Paradigm Shift in HR Practices on Employee Life Cycle Due to Influence of Social Media

Abstract

Social media is an online communication medium, where users can interact (which includes posting, commenting, sharing and forming communities of mutual interest) with each other and also with the online media in which they want to. In short it means creating a digital world of mouth. The present study was conducted to understand the impact of social media on Employee life cycle and assess the paradigm shift in HR practices due to use of social media. A sample size of 100 employees of various IT and ITES companies were administered a questionnaire. They were from organizations such as Ernst and Young, Deloitte, Infosys, Wipro and Capgemini. In addition, 10 HR managers who recruit, induct, train, retain and compensate employees in their organization were also interviewed. Results showed that the most visited site by the respondents on the internet is Facebook and Wikipedia followed by YouTube, Skype and then employment sites such as naukri, monster etc. Social Media is considered a reliable source of information and generally trusted by employees.Most HR managers were found to rely on social media due to the ease and convenience and also because of the competitive scenario. Some of the HR managers were found to be using social media especially to carry out functions like training and recruiting. They believed that use of these social media gives an additional advantage in recruitment process like in expanding the candidate pool, to check the background of the candidate and also to interact with active and passive candidates. It also helps for effective employee engagement and collaboration activities so that there was good way of communication.HR managers also revealed that social media is an upcoming platform for employer branding. However, a word of caution is needed. Too much involvement of social media can have negative effects like having no physical interaction with the candidate. This can be an issue, because, sometimes interacting face to face might help rather than getting connected from a social media site. Organizations should exercise extreme caution before relying upon information on social media sites to make decisions about recruitment and discipline. This information, besides being inaccurate, creates the risk of unlawful discrimination, breaching data privacy requirements and infringing individuals’ rights to privacy. Nonetheless, if organizations wish to rely on such information, they should have clear processes and policies in place to mitigate such risks.