Employers Monitoring Social Media Use of Employees or Recruits - Research Paper Example

Employers monitoring social media use of employees or recruits Employers monitoring social media use of employees or recruits Introduction Social media sites have become a major tool of virtually socializing these days. Since the last decade, the use of social networking sites has been very popular. It was reported in 2008 that the Internet users spend 6 to 8 percent of their time in using Facebook and MySpace (Barnes, 2006). These networking sites have significantly contributed in studies allowing students to interact with each other at a single platform. On the other hand, organizations have also been impacted by the emergence of the new technology. Literature Review Skeels and Grudin (2009) analyzed the role of these social networking sites in organizations and how they can impact the productivity of the employees. The researchers have studied the use of LinkedIn and Facebook in the organization Microsoft by conducting interviews and analyzed the overall impact in terms of benefits and drawbacks these networking software and bringing to the professional environment (Curran et al., 2014). LinkedIn is software that allows the professionals to build their resumes and share them publically. LinkedIn helps in building connections. (Schwabel, 2012) This software is very useful for the employers as well as for the employees. LinkedIn also allowed the recruiters to find and contact the appropriate candidates based on the credentials mentioned on their respective LinkedIn profile (Landau, 2013). LinkedIn also helps in growing professional network by connecting with one another (Skeels & Grudin, 2009). Bicky and Kwok have also studied that how organizations can use socialization networks like LinkedIn as a recruitment tool. They believe that recruiters can build two-way communication and employ candidates by using social networking sites. Social media also appear to be low cost and time saving for the recruiting agencies (Bicky & Kwak, 2013). On the other hand, different researchers have varying beliefs about the use of Facebook in organizations. Facebook is considered more as a socializing tool lacking its use in career growth and development (Curran et al., 2014). Some believe that that Facebook is a friendly way of communicating with colleagues and making long term relationships. While others think that Facebook is not useful in the professional environment because of its unprofessional look and feel (Skeels & Grudin, 2009). However, it was found that organizations can considerably use social networking sites to obtain multiple professional benefits. The use of social sites in organizations is accompanied with different tensions and issues in workplace including the legal concerns related to the use for social networking at workplace, issues rose due to mixed personal and professional information, risk of unsuitable communication across the firewall and lack of hierarchy delineation (Skeels & Grudin, 2009). According to media richness and social presence theory social cues are useful to promote informal and spontaneous conversations in work setting. Therefore, organizations should design and implement such software that would facilitate the usefulness of social cues. Microblogging allowed by social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Jaiku and Pownce is an activity of creating small blogs about the events and daily life activities (Richards, 2008). Microblogging has become popular in organizations providing a chance to work in collaboration, enhancing information sharing between workers and maintaining a feeling of connectedness in coworkers (Dejin & Mary, 2013). As different issues and tensions are also associated with the use of social media at workplace, the question arises that whether the employers should monitor the social media used by their employees or not. Recently companies have struggled to establish a social media policy in order to create a balance between employee privacy and also encourage communication ways in the workplace (Pidd, 2014). Most of the employers believe that they should monitor the social media use of their employees. A survey conducted by Symantec revealed that 90 percent of the organizations voted in the favor of loss of productivity due to use of social media by the employees. Such statistics have emphasized on the development of social media use policies entailing all the details about how much time can be spent on using such sites at work and what sort of content can the employees post on their social profiles (Donald & Peter, 2009). However, concerns are also associated with the use of social networking after the working hours. Some organizations believe that what the employees say should be monitored even after the job hours are ended. It is reported that many employees have been fired due to leakage of private information related to the company (Davison & Maraist, 2011). No doubt that the matter of employee privacy is very important but from the perspective of an organization, each employee being an organization’s representative is responsible to avoid confidentiality breach about the company matters (Timm & Duven, 2008). It is found that social media monitoring has become a ubiquitous practice of the Human Resource department. The Career Builder survey by Wall Street Journal reported that 39 percent recruiters search social media of the job applicants and 43 percent indicated that on monitoring the social media of the candidate they have found information that has helped them in making a decision about passing up or rejecting an applicant. On the contrary, nineteen percent declared that social media monitoring helped them in recruiting many candidates (Weber, 2014). Method The method adopted for collecting information on the research topic was ‘focus groups’ to obtain the responses and perceptions of people including (Executive officers from Government and Insurance company executives). The members of focus groups were asked to base their discussion on four main questions (see appendix). The questions were designed to interpret why businessmen and organizations are interested in monitoring employee social profiles and how this may impact the employee and the employer as well. Focus group is a method of qualitative