A social network, also called a Social Networking Site (SNS), such as Instagram, can

be described as an online space designed for interpersonal communication (Bohmova et al., 2015, p. 23). This platform can be used to establish a strong digital footprint that will allow potential employees to easily access your companies information and be familiar with it’s name. Data also states that the 10 strongest trends in recruitment and talent management for 2012 is the strengthening of the influence of social media (HRnews, 2012). The use of social media has quickly progressed since this 2012 finding and will continue to grow as technology advances. This recruitment trend has most likely moved into the top 5 trends since 2012. Because of the growing need to adapt to social media, studies have shown that HR professionals from large companies believe that social networks are the future of recruitment: either as a supplement or even main method of finding candidates (Bohmova et al., 2015, p. 27).

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Upon researching how effective and how much easier social media has made job searching and job hiring, I have found that as time moves forward social media will be a major way to hire candidates. As explained in John G. Joos article, technology is changing the world entirely and as we continue to change with it so is social media usage. As John G. Joos explained how social media hiring is on the rise so did Adele Ladkin and Dimitrios Buhalis in their study, asset to hiring new employees compared to traditional way of hiring people. John G. Joos 2008 article, Social Media: New Frontiers in Hiring and Recruiting, talks about how as time goes forward social media becomes more of the chosen tool to use when recruiting and looking for Online and social media recruitment: Hospitality employer and prospective employee considerations (2016). Adele Ladkin and Dimitrios Buhalis both are both professors in the Schools of Tourism at Bournemouth University. They found that there was a difference in hiring those with private profiles to those who have public profiles. Also, something that comes into play is one’s online profiles and their footprint on all types of social media sites and the internet in general. Altogether, social media is helping candidates find jobs and and companies find candidates who are meeting all their standards and requirements. Mr. Johnson, in looking to recruit the perfect candidates, needs to specify what he is looking for on the sites he is already using. Instead of continuing to branch out he needs to focus on making what he has better and easier to understand.

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Research shows that social media has become an influential factor on recruiting new employees. In a paper published by Business and Behavioral Sciences (2017), Mary Beth McCabe states, “LinkedIn.com uses the metric that with a completed profile, the candidate is 40 times more likely to be found when companies do searches of the database” (p.88). Recruiters are searching for candidates with specific skill sets for job opening they are working to fill. McCabe also says, “In the past, students set up interviews and applied for jobs that they saw advertised on job boards, career centers, and classified sections of the newspaper … social media helps brand the candidate and the company, connecting the job candidates with positions, thus cutting out the middleman” (p.86). This new way of recruitment helps connect the candidate and company faster. Making the traditional process almost obsolete.

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Based on research and recent peer studies, it has been found that most of those looking for or seeking a job do not think about their internet footprint. Many go from day to day posting and saying whatever when all of it can come back and prevent them from getting the job they need or want. Your as stated in many articles an by most of our parents, “don’t post anything you might want down later”. Adele Ladkin and Dimitrios Buhali study shows some of this through explaining what companies look for when searching someones digital footprint. As Ladkin and Buhali both explained in their article someones footprint does not go away, it sticks around from when you start accessing the internet till you stop entirely. This is something from your past that can truly haunt you if you don’t move from saying inappropriate or immature things to those who could be hiring you at some point in the future.  Mr. Jackson must understand that no one person will have all the qualities the company needs at the moment, but they can work with what they got as they did before social media hiring became so helpful to all those brave enough to try it.

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Students with internships had a significantly higher overall grade point average, were somewhat younger upon graduation, and were more apt to be employed upon graduation than students without internships.(Knouse, Tanner & Harris., 1999) For this reason, students seek out internships over the course of their college career. One of the most important expected outcomes and benefits of an internship experience for students and schools is improvement in the opportunity for permanent job offers. (Beard, 1998; Knouse, Tanner & Harris, 1999) To attract more eligible candidates for full-time positions, an internship program for college students might be beneficial.

