Choi+J.+Final+Report

Choi J.

proximity a next generation connection Proximity Research Report

**A New Hiring Strategy Through Facebook **

//Facebook is a Strategic Resource to Check Critical Personal Information of Potential Employees //

By Jungwook Choi

Spring 2010


 * 

Table of Contents **

Introduction 2
**What Gen Y users think about privacy on Facebook 2 ** Why employers favor Facebook to screen potential employees 4 Whether it is effective and appropriate for employers to screen potential employees 5 Recommendations 6 **
 * The weakness of personal security setting on Facebook 3

Executive Summary  With more than 400 million active visitors, Facebook is arguably the most popular social networking site in the world. A number of Gen Y users are willing to share their personal information and pictures on Facebook. However, many of Gen Y users are likely to ignore personal security settings becaus  e they ten d not to regard privacy as a major concern when using Facebook. Facebook can be a valuable tool for connecting Gen Y users to potential employers. Many employers are using social networking sites as a kind of professional tool appropriate and necessary to screen potential employers. Above all, a number of Gen Y users are willing to share their personal information or pictures. They tend to accept acquaintance and even strangers as their friends for social networking games or groups. In addition, some of them are likely to ignore personal security settings. Facebook has the option for users to customize lists of friends and decide what content members of each list can and cannot see. For Gen Y users, therefore, Facebook can be a vulnerable or valuable tool for connecting to potential employers. Therefore, Proximity clients who want to hire potential employees among Gen Y need this report to understand how effective and appropriate they can use it as a professional networking tool to check critical personal information of potential employees.

**Introduction: The Relation between Facebook and the Employment Market**

The extraordinary growth of Facebook <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">has made potential employers pay more attention to social networking sites as appropriate professinal tools to screen potnetial employees among Gen Y. Here are some of the major changes that have affected the relationship between Facebook and the employment market in the past two years:


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">In particular, nearly 72 percent of young adults, including Gen Y, use social networking cites, i.e. Facebook and Twitter;
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">With more than 400 milion active visitors, Facebook is arguably the most popular social networking site in the world;
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Our focus group results show that Gen Y users do not regard privacy as a major concern when using Facebook;
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">According to surveys, about 30 percent of employers are using Facebook to screen potential employees.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 14pt;">**<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">What Gen Y users think about privacy on Facebook **

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">In 2010, F-Secure, an internet security firm which polled 450 Facebook users, found that 73 percent were not ‘friends’ with their boss on the site. The survey also found that 77 percent said that they use its privacy tools to safeguard their personal information. The poll discovered that Facebook users have become increasingly aware of the need to ensure their private information and status updates remain private with 35 percent of pollsters admitting posting something on the site they later regretted. Likewise, Proximity's recent survey shows many Gen Ys are somewhat concerned about the importance of privacy on Facebook. However, they do not regard privacy as a major concern when using Facebook because they believe that their personal information can be protected by its security setting.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Above all, a number of Gen Y users are willing to share their personal information or pictures. They tend to accept acquaintance and even strangers as their friends for social networking games or groups. In addition, some of them are likely to ignore personal security settings. According to Adrielle Harvey's article on April 4, 2010, for example, it is unlikely for somone to approach a stranger and ask them to be friends in reality. Many people are, on the other hands, lilkely to make a lot of friends whom <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">they have neither talked to nor met on social networking. They do not realize that they unconsciously share their personal information with realy friends and even strangers.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 14pt;">**The weakness of personal security setting on Facebook**

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Since social networking sites typically involve disclosing often very personal information to their people whom they accept as a "friend", it is important for users to have faith that the social networking brand will respect the privacy of this information. A recent research by GfK Technology indicates, however, reports Facebook has lower levels of trust in keeping personal information private than either Microsoft or Google. Given the remarkably high levels of usage of Facebook, this is clearly a concern for the brand owners.



<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 10pt;">

Figure 1. Trust to Keep Personal Data Safe Source: Gfk Tech Talk ([]) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;"> It is also very likely that changes to Facebook’s privacy policy introduced last year have had an impact on consumer perceptions with much comment that they are designed to ‘nudge’ consumers into publicly sharing much more information. Meanwhile, Facebook indicates that they are simply trying to encourage people to be more open with their updates. No matter what the rights and wrongs in this situation if consumers suspect that the level of privacy that they signed up for is changing and even worse changing without their full awareness they will quickly start losing faith. Facebook have recently made a few changes to the privacy settings control panel as part of an ongoing review of their data privacy policy. This time round, Facebook needs to effectively manage consumers’ expectations and their understanding of its privacy policy for consumers to place more trust in the service.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 14pt;">
 * Why employers favor Facebook to screen potential employees**

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">According to the New York Times on August 20, 2009, a new study conducted by Harris Interactive for CareerBuilder.com indicated 45 percent of employers questioned are using social networks to screen potential employees — more than double from a year earlier, when a similar survey found that just 22 percent of supervisors were researching potential hires on social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and LinkedIn.

In particular, Facebook is the most popular online destination for employers to do their online sleuthing, followed by LinkedIn and MySpace. This article shows most job applicants have a general checklist before a job interview — updating a résumé, ironing a professional outfit, rehearsing an explanation for those two years spent bumming around after college.

