Recruiting talents with social media

Introduction. Talent acquisition, retention and management -- these notions are commonly used in today's HRM. It is often claimed that people are the most important source of any organization, its fortune bringing competitive advantage and helping further development and innovations (Drucker, 2001; Chambers, Foulon, Handfield-Jones, Hanklin and Michaels, 1998; Michaels, Handfield-Jones and Axelrod, 2001).

Human resource management has been constantly evolving. Modern technologies, among other factors, have a strong influence on this development. The Internet, or more precisely the whole concept of ICT, brings new possibilities for personal management, including a new way how to acquire "standard" and talented employees.

The aim of this article is to analyze recruitment possibilities with the use of social media. To achieve this aim, a technique of meta-analysis is used. It is also important to define the concept of talent management, set a theoretical framework and verify the findings.

Concept of talent management. Talent management experienced a great deal of attention in the late 1990s when the firms all around the world faced a significant threat to doing business -- the shortage of executive talent. Good people, who were needed to run companies, to steer them through changing environment, to manage them, were suddenly hard to find, attract and retain (Chambers, Foulon, Handfield-Jones, Hanklin and Michaels, 1998; Michaels, Handfield-Jones and Axelrod, 2001). As a consequence, "talent acquisition, retention and management became a key challenge in global business" (Schuler, Jackson and Tarique, 2011). Mentioned research conducted by McKinsey consultants in 1998 triggered something that could be called a mainstream acceptance of talent management as a key management activity (Scullion and Collings, 2010).

In 2006, 7 in 10 corporate leaders spent more than 20% of their time on talent management activities. It seemed so important that it cannot be left to HR department alone. Even though the exact impact of talent management is hard to quantify, it has become a significant and important personnel activity because of a growing recognition that it helps to drive corporate performance (Economist Intelligence Unit, 2006).

According to the mentioned above, one of the crucial goals of a company should be securing a necessary number of quality employees. To overcome a labour shortage of talented people, especially of effective leaders, companies needs to develop their own employees and retain them longer, and not only search for those people at the market (Caplan, 2011). In contemporary economy specialization deepens and companies have to constantly come up with new technologies along with innovations in order to stay competitive. As a consequence, an unremitting demand for individuals able to keep up with the time and on top of that bring the competitive advantage is rising. On the other hand, employees have also higher standards and seek an employer willing to fulfil their demands, such as a balance between work and life and satisfaction of needs resulting from an ideal job (Cannon and McGee, 2007). As a result, it is increasingly difficult to acquire and retain talented employees within organization.

According to the 2012--2013 Talent Management and Rewards Survey, conducted by Towers Watson among 1605 employers worldwide, companies have difficulty attracting and retaining high-potential and critical-skills employees. Problems with attracting critically skilled employees, who are necessary to increase global competitiveness, mention 72% of the survey respondents. 60% of them have difficulty in attracting high potential and 59% cannot attract top-performing workers. Almost 60% of employers report difficulty with retaining all 3 mentioned types of employees. In addition to that, more than 40% of employers also mention issues with retaining employees with tenures of 18 months to 3 years (Towers Watson, 2012).

Thorough work with talented employees seems to be a necessary condition for organization to stay competitive. According to the study "Resetting Horizons: Human Capital Trends 2013" conducted by Deloitte among 1309 respondents globally, the emphasis on talent management remains and will probably stay the same in the future (Barry et al., 2013).

Theoretical framework, definitions. Much has been written on talent management in past years, yet there is one issue researchers greatly differ in. The definition of talent management itself is something literature does not agree upon. Lewis and Hackman (2006: 139) conclude there is "a disturbing lack of clarity regarding the definition, scope and overall goals of talent management". Also, Aston and Morton (2005: 30) think that there "isn't a single consistent or concise definition of talent management". As an example of different points of view, Creelman (2004: 2) sees talent management as "a perspective or a mindset" since talent is a key factor of a company success. Capelli (2008: 74) finds it to be "simply a matter of anticipating the need for human capital and then setting out a plan to meet it". Cheloha and Swain (2005) state that talent management is a key element to succession planning and Redford (2008) says that it is an effort to ensure that "everyone at all levels works to the top of their potential".

A more detailed review of literature reveals several key streams around the concept of talent management. Lewis and Heckman (2006) identify 3 following streams in regard to what talent management is. In the first one the authors merely substitute the notion of talent management for human resource management, often limiting their focus on common HR practises, such as recruitment, development, career management and the like. The second stream of talent management emphasizes the need for talent pool. The concept of talent pool focuses on "projecting employee/staffing needs and managing the progression of employees through positions" (Lewis and Heckman, 2006: 140). The last, third stream, focuses on talented people and their management.