research in which group discussions are conducted by each focus group that is evaluated based on the responses of the discussion (Bryman & Bell, 2011). The researchers analyze the outcomes of the discussion and formulate the results based on the conclusion drawn by the discussion (Denscombe, 2010). The researchers then compare the evidences obtained from the literature review with the outcomes of the discussion from focus groups (Johnson & Christensen, 2010). The sample size was 10, divided into two focus groups. One focus group consisted of five individuals. Focus Group 1 including government executive officers consisted of 1 male and four females. The other focus group including Insurance company managers and executives consisted of 2 males and three females. The age group of the sample in focus group 1 was 23-34, and the age group of the second focus group was 48-58. The participants of the study were selected by ‘nomination’; members to participate in the study were picked by the researcher and were contacted to take part in the research. Out of 12 individuals contacted for participating in the study, 10 agreed and signed off the consent form (Miller et al., 2012). For sample selection in each focus group, the main criteria were age and their respective roles in the organization. Focus group 1 represented a comparatively younger generation working as government employees whereas the other focus group entailed individuals at higher management position including the CEO of the insurance company. The method helped in obtaining varying perceptions from employees working in public and private sector and representing the management to a worker class. The method was useful in evaluating the approaches of participants allowing them to express their notions independently. Each session of the focus group was set at 45 minutes (Kamberelis & Dimitriadis, 2013). It was also taken into consideration that the sample must represent both genders that are male and female in the discussion to control any bias (Stewart & Shamdasani, 2014). Unlike surveys, Focus group method helped in obtaining detailed account of the information from the participants and the participants felt more comfortable in expressing their views therefore, chances for more accurate results were enhanced (Krueger & Casey, 2014). Analysis Analyzing the discussion of the focus group follows an in-depth approach. This study uses the comparison constant analysis for data interpretation. The researcher provided a set of four questions to the participants and allowed them to format their discussion based on the questions. In order to collect the data, the researcher recorded the discussion points of each of the participants in the study. All the relevant points were recorded for data interpretation in the next step (Onwuegbuzie et al., 2009). After collecting the data and the answers of the research questions provided by each focus group, the responses were separated. Then the responses were categorized in different sets to assess the supporting and disagreeing notions on the given questions. This step is very crucial because the responses meeting maximum similarity will act as the basis of formulating the research outcomes (Rabiee, 2004). Following approach of data analysis was used in this study (Stewart et al., 2007): 1. The researchers read through all the answers of the participants obtained from the recorded transcripts during the discussion session. 2. The researchers observed the differences and similarities between the responses of different participants. 3. The researchers grouped the answers into key points and placed a tally mark in front of the answer if it has been repeated. 4. Summarize the points for each research question explaining different responses obtained for one question. Data Analysis Focus Group 1 Question 1: Why employers are interested in social media monitoring of employees? Key Points:  For protecting organization image and prevent information leakage.  To know more about employees.  To monitor the outside life of employees.  To know what do employees think of the employer socially.  Not interested Summary It was found that for this question each participant gave different answer, however, out of five only one said that employers are not found interested in the social media monitoring of the employees. The overall responses can be summarized as the employers are interested in social mode monitoring to protect the privacy of information related to the company and the employer and to understand the employees a bit deeper. Question 2: Is social media monitoring a privacy breach? Key Points: No: +, +, +, + Yes: + Summary The response summary of the question was very clear. Out of five participants four declared that social media monitoring is not a confidentiality breach of the employees because the social profiles are already accessible to the public so if employers access them to obtain any information, it cannot be declared as confidentiality breach. Question 3: Is it unfair or fair for employees to link their professional performance with their social media profiles? i) Fair ii) Unfair: +,+,+,+,+ Summary All the five participants in focus group 1 unanimously agreed that the social profile of individuals have no connection with their professional conduct and performance. Therefore, employers should not judge the performance of employees based on their social representation through social networking websites. Question 4: Should media profiles of employees be a determining factor on employment? Key Points Yes: + No: +, +, + Partial: + Summary Out of five three participants agreed that social media profile reflects personal life of a person and it must not be used as a determining factor while recruiting individuals. One of participants said employers can get valuable information from social profiles about individuals like their attitude, conduct therefore it can be used as a decisive factor in hiring. One participant said it may or may not be used in recruitment. Data Analysis Focus Group 2 Question 1 Key Points:  To monitor that employees do not waste office hours in accessing their social profiles. +  Prevent confidentiality breach of the organization and leak of sensitive data. +  To know more about the social and personal lives of the employees. +,+,+ Summary Most of the