Leveraging social media to enhance recruitment effectiveness: A facebook experiment

Carrillat, FA; d’Astous, A; Grégoire, EM

Leveraging social media to enhance recruitment effectiveness: A facebook experiment

Carrillat, FA

d’Astous, A Grégoire, EM

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Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: Internet Research, 2014, 24 (4), pp. 474 - 495
Issue Date:: 2014-01-01

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Carrillat, FA https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6188-1372	en_US
dc.contributor.author	d’Astous, A	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Grégoire, EM	en_US
dc.date.issued	2014-01-01	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	Internet Research, 2014, 24 (4), pp. 474 - 495	en_US
dc.identifier.issn	1066-2243	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/115378
dc.description.abstract	© Emerald Group Publishing Limited. Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate how firms can use social media such as Facebook to recruit top job prospects. Design/methodology/approach-In the context of a fictitious event presumably sponsored by a potential employer, a sample of university students became members of a new private and secret Facebook user group dedicated to this event for a period of four days. They were exposed to event sponsorship activation messages varying systematically with respect to the mode of processing (i.e. passive or active) and their focus (i.e. the brand or the event). Findings-The results show that their expectations as regards the salary that they would require to become employees were higher in the active mode of processing. Also, their attitude toward the sponsor as an employer was more favorable when the activation messages focussed on the brand rather than on the event. In addition, further analyses showed that the effects of message focus and mode of processing on the attitudinal responses toward the sponsoring employers were mediated by the degree of elaboration and richness of social interactions of the Facebook group’s members as well as their attitude toward the activation messages. Practical implications-Managers seeking to gain a recruiting edge through their social media presence should use online messages that stimulate more active processing and that have high entertainment value since this leads to more favorable responses toward the employer. These messages should insist more on the brand than on the event that is sponsored. Originality/value-This study is the first study to foray into the usage of social networking sites for recruitment purposes. It represents one of the few research efforts to monitor the interactions of users in a social media platform by means of a controlled experiment performed in situ through the creation of an ad hoc Facebook group.	en_US
dc.relation.ispartof	Internet Research	en_US
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.1108/IntR-07-2013-0142	en_US
dc.subject.classification	Marketing	en_US
dc.title	Leveraging social media to enhance recruitment effectiveness: A facebook experiment	en_US
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.citation.volume	4	en_US
utslib.citation.volume	24	en_US
utslib.for	1505 Marketing	en_US
utslib.for	08 Information and Computing Sciences	en_US
pubs.embargo.period	Not known	en_US
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Business
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Business/Marketing Discipline
utslib.copyright.status	open_access
pubs.issue	4	en_US
pubs.publication-status	Published	en_US
pubs.volume	24	en_US

Abstract:

© Emerald Group Publishing Limited. Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate how firms can use social media such as Facebook to recruit top job prospects. Design/methodology/approach-In the context of a fictitious event presumably sponsored by a potential employer, a sample of university students became members of a new private and secret Facebook user group dedicated to this event for a period of four days. They were exposed to event sponsorship activation messages varying systematically with respect to the mode of processing (i.e. passive or active) and their focus (i.e. the brand or the event). Findings-The results show that their expectations as regards the salary that they would require to become employees were higher in the active mode of processing. Also, their attitude toward the sponsor as an employer was more favorable when the activation messages focussed on the brand rather than on the event. In addition, further analyses showed that the effects of message focus and mode of processing on the attitudinal responses toward the sponsoring employers were mediated by the degree of elaboration and richness of social interactions of the Facebook group’s members as well as their attitude toward the activation messages. Practical implications-Managers seeking to gain a recruiting edge through their social media presence should use online messages that stimulate more active processing and that have high entertainment value since this leads to more favorable responses toward the employer. These messages should insist more on the brand than on the event that is sponsored. Originality/value-This study is the first study to foray into the usage of social networking sites for recruitment purposes. It represents one of the few research efforts to monitor the interactions of users in a social media platform by means of a controlled experiment performed in situ through the creation of an ad hoc Facebook group.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/115378