In addition to the previously mentioned 3 streams, the fourth one which "emphasises the identification of key positions which have the potential to differentially impact the competitive advantage of the firm" can be identified (Collings and Mellahi, 2009). The authors focus on the following critical points:

1. To start with systematic identification of the key positions within the company which contribute significantly to sustainable competitive advantage.

2. To develop a talent pool of high-potential and high performing people to fill these positions.

3. To develop a differentiated human resource architecture to facilitate filling these positions with competent incumbents.

Egerova et al. (2013) provides an insight into talent management in business organisations in the Visegrad countries. The experts from Visegrad countries argue that in the business context the term "talent" generally refers to an employee who significantly contributes to performance of an organisation. Various approaches and definitions related to the talent management reviewed Sojka (2013) and Egerova (2014). The role of motivators addressed to talented people underlines Springer (2013) and factors -- basic salary, flexible elements of remuneration systems, type of executed tasks, social relations, corporate culture, development opportunities are considered as very important.

Current challenges of talent management in Hungary are presented by Czegledi, Kuna and Hajos (2003) and a deeper insight into talent management in business organisations in Czech Republic, specifically the extent to which business organisations engage in talent management practices and policies, gives (Egerova, 2014).

Talent management in personnel practise. Organizations encounter more and more difficulties while for searching suitable candidates for leading roles. It becomes harder to find an employee who meets all qualification requirements. It seems, that McKinsey's original term "war for talent" has been replaced with "war to develop talent". The reason is simple -- finding a candidate for a key position is harder externally rather than internally. Therefore, companies must identify skills that need to be nurtured and developed in their employees and focus on them. Learning how to use "big data" and analytics will be crucial here (Holland et al., 2013; Bersin, 2013).

A necessary condition of mastering HR management must be met in order to fully use the art of talent management. Only then a talent of individual person can be recognised and worked with. As Sojka (2013), Elegbe (2010) and Armstrong (2007) point out, the concept of talent management must pervade the organization and cannot be treated only as a responsibility or an activity implemented by the human resource department. On the contrary, it must be present at all levels, become deeply rooted in an organizational strategy and accepted and respected by executive management.

Use of the Internet for needs of talent management. As mentioned before in the text, the concept of talent management comprises 3 major phases -- acquisition, retention and management (development). This paper focuses on recruiting talented employees via the Internet with a focus on social media channel as a modern method of recruitment. Other "traditional" methods such as job advertisements in local newspapers, postings at a local labour office, recruitment agencies etc. are not covered in the article.

Yfears ago, it was assumed that it was employees who needed organizations in order to survive in the world. But times have changed and now it is organizations who realize the need of talented employees. Not machines, not capital, but talented people present a significant competitive advantage. To attract one, a company must become an attractive employer. The effort to attract an employee in terms of company name, reputation, harmonious relationships etc. is the key difference distinguishing acquisition of talented employees from the acquisition of standard employees (Armstrong, 2007; Koubek, 2008). It is better for an organization to be seen as sharing affinity for the community and not as just offering a job feed.

Employees' acquisition with the use of the Internet is known under several terms, such as e-recruitment or online recruitment. Online recruitment has become popular for several reasons. First, the costs are lower in comparison to traditional ways of recruiting. Second, it is very easy to send a post and a response comes faster too. As a result, the whole process of communication is faster (Barta, 2014). E- recruiting can also address lots of potential candidates globally. The nature of online environment makes the screening of candidates easier; talent pools filled with individual qualified candidates are generated according to selected criterion, which saves time of the HR department.

Acquisition with the use of the Internet is a very dynamic area. Deeper analysis of the Internet showed 3 main communication channels used by companies for recruitment of both "standard" and talented (it depends on the concept of a talent in a particular organization, see the theory of talent management mentioned above) employees: company's career site, career portals and social media.

Organizations start recruitment where people are to be found. Especially generation X and Z are on the Internet and widely used social networks. The exponential growth of social media sites (Strauss and Frost, 2012; Janouch, 2011) provides access to huge numbers of people looking for a new job and a new career, who offer their abilities and experience, and who want to develop personally and grow professionally. That presents an opportunity for recruitment and talent management.

Especially social media as a tool for recruitment can no longer be ignored. As Bersin (2007) says, "social media have disrupted and infiltrated every major HR process" including recruitment. Madia (2011) adds that reasons for social media use in recruitment strategy have been clearly documented and the companies that choose not to engage "risk becoming less competitive at best, and irrelevant at worst".