Pingdom, website monitoring service, reported in 2010 that the average Facebook visitor views 661.8 pages on the social network each month whereas visitors to Facebook's nearest rival, Hi5, only view an average of 351.2 pages per month. MySpace comes in at 261.8 monthly page views per visitor. In other words, Facebook have much bigger user-base than other social networking websites in terms of the statistical data illustrating that about 350 million people check the site at least once a month.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Figure 2. Monthly Page Views Per Visitor For Social Networking Sites Source: Business Insder SAI ([] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;"> )

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 14pt;">**Whether it is effective and appropriate for employers to screen potential employees**

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">According to the New York Times on August 20, 2009, the study, which questioned 2,667 managers and human resource workers, found that 35 percent of employers decided not to offer a job to a candidate based on the content uncovered on a social networking site. For more than half of the employers who participated in the survey, in particular, provocative photos are the biggest factor contributing to a decision not to hire a potential employee, while 44 percent of employers pinpointed references to drinking and drug use as red flags. Other warning signs included bad-mouthing of previous employers and colleagues and poor online communication skills.

The report of the Dailycougar in 2010 indicates that nearly 72 percent of young adults and 40 percent of adults 30 and older use some form of social networking site, such as Facebook and Twitter. Both Facebook and Twitter keep everyone well connected and constantly updated. Not only are these networking tools extremely effective for establishing connections with your family and friends, but also they can also have a strong impact when it comes to job searching.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 14pt;">Recommendations

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Proximity focus group results show Gen Y is generally afraid <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">of the risk that potential employers would view my personal life. <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> However, they do not think of privacy as a major concern on Facebook, because they believe that their personal information can be protected by its security settings. <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">According to Proximity research results, about 30 percent of employers are using Facebook to screen potential employees among Gen Y because of their indifference about privacy and the weakness of security setting on Facebook. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Therefore, Proximity strongly suggests that employers not only comprehend how Gen Y users are protecting their personal information <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">on Facebook but also <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;"> analyzes the weakness of its personal security setting through various surveys and authorized data in order to use effectively and appropriately the site as a professional tool for employment. <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">It is significant for Proximity to advise potential employers <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">to establish a new hiring strategy through Facebook as a strategic resource to check critical personal information of potential employees. In addtion, new softwares automatically monitoring Facebook accounts will be helpful to establish a new hiring strategy for human resources departments checking personal information of prospective employees

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 14pt;">Attactment 1: Focus Group Result <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Facebook is currently the dominant social networking site and therefore the most attractive place for businesses to connect with Gen-Y users. The social networking landscape, however, is volatile because users can easily switch from one site to another. Our focus groups seek to determine if Gen-Y still favors Facebook, how they primarily use the site, and what developments would cause this demographic to switch to another site. This information will allows to advise Proximity clients about how to create an effective presence on Facebook.


 * 1) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">What social networks do you use and why?
 * 2) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">How do you use social networking sites. Do you actually spend time on the site interacting with individuals beyond a circle of friends ?
 * 3) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">If your favorite stores and companies had pages on social networking sites, would you follow them? Why? How would you prefer to communicate with them?
 * 4) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Do you feel that your social networking site protects your privacy
 * 5) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Does your social networking site allow you to customize your pages as much as you would like?

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">**Findings**
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">likes simplicity
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">has "follow the crowd" mentality
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">privacy not a major concern as long as there are settings
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">not worth it for businesses to try to connect
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">military and females social network more

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 14pt;">Attachment 2: Facebook Security <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Here is critical information about Facebook Security that companies have to know in using Facebook.



<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 14pt;">Attachment 3: Teneros Social Sentry <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">This is a example of new softwares automatically monitoring Facebook accounts.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 14pt;">References Barnett, Emma (2010, April 26). Facebook users concerned about privacy, says survey.Telegraph. Retriveved May 10, 2010. from <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">[]

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">Brustein, Joshua (2010, March 26). Keeping a Closer Eye on Employees’ Social Networking. the New York Times. Retrieved April 10, 2010, from : []

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Carlson, Nicholas (2010, January 12) Chart of the day: The Average Facebook User Views 662 Facebook Pages Per Month. Business Insider SAI. Retriveved May 10, 2010. from <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">[]

Harvey, Adrielle (2010, April 4). Social networking: 'friend' vs. friend. CJonline. Retrieved April 10, 2010, from []

He, Chenlong (2010, March 22). Careers made with social networking. the Daily Cougar. Retrieved April 10, 2010, from []

Joyce, Erin (2010, April 6). 6 Career-Killing Facebook Mistakes. the San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved April 10, 2010, from <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">[]

Strong, Colin (2010, Feburary 15) Low levels of trust in Facebook over privacy. GFK Tech Talk. Retriveved May 10, 2010. from <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">[]

Tosch, Margie (2010, March 17). Social Media: A Boon or a Bust for Candidates and Employers? 4hoteliers. Retrieved April 10, 2010, from : <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">[]

Wortham, Jenna (2009, August 20). More Employers Use Social Networking to Check Out Applicants. Retrieved April 10, 2010, from the New York Times: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">[]