on social networking sites or in blogs could harm their reputation. The Civil Serf blogger, who wrote derogatory comments about government and the Civil Service, was forced to take the blog down, and 18 members of the police force have recently been disciplined after posting photographs of accidents they had been involved in and boasting about them on Facebook.
The extremely competitive market for talent is one area where damage to a company or personal reputation can have serious outcomes. Employers and employees must take steps to ensure that information publicly available on the internet is accurate, and that any malicious or accidental misinformation is dealt with as quickly as possible.
The employer brand and the internet
Companies must attract, recruit, induct and retain the right people, and the employer brand is central to these activities. We are all aware of the power of brands in marketing to improve sales and promote customer loyalty. The employer brand is an extension of that concept, designed to attract the right sort of candidates to a company that is a great place to work. The latest Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) survey, Recruitment, Retention and Turnover, revealed that 71% of companies used their employer brand as a recruiting tool.
The employer brand should be consistent and operate across all communications, from job advertisements to the letter inviting a candidate to interview, the interview itself, and the follow-up letter that either offers or rejects. It is not just a style guide, the ethos of the company and the fact that it is a great place to work must come through in all the messaging the company uses.
The internet is an important part of employer branding, as it is often the first port of call for potential employees. The risk is that their search finds information from a disgruntled ex-employee or other person or groups who wish to harm the company. You need to monitor the internet regularly and frequently so you can deal with any problems quickly.
Attract
The internet is not always the best source of candidates, but it is particularly important when looking for graduates and managerial and professional staff. It is estimated that 89% of graduates only search online for jobs, so companies that need specialised skill sets or that run a graduate recruitment programme must make sure their internet presence says the right things. The internet is also the place if you're looking for younger employees. While older generations may be more comfortable with traditional job advertisements in newspapers, today's youth may not even read newspapers – they are far more likely to get all their information digitally.
First impressions are critical: 75% of CIPD survey companies cited the company website as an important resource for attracting candidates. The website will explain your products or services, and may well carry job vacancies, but does it also describe what sort of an employer you are? Current employee testimonials, FAQs and clear information are key. You probably don't want to list all your employment policies on a public site, but make sure you describe how and when potential employees will be provided with more information.
Social and other networks on the internet have opened up plenty of other ways to reach potential candidates. University and company alumni networks, discussion forums and industry associations all provide access to specific groups of people and the opportunity to send targeted messages to those you want to attract. T-Mobile uses their own Facebook site to reach potential graduate trainees, providing a full range of information about the company, and the application and joining process specifically for this group.
Current staff are also an important resource, and some companies offer rewards to employees who introduce people to the company. The internet has extended this process beyond a person's immediate circle of friends and contacts, with sites such as www.thecareermole.com. Here, employees can register as 'moles' under their company name, and job-seekers can contact them via the website to find out more about the company and available positions.
With recruitment agencies and consultants being the most popular method of attracting candidates according to the CIPD survey (78%), it is also important to manage the brand through these intermediaries. I have had candidates tell me that they don't want to work for particular companies because of information they've found via the internet, so you need to work with consultants to identify and deal with this type of situation.
Recruit
Clear and detailed job descriptions and application instructions demonstrate that your company is professional and efficient. If you invite candidates to interview by e-mail rather than by letter, don't fall into the trap of over-familiarity. We tend to use e-mail differently from letters, writing perhaps just one or two sentences and using informal language. Make sure your invitation e-mail is as professional as a letter would be, and don't forget to include all the extra information the candidate needs, such as directions, train or bus times, and how long the interview process is likely to take.
The interview itself will be your best opportunity to showcase what your company is like as an employer. Every candidate who comes for interview is a potential ambassador for your company – and also a potential problem if they don't like the experience and decide to comment about it online.