According to 2013 Jobvite survey of social media use by corporate recruiters, 94% of the respondents indicated they are currently using or they are planning to use social media in recruitment. That represents an increase in comparison with 78% in 2008 and 89% in 2011. LinkedIn (94%), Facebook (65%) and Twitter (55%) are the top network choice for recruitment purposes, followed by a group consisting of RSS, G + and YbuTube. It could be pointed out that various social media channels are suitable for various activities, e.g. search for candidates, showcase employer brand etc. (Jobvite, 2013).

For the purpose of documenting the recruitment process via the Internet, the research study focusing on recruitment with the use of Internet pages of 3 key automobile companies in Czech Republic is presented further.

1. Purpose and study objective. The purpose of this study is to investigate the current state of the recruitment process when using the websites of 3 key automobile companies in Czech Republic.

2. Instruments and procedures. The study involved the use of a structured heuristic analysis of HR and recruitment websites of selected companies. The heuristic website review was conducted by two Internet marketing experts.

Heuristic evaluation is a good method of identifying problems in communication with job seekers and talented people during the recruiting process online.

For the study, the following companies were selected: Skoda Auto Ceska republika, TPCA Kolin (Toyota-Peugeot-Citroen Automobile), Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Czech s.r.o., i.e. 3 key automobile companies in Czech Republic.

Both independent experts from the West Bohemia University in Pilsen evaluated the selected websites in October 2014 according to the key principles of Internet marketing (Strauss and Frost, 2012; Janouch, 2011; Todaro, 2007) and talent management.

With respect to the current situation in talent management in Czech Republic (Egerova, 2014), the evaluation was focused on: the website of HRM of department each company, advertising on 3 key job portals in Czech Republic and on social media represented by Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and YbuTube (Twitter is not suitable for Czech Republic). Special attention was paid to companies websites regarding information about company's culture and CSR, employee benefits, possibilities of personnel development and information about recruiting processes.

Conclusion and discussion. Online presentation is a today's must have and important companies understand that well. Their presence online is strong and their presentations are professionally made, adhering to the basic principles of the Internet marketing. One purpose of social networks, among other things, is to attract the attention of potential employees and to help with talents acquisition. In addition to network design and usability, relevant content is very important. Currently, it is also necessary to understand that presentation cannot be static, it cannot be a "shop window" as it was during the Web 1.0 times. On the contrary, Web 2.0 allows interactivity, it encourages and supports two-way communication with those interested in work.

Table 1 shows that the career sites of the analyzed companies were at a good level, yet a difference was found in the so important feature such as interactive support. At Skoda Auto and TPCA career pages job candidates have much better possibilities for registration. Skoda Auto career site is also the best personalized one; contacts on HR representatives including photos are available. This presents not just an option of choosing male of female representative for a candidate but it also offers a choice based on sympathy to make a candidate feel comfortable.

Table 1 Companies' career sites features

Table 2 Job portals advertising

All selected companies use the services of the biggest job portal in Czech Republic -- jobs.cz. Overall, out of the selected companies, Skoda Auto is the most active in terms of job portals use.

In our study, significant attention was devoted to social media. Evaluation of findings is shown in Table 3. As mentioned before, various social media channels are used for different purposes. For more detailed analysis see the full results of the Jobvite 2013 survey. All the selected companies use Facebook, although it is not primary used for recruiting. Its main purpose is to maintain the image of a company and to provide general information. LinkedIn is indisputably the most career-focused social network and G+ is the least used social network. With the number of users, unfortunately, Twitter is not relevant for the purposes of recruitment in Czech Republic. Overall, Skoda Auto is the best at the area of personnel marketing. Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Czech Ltd. does not pay sufficient attention to communication on social networks yet.

Table 3 Use of social media for purposes of employees' acquisition

In Table 4, areas related to motivation of talented people are evaluated (Springer, 2013). Companies nowadays do not forget to inform about corporate culture and pay attention to CSR (Bersin, 2007; Jobvite, 2013; Barry et al., 2013). Information about further development and also about company recruitment are important for new employees. In the all analyzed items, Skoda Auto was the best again and so, the company is an example of good practice for other firms in the area of talent acquisition and how Internet communication should be used. TPCA represents an example of good practise in the field of personal marketing as it shares very interesting stories of successful people on its pages.

Table 4 Organizational culture information availability

Table 5 Creation of positive image of organization

YbuTube offers an opportunity for future use, especially because young people already use this network as a search portal. In term of provided information, Skoda Auto is the richest with its YbuTube channel filled with videos.

However, LinkedIn is a network specifically significant for the acquisition of qualified workers. Personal marketing is already a part of human resource management, i.e. it is also a part of talent management. An implication resulting from this paper is the following: if most people of generations Y and Z regularly communicate via social media channels, companies have to move communication with talented people online and their attention should be paid to social media especially. References:

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