participants agreed that employers are interested in knowing personal and social lives of employees therefore, they monitor their social profiles. Question 2 Key Points: Yes: + No: +, +,+, + Summary Four participants agreed that monitoring social profiles of employees is not a privacy breach as the information is public to everyone. Question 3 Key Points i) Fair: Nil ii) Unfair: +,+,+,+ iii) Partial: + Summary Four participants declared that analyzing employees based on their personal profiles is unfair where as one said it is fair in some cases and unfair in others. Question 4 Key Points  Yes : +  No:+  It can be used as an additional material and reference. +, +  May or may not depends on job nature: + Summary Unlike group 1, Focus group 2 participants declared that social media monitoring can be used as determining factor on recruitment and as an additional reference source to decide about the hiring of the applicant. Conclusion Thus, from the analysis of the data it is found that most of the employers and employees consider that monitoring of social media profiles of employees to be useful. It is found that the employers monitor the profiles of employees for two main reasons: to check if the sensitive company information has not leaked publically and to know the personal and social activities of the employees. Another main reason for monitoring was evident from the literature that is for selecting the appropriate candidate for recruitment. Research revealed that unlike Facebook, LinkedIn is more professional and provides benefits other than merely chatting, texting and socializing. Recruiters and job seekers both can use LinkedIn for job hunt process. Job seekers can also compare their professional status by comparing their progress with other colleagues by using LinkedIn. Facebook however is criticized by the employers on its professional utility. It can be said that the challenge is to maintain the balance between the privacy of the candidates or employees and the protection of confidentiality breach of the organizations. According to Social Media Today, sixty percent of the employees have expressed unhappiness about their jobs on their social network profiles (Weber, 2014). Thus, here the role of social media use policy becomes evident that has to ensure the protection of employees’ rights and prevention of organization’s confidentiality breach. While using social media employees should not leak any inside private organizational information. It is concluded that employers can monitor the employees’ social profiles for checking the confidentiality prevention of the company, to recruit the new applicants and knowing the employees and recruits better. Critical Evaluation Practical Learning This exercise helped in understanding different qualitative research methods particularly increased my knowledge about focus groups (Rubin & Babbie, 2009). I learned how to design a question paper for the focus group. The data analysis of the focus groups was a unique experience to me. It built my skills for detailed analysis of the data and in depth evaluation of the responses (Cargan, 2007). I had a chance to interact with different people from government and private jobs that built my confidence and increased my social circle. I learned how to approach people for research and made them agree to participate in the research. I learned to work in collaboration and logically influence people through this activity. Theoretical Learning The workshop was very useful in developing my theoretical learning related to the research topic that is social media network use in professional context. I learned how social networking profiles can impact the professional image of individuals. I also came to know about different new software that is being used for socialization purpose. Previously I only knew about the personal utility of socialization software and websites but this research helped me explore the professional use of different social networking sites. I researched different current and previously published studies to explore the research question. It was found that various researches have been conducted to assess the use of social networking sites in professional scenario. I identified that social networking sites monitoring has been a vital role of the Human Resource department since last decade. Social networking has become much influential therefore; it may help in developing the professional image of the person or ruining it in front of the employers. It is found that social profiles have no more become personal since the employers analyze them not only for their current employees but also for the applicants who apply for job in an organization. This workshop also helped me in increasing my theoretical knowledge on various research forms. I studied through qualitative research methods in detail and in particularly analyzed focus group method to conduct the research. I got to learn various advantages of and disadvantages of focus groups over other research approaches. Since my research method was focus groups, I designed the questions accordingly. I learned how the selection of questions may alter the outcomes of the research. My research questions allowed the participants to express their perceptions in detail so that the use of focus group research method can be justified. List of References Barnes, S.B., 2006. A privacy paradox: Social networking in the United States. First Monday, 11(9), pp.1-12. Bicky, S. & Kwak, L., 2013. Social Media as an Employee Recruitment Tool. [Online] Syracuse University Available at: [Accessed 3 January 2015]. Bryman, A. & Bell, E., 2011. Business Research Methods. 3rd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Cargan, L., 2007. Doing Social Research. latest ed. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield. Curran, M.J., Draus, P., Schrager, M. & Zappala, S., 2014. 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Wall Street Journal, 22 October. Appendix Questions for Focus Group 1. Why employers are interested in monitoring social media use of employees? 2. Is it a breach of privacy? Why and why not? 3. Is it fair or unfair for employers to link employees’ social media profile to their work performances? Why? 4. Should social media profile be one of the determining factors on recruitment? Why and why not? Read More