Online hiring is a process to find out the potential and quality candidates to build network with them. Although the social media is the computer based technology and the most common platform which can be accessible by every people where they can share ideas, thoughts, contents, blogging, photos, videos to interact, communicate and express themselves but now it become the most feasible way for businesses and organizations to post a job position and recruit in less time via social media. GlobalWebIndex conducted a research in which it had find out that the average internet user has five social networking accounts and mostly the social media sites include Linked In, Facebook and Twitter from where the recruiters find the talented candidates but Linked In considered as “World’s largest professional networks and recruiting solution”.
Most of the companies has been using this strategy successfully but not all firms practice it. Recruiterbox – a well-known software based company which provide a solution of productive hiring to other companies by providing the featured software to them for online recruiting process and it claimed that it is trusted by 2,000 companies to whom it has been serving customers and according to Recruiterbox, this practice has significant advantages in which they can find passionate candidates through their social media posts, can get the details from their profile and by viewing the profile recruiters also get aware about hobbies, interests, skills and capabilities, and by using these information employer find best candidate which become employee, who is the best for their workplace in less time without making heavy expenses. So, there is a message to career orienteers that false and misrepresentation of informations on their profile leave negative impressions on recruiters.
Some of the main obstacles that organizations face while their recruiting process by using online facilities is mention as: attracting the right and appropriate candidate for the vacancy means when companies follow social media websites to advertise and evaluate candidates profile so they have to face some sort of issues because in that way companies are unable to interact with candidates face to face and recruiters don’t identify candidates communication, listening, presenting skills and other soft skills needed for the vacancy. Now a days job searching engines like LinkedIn, Rozi.com.pk, Indeed.com, Career Builder.com, Dice.com and so on are used by both jobseekers and job recruiters that facilitate them a lot, it’s a cost effective method but some sort of issues also appear because of online hiring so according to the 2013 SHRM survey those firms that follow social media in recruiting of candidates, they should conduct a face to face job interview before finalize them. Some legal trends should focus by organizations while doing recruiting because great risk associated in this process and to evaluate the candidate background, past job experience is very necessary for the organization benefits. Another legal risk is the information might gain regarding candidate age, gender, religion, medical history so after some time applicants may claim that the information regarding personal information that recruiters obtain via social media profiles discriminate them so responsibility of recruiting organizations increase if they use online search engines. In this process both parties should avoid from unethical tactics because major drawback is fake profiles so they both ensure this.
Those organizations that avail social media service as a third party between recruiters and candidates so they should comply with the criteria’s of Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and EEOC also emphasize that those organizations using online websites should fulfill the requirements of FCRA. Even though employers have a legal right to access Social Networking Sites (SNSs) only to obtain the background profile of candidate for the required designation. According to the journal of Hilltop Review, there is no law that restrict recruiters to gather information from individual’s Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn profiles during hiring process but in this way most of the candidates face hurdles and these hurdles create by themselves like: inappropriate pictures, posting harsh posts that show their aggressive behavior so inappropriate posts, informal email address, Id name are not acceptable by Human Resource Agents and it could be the reason for the rejection for a potential job. So in this scenario it is essential for both employers and candidates to be on the same path while using social networking policies and practices.
Many organization are using online platform for hiring purposes the reasons are, companies are moving towards it at a greater rate is to compete with their customer as well as to keep pace with the changes that take place in business world or to obtain benefit from them. As sometime organization seems in A bit hurry to increases or fulfil their demand of workforce which result in hiring from online platform. Major platforms which are used in Pakistan are Linked In, Rozi.com.pk, Indeed.com, Career Builder.com and Dice.com also, organizations now have used their websites or pages to make a hiring or career update which leads to various CV applications from people. As we all know, the traditional way of hiring include so much manual work like advertisements in newspaper leads to CV collection and then narrow it down to various levels untill the required person has not been hired. This process usually takes days to accomplish the desired result whereas, through online platform companies can get multiple CV at a short amount of time and it gets the work done more effectively or efficiently for the company which is a big positive point for them. Although various employment laws are their which generally cover the usual aspects of hiring. Whereas, in new world the addition of hiring through digital means have no particular laws which diminish its Goodwill or productivity with the help of more laws/rules. This factor can be more beneficial for our young generation in job hunting due to fast competition in today’s businesses.