Using Social Networks in Personnel Selection: A Survey of Human Resource Professionals

Although the analysis of social media to aid decision making in Human Resource (HR) selection is becoming commonplace, there is little empirical research on this phenomenon. This study reports on the use of Social Networking Sites (SNS) by HR professionals to assist applicant selection. It employs a survey methodology based on a cross-sectional questionnaire which was administered to a sample of 10000 professionals in Portugal. The response rate was 10.5% and the results show that 41% of the respondents use SNS in employee selection. The most used SNS are LinkedIn (89%) and Facebook (58%), and the evaluation of applicant profiles usually takes place before the first interview. Around three quarters of participants indicate to assess applicants by forming a general impression of their adjustment to the organization. The most regularly inferred constructs from profiles are work experience, education and training, written communication skills, maturity and professionalism. Respondents infer more often the outcome person-organization adjustment. The conclusion is that for many Portuguese organizations SNS seem to be a useful complementary tool to the most conventional personnel selection techniques.