 

This is useful for both the company and the student. The firms benefit by getting to evaluate how interns perform in a job environment before making the final job offer thereby increasing the likelihood of selecting students that best fit the firm's needs and have the greatest potential to make contributions to the firm's future. (Rigsby et al., 2013, p. 1137) Jackson Realty & Builders will have the opportunity to see a potential employee in action to analyse if their work style fit in with the company values.From a student’s point of view, “...an internship can help them apply what they are learning in "real world" settings, gain more substantial professional experience, and begin to develop a network of people in fields that interest them”.(O’Neill, 2010)

Being satisfied with their development and socialization process as it fits within the matching process with the internship firm, students do not change their commitment to the firm and do not seek further job offers. (Rigsby et al., 2013) Additionally, if your organization impresses one class of interns, word will quickly spread. Enthusiasm about your field and your organization will increase.(15 Benefits of Starting an Internship Program, 2018) Jackson Realty should take advantage of the college student population of Indiana and hire interns, so that they may become potential full time candidates.

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Finding dependable employees is a challenge that most companies have to face in the hiring process and this is a challenge that can be dealt with if effective hiring strategies are used. IUPUI Libraries contains numerous databases with articles containing useful information pertaining to the hiring process. An article from one of the databases states, "This paper examines two such aspects, information‐task quality and context collapse, and their collective impact on ambiguity when making an assessment of a job candidate" (Pike. Jacqueline, Bateman. Patrick, Butler. Brian). This article will be very useful because it shares the problems with finding good candidates and some possible ways to filter out the unwanted candidates in an efficient manner. Finding good candidates for a company can be very stressful but filling the position with someone just to have the role filled can hinder a business even more than taking the time to find good employees. According to Zach Seybert, "Employers might be hiring candidates for the sole purpose of hiring someone. They need to fill a position, so they rush to do so. This, however, can lead to costly mistakes" (Seybert, Zach). Seybert has many ideas and solutions to provide for businesses on how to effectively hire candidates without just filling the role. These sources provide very useful for researching information on the hiring process of decent workers and this will be useful for providing Jackson Reality with recommendations on what to do to hire good Project Managers and Superintendents.

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In the new modern age there are more and more ways to recruit candidates for the job. The internet is the main source for job recruitment. IUPUI Libraries has provided many sources on how the internet is helpful in the hiring process. McCabe and Mary Beth, Authors of an article that talk about Linkedin, state, “Social media has disrupted traditional recruitment strategies by examining how students use these tools to find jobs that advance their careers.” The article is mainly researching how students and employers are able to better find a job or candidate due to all of the extra information that social media provides for both parties. The old way would have been a wanted ad in the newspaper with just a small description but now there is more to explain and the wants and needs of both parties are clear before the interview. “In some circumstances, social media helps brand the candidate and the company, connecting the job candidates with positions, thus cutting out the middleman.” (McCabe, Beth). This will help back up our recommendation to expand the linkedin website Jackson Reality is using. Amanda Cameron not only writes that social media improves the job search and the candidate search but also writes about how to improve the search. Cameron writes, “To stand out from the competition, create a great candidate experience. Start with writing an effective job description. Be sure to note the benefits, salary, and perks your client is willing to offer.” Not only should Jackson Realty expand their social media but they should make sure to be specific in their job descriptions to hire the right people.

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We survey IUPUI students to understand more about social media usage for job searching among college students in the Midwest. Out of the 37 respondents, the graph represents the response to the question,“What social media do you use for job searching?” The students were given an option to choose between multiple social media platforms and to provide an alternative answer to understand all platforms used. An overwhelming amount of students (83.8% of respondents) said that they used LinkedIn to look for internship/job opportunities. Facebook was chosen by 32.4% of the students that were surveyed. This chart is important as none of the respondents answered that social media was irrelevant to their job search. So, representing your company through all these platforms might increase exposure among IUPUI students.

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