The relevance of a digital profile as an employability tool

An employability tool is a way of representing one's image. Knight and Yorke

(2004, reissued 2006) has explained that there are different meanings for the
term 'employability' such as 'getting a graduate job' and successfully skills
for interview. The following essay will show the relevance of using a digital
profile as an employability tool showing the pros and cons of using them as
well as the limitations, such as issues that it may cause which will be
supported by research.
The USEM model (Knight and Yorke, 2004) shows employability sections of
understanding, Efficacy beliefs, use of skilful practices (including deployment
of skills) and Meta-cognition such as self-awareness and a strive to reflect on
learning. Employability can be defined as: 'a set of achievements such as
skills, understandings and personal attributes that make graduates more
likely to gain employment and be successful in their chosen occupations,
which benefits themselves, the workforce, the community and the economy
Yorke (2004, reissued 2006).
Social networking sites (SNSs) give employees and employers to produce
online profiles where users can interact. Although it was created for social
reasons, these platforms have risen in popularity, particularly in the field of
recruitment. Social media sites create reasons for having one for e.g. as a
marketing tool where people looking for jobs can use SNSs to represent and
advertise their profiles to potential employers and vice versa.
Digital profiles have been noticed and used by organisations such as
businesses to find potential recruits with the reliance of online digital profiles.
LinkedIn is an example of where it can be used for finding clients,
researching new candidates, keep tabs on their business acquaintances,
creating contacts and becoming active in professional communities that
matter to their long-term career goals. LinkedIn offers useful research tools
such as searching for skill level, companies or people, level and their
specialisation,. (Steve Buttury, 2009)

Companies are increasingly using LinkedIn as a recruitment tool. Job

vacancies can be posted on the site and can be used to advertise their
interest in someone who may be a potential candidate should they have the
sufficient skills and requirements. However, there are some risks in which
recruiters gather false contacts or invalid names for who they may have
never had contacts with before. (Split Strategy, 2013)

There are a total of 332 million users of LinkedIn which shows a vast increase
as time passes on. Although given how there are 15 million users in the UK, it
shows that not everyone uses LinkedIn given there are at least 30.4 million
workers in the UK. This shows that LinkedIn is used by many users for their
professional profiles as the data shows the increase in popularity usages.
(Statista, 2014)
There are a number of benefits where employers use the internet to help
recruit potential employees. Firstly, it allows companies to save time hiring
people as they are able to access the information through their profiles
instead of direct references. It also reduces costs for recruiting such as
interview times and employee turnover and offer statistical predictions.
Smith and Rupp (2004).
Smith and Rupp state that: Shifting hiring processes from the paper and
time-intensive manual method to an automated one saves time and money
and boosts productivity by leaving positions vacant for shorter periods of
time. (Smith and Rupp, 2004)
Moreover, on several digital profile sites such as LinkedIn, a wider range of
employing people throughout the world on a global scale, increasing their
range for potential staff recruitment.

The usages of SNSs is becoming world spread in recruitment. In 2008, for

example, a survey for the US Society for Human Resource Management
(SHRM) found that the number of organisations that reported using SNSs as
an HR tool had grown from 21% in 2006 to 44% in 2008. 34% were using
these sites as a marketing tool to recruit or contact applicants and 13% were
using them as a screening tool (Davison, Maraist and Bing, 2011).
Currently 3% per cent of UK businesses actively make use of social media as
a channel for recruitment. This shows that companies using more of social
media for employment purposes. This is particularly likely, given the fact that
the number of jobseekers using social networking sites to locate potential
employers and vacancies is increasing. (UK Gov, 2012)
Employers emphasises the increase in importance of social media in
recruitment as well as its future potential: 92 % of respondents use or plan
to use social media for recruiting, an increase of almost ten percent from the
83 per cent using social recruiting in 2010 (Jobvite, 2012).
In the UK, Mitchells & Butlers created a Facebook pages to promote in
brands, such as Harvester and Toby Carvery and state: "Social media and
sharing is an increasingly important part of our marketing strategy," says
recruitment policy manager, James Marriott. "Each jobs page has been
equipped with social sharing buttons for LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, to
allow us to be part of the wider employment conversation and to stimulate
conversations about working for the company, our brands and the industry."
(HR Magazine, 2012) The use of social media and their effectiveness has
clearly been used here.
Digital profiles can be an issue for example Facebook where many students
are fearing that their activities on posts/comments on the social networking
site may affect job prospects. The Information Commissioners Office (ICO)
has stated that: Four out of 10 students (42 per cent) are worried that
personal details they have shared on social networking sites, such
as Facebook, as well as elsewhere online, could blight their chances of
getting a job. (Telegraph, 2011). Users generally updating their profiles with
photos may contain images that may not be suited for work standards and
these photos can cause problems for employers as to whether they have
passed the requirements for the job. Although privacy settings can be
adjusted for the user, several organisations can be concerned with the
content of the user's capabilities.
Another issue is that although many use LinkedIn, it has been shown that not
everyone uses the site particularly in the labour section where CVs are a
much more preferable option as opposed to a digital profile of LinkedIn.

