E-Recruitment Research Proposal

1. Introduction

E-recruitment has been gradually progressing as a powerful recruitment method that companies are using to find employees, states Galanaki (2002). E-recruitment, or online recruitment has been referred mostly when talking about the corporate web page and testing that companies offer for the job seekers online, but with the advancement of technology the social networks began to appear signifying a new wave in the e-based recruitment, outline Davison, Maraist, Bing (2011).

There have been many researches on the topic of the effectiveness of the e-Recruitment in comparison to traditional methods of hiring. According to Nielsen Online, a company that measures and analyses online audience and consumer-generated media, by the end of 2008, social networking sites had overhauled email in relation to worldwide scope. Since then, thousands of job seekers have availed of the possibilities that social networks provide, says Richter and Riemer (2009).

Researches on the social networks impact on recruitment began to come out in 2010 and 2011, being for the most part, the descriptive ones and containing the explanation of the social networks phenomenon and their popularity, as well as an incomprehensive analysis of this recruitment method's effectiveness and necessity. Therefore, the research that the author is carrying out is relatively new and ground-breaking as there has been little research conducted in the field of E-recruitment through the medium of social networks.

Owing to an evident shortage of established knowledge in the author's field of interest the following research will be conducted to improve understanding of the phenomenon of online based recruitment and its value to the employers and job hunters.

2. Preliminary Literature Review

A review of the literature on the research area mentioned above classifies recruitment in various ways.

As indicated by Galanaki et. al (2002) the examples of traditional recruitment methods include advertising in the newspapers, sending resumes via mail or fax, word-of-mouth, making use of the recruitment agencies' and head-hunters' services, as well as the career fairs.

Flippo (1984), the guru of HR management, divided recruitment into internal and external. Flippo claimed that internal hiring is done through transfers, promotions via internal job postings and re-employment of ex-employees. Opposed to these methods are the external means of recruitment, such as employment at factory level, television and newspapers advertisements, employment exchanges run by the government, employment agencies' services, educational institutions that supply graduates, and finally, recommendations and references from the previous employers, colleagues or acquaintance.

However, along with the traditional methods of hiring professionals, the companies have persisted in finding alternative approaches to the procedure. Modern HR techniques are becoming closely connected to the Internet as both job seekers and companies make use of the viral tools, says Smith (2005). Previously the companies have practiced online jobs posting and online tests, while the applicants did not have that much opportunity to pronounce themselves in the online recruitment world.

Wright and Dyer (2000) voiced a challenge to the professionals in recruitment to embrace the prospects of the e-business and put in operation the technology for the success of the HR practices. According to Galanaki (2002), the companies ought to use extensively use the e-Recruiting with the assistance of advanced information systems.

Nowadays application of the new technologies can assist in integrating information together with communication. The information that the users unlock on the career-oriented social network platforms may give the seekers additional opportunities as they mention indirect facts about their personality, as indicated by Donath and Boyd (2004).

According to Smith (2005) the companies benefit from the online recruitment method because it permits the company to be promoted globally and have a valuable chance to expand the scope of the applicants for the particular positions. Moreover, as Radcliff (2000) states it in his article, online job hunt is perceived by the job seekers as considerably easier and less time-consuming, than the conventional search in the newspapers or through recruitment agencies. Therefore, the benefits of the online recruitment can be recognized both for the employers and the job hunters, especially, taking into consideration a fact that advertising in the Internet is "relatively low cost and reaches a wide and diverse range of candidates", as said by Rau and Hyland (2003).

Davison, Maraist, Bing (2011) stress the appearance of social network platforms, namely, LinkedIn, Twitter, MySpace and Facebook an innovative tool for hiring the necessary professionals.

The definition that precisely describes the social networks was created by Boyd and Ellison (2007) who wrote that "social network sites are web-based services that allow individuals to construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system".

Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) state that the social networks trigger an interactive dialogue in the Internet "which allows the creation and exchange of user-generated content". When considering the social networks phenomenon, Agarwal, Mondal and Nath (2011) outline two generations of the social networks' development. The first generation is consumer social networking, which was provoked by the success of two communication platforms - MySpace and Facebook. The second wave of socialization is corporate social networking. Agarwal, Mondal and Nath (2011) emphasise that the companies have now recognized the importance of corporate social networking and are actively using technology in order to communicate effectively with this tool in hands.

Madia (2010) argues, however, that