The style of interview that you saw on The Apprentice, where the candidates were submitted to offensive questioning and insults, is not acceptable. The participants had no doubt signed agreements that they would participate in such interviews prior to coming on the programme, and we all enjoyed watching them squirm. But good TV doesn't make good recruitment practice. Those interviewing candidates must be trained in what is and what is not permitted, and be fully aware that the candidate will be assessing them and the company just as much as they will be assessing the candidate.
The interview process must be constantly upgraded to incorporate changes in the law and best practice, but it should also be improved using feedback from candidates and new employees. Many companies use exit interviews to get feedback from departing staff, but these are notoriously unhelpful at providing meaningful data. Just as you use feedback surveys when you hold seminars or workshops in order to see how they could be improved, I would recommend getting immediate feedback from interviewees to see how their experience could be improved.
Interview feedback can be used not only to improve the interview process, but also to provide testimonials as part of your employer branding and for use on the recruitment section of your website. Of course you have to get the candidates' agreement for this, which can be included on the feedback form, and you will also have to think hard about how you present this information. If there is a complaint, should you also put this on the website to show that you listen to everything, not just the praise? And how do you deal with the idea that candidates might give fantastic feedback because they think it will help them get the job?
Induction
Social networking can be part of your strategy to cope with the sometimes long gap between when someone accepts a position and the day he or she starts work. It is important to maintain contact during this period so that you can ensure the new hire's engagement with your company. As well as the standard paperwork, a specific invitation-only networking site or intranet access can help to make the candidate feel welcomed.
Deloitte is among many companies with graduate recruitment streams that aim to create a sense of community before people join the firm. An invitation-only Facebook site where students can contact others who have gone through Deloitte's scholarship and internship programmes helps them to find out more about the company and what it is like to work there, so they know what to expect when they start.
When someone comes on board, you must make company policy on internet usage and social networking very clear. While an employee handbook probably carries this information, it is important to make sure that new employees have read and understood the rules. The induction process can also be another opportunity to get feedback on the interview and joining process while it is fresh in people's minds.
Your personal brand
Your personal brand is no longer just your CV, but encompasses all references to you on the internet. It is getting easier and easier to track what people have written or said and where and when they said it, so you must consider carefully what you post and where you post it. One in five employers uses social networking sites to check on prospective employees, and two-thirds of those say that what they find affects their hiring decisions.
Some people suggest that keen social networkers should have two sites, one for their professional self and one for their more personal information, but I don't think this is a good idea. If people are already losing three weeks a year looking after one site, then having two sites to manage will inevitably take even more time. There is also the possibility of posting the wrong information on the wrong site, and advances in technology suggest that it won't be long before anyone really looking for you on the internet will be able to connect the two sites together, however obscure your nickname is.
If you do have a social networking site, think carefully about what you put on it and use the security settings to restrict access, so that a casual search by a potential employer will not reveal your most embarrassing secrets. Remember that it is much harder to remove yourself from social networking sites and message groups than it is to join.
The future
Companies cannot ignore social networking and Web 2.0. Indeed, those wishing to attract graduates, managerial and professional staff may find the internet is the only way to reach potential candidates. So it is critical to make sure you know how to use all the internet tools effectively, and equally important to ensure that you monitor and manage what others are saying about you in the virtual world.
Box: Vetting candidates online – The legal situation
Using social network sites to vet job candidates carries employment law risks, including:
* Not processing personal data fairly under the DPA Act 1998, and breaching guidelines in the GPA code
* Claims for discrimination on any unlawful grounds
* Breaching trust and confidence
Employers can use the web and social networking sites to gain information if they:
* Tell candidates that website checking may be part of the vetting process
* Separate the web-vetting from recruitment decision-making
* Give applicants a chance to explain discrepancies in CVs and applications
* Ask if the job justifies such in-depth vetting, and whether the information could be gathered in another way
Adapted from CIPD Annual Survey Report 2008: 'Recruitment, Retention and Turnover'.
Tarquin Bennett-Coles is manager of RSA Interims. For more information please email tarquin.bennett-coles@theRSAgroup.com or visit www.thersagroup.com
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