Social media platforms provide advantages to employers helps recruitment,

although having social media to search and find for potential candidates also
has risks and costs. Screening is generally the main risk for recruitments
made via social media. Clark and Roberts state out: " Employers have always
been able to request background and reference information on job applicants
but have been self-restrained in doing so because of the cost and legal
requirements." (Clark and Roberts, 2010) This suggests there are ethical
reasons and that not every company may wish to consider using digital
profiles as a way of extracting useful information. Social media is used in
many departments causing questions about their accuracy, cost and any
legal issues that could surface. Digital profiles such as LinkedIn can also
provide false information or perhaps be out of date creating a problem for
both the employee and employer as time and money may be wasted on out
of date information affecting the decisions in the recruitment process.

Source: Acas online panel survey of HR decision makers (2013)

This graph shows that some don't have access to social media with the
choice of 38% being topped.
Using SNSs is is not a formal way when assessing a potential candidate. This
means that it may not be possible to verify that the information obtained is
accurate (Davison, Maraist and Bing, 2011; Nigel Wright Recruitment, 2011).
The information people share on SNSs can be changed or edited due to
socially privacy reasons. For example, somebody might post pictures of
themselves socialising and drinking alcohol at parties which would not be
suited for potential recruiters.

LinkedIn is designed mainly for viewing by potential employers in contrast to

Facebook which is used for more private reasons. Davison, Maraist and Bing
(2011) point out that: Employers often assume that the information posted
will be more accurate than what candidates provide in a cover letter because
they do not expect the website to be viewed by Nonetheless, an individual
who creates a webpage may be trying to impress friends and family and the
type of distortion or faking may differ depending on the intended viewer.
(Davison, Maraist and Bing, 2011)
Information could also be extracted about a potential employee through
another party source. (Maraist and Bing, 2011).
Mistakes can also be caused when using social media such as in Twitter
where messages are instantly and therefore the comments made are rapidly
made, which sometimes do not give organisations or individuals a great deal
of time to reflect. Job seekers without access to the internet have a
competitive disadvantage compared to those who use the internet (Rooy et
al., 2003 in Searle, 2006).
The main problem with social media sites would be the accuracy of online
information used in HR decisions to which the missing parts of data for
instance to help that the information used in screening is job relevant or
perceptions of invasion of applicant privacy (Brown and Vaughn 2011).
The turn down of applicants due to misinformation, particularly if obtained
without their consent, employers have a right to open a challenge for legal
action. Davison et al (2012) argue: we believe that Internet screening for
deviance or criminality could result in employee rights violations or possible
lawsuits, if it were later determined that such information was relied upon
erroneously. Another issue is defamation possibilities of character through
online postings from third parties: defamation of character could be a
problem if websites contain inaccurate and libellous information, which is a
major legal concern with traditional background checks (Davison et al,
2012)
Overall, it is implying that social media sites (digital profiles) such as
LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter are being used more by people and that
companies are looking at these platforms with great interest. Although the
extent to which they will be used will depend things such as the size of the
company.
The number of benefits using social media for recruitment purposes have
been distinguished clearly mainly relating to the savings on time and cost.
Organisations that use tools such as LinkedIn for recruiting employees are
finding that this results in saving costs. Furthermore, social media can help
organisations to target specific individual requirements as well as giving an
idea of their environment work place and reach a wider range of potential
candidates. This combination of reach that is at the same time wider and
more targeted is very interesting for recruiting organisations.

There are also various risks and costs related with the use of social media for
recruitment as discussed such as distributing resources to social media sites
as traffic can be significant and unpredictable. These problems based on
equality and diversity, inaccurate information, privacy issues and the use of
information about candidates. This however does not deny the fact that
digital profiles are being used pro dominantly by many organisations as an
employability tool.
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