Social media usage in HR departments in Greece

Social media usage in Social media usage in HR departments in HR departments in

GreeceGreece

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Master of Management in Business Innovation and TechnologyAthens Information Technology

2012

By

Ghazi Alnatsheh

SupervisorXenia ziouvelou

Social media overview Social media overview

•Social media is about conversations, community, connecting

with personalities and building relationships. It is not just a

broadcast channel or a sales and marketing tool.

•Authenticity, honesty and open dialogue are key.

•Social media not only allows you to hear what people say about

you, but enables you to respond. Listen first, speak second.

Social media is a term used to collectively

describe a set of tools that foster interaction,

discussion and community, allowing people

to build relationships and share information.

Social media in companies Social media in companies

Companies are feeling the need to be

present on not just one social media

platform, however, on ensuring that

they are “available and listening” to

all people at all times.

• It is interesting to note that over 2.5 million organizations have a

Facebook presence in addition to their corporate websites.

• A lot of reasons are motivating organizations to embrace social

media and also the feel the need to adopt it because all its

competitors are adopting social media too.

• Social media usage in companies is useful in HR, Marketing,

R&D ..etc departments.

Social media in HR Dept. Social media in HR Dept.

• In 2010, only 6% of companies were using social media for

recruiting. Today, that’s exploded to 89%.

• As the number of global HR professionals climbs close to

one million, so it becomes important for this relatively new

profession to define what it means to be effective, and using

social media is the way for it.

• The choice is simple, you can either interact with your world

or allow your world to leave you in the dust. Today’s HR

professionals must participate in social media to remain

current.

http://careerenlightenment.com/social-media-job-seeking-tips/how-businesses-use-social-media-for-recruiting-infographic

Empirical Findings about social Empirical Findings about social media in HR Dept.media in HR Dept.

• The current engagement in social media activities for HR

purposes based on the following countries:

USA 44 % Greece !!

Australia 42 %

ObjectivesObjectives

This thesis aims to provide an overview of how an organization uses the social media in the human resources departments in Greece, and to explore the advantages and

disadvantages of it, in addition to find out the social media usage in the companies internally through its intranets and what benefits it can brought for Greek

companies.

Thesis OverviewThesis Overview

Literature review

Study objectives

Research design

Empirical study

Findings

Conclusion

Study limitations and future studies

Social media usage in HR departmentsSocial media usage in HR departments

The exist literature in relation to social media usage in HR departments will be presented in the following three fundamental areas :

1.Social media usage at workplace and HR departments.

2.The pros and cons of using social media in human resources.3.Internal usage of social media in work environments and HR department.

LR:Social media usage at work place LR:Social media usage at work place and HRand HR

• Davison, Maraist and Bing (2011)

• HR Toolbox (2011)

• Birkman (2011)

• Kluemper and Rosen (2009)

• SHRM (2001)

It seems that many organizations are using the social media especially LinkedIn and Facebook which have the majority of using. Also many managers and HR practitioners are using social networking websites to make important HR decisions such as recruiting, selecting, and terminating individuals. And it seems that using social media is worthy time wise and it is trustful method of doing the job.

LR: The pros and cons of using social LR: The pros and cons of using social media in HRmedia in HR

The pros :

by

•Kubitz (2012)

•Jobvite (2009)

•Mike Kohn(2010)

•Social Intelligence Hiring

(2012)

LR: The pros and cons of using social LR: The pros and cons of using social media in HRmedia in HR

The cons: •Privacy Rights

Clearinghouse (2010)

•Gross, R. and Acquisti,

A. (2005)

The advantages and disadvantages of social media usage in human resources and in the work place it is clearly obvious that the advantages are too many and can bring the organization with a lot of benefits, in the other hand there were few cons of using them but they are actually concerns more than disadvantages especially when it comes to the privacy issues.

LR: LR: Internal usage of social media in Internal usage of social media in work environments and HRwork environments and HR

• APCO Worldwide and Gagen MacDonald(2011).

• Towers Watson research (2009/2010) .

• Nielsen Norman Group (2009).

• Aberdeen Group study.

• Douglas Karr (2008).

In relation of using social media internally we can conclude that there is a slowly adoption for it these day but the experts saying that in the near future most of the companies will adopt it considering the value and the advantages that they will gain from it.

Social media in HR departments in GreeceSocial media in HR departments in Greece

Unfortunately!!!

There were no studies done by

anyone under the same subject in

Greece which left us with a huge

gap of studies that we found it

interesting to start a research to

cover and seek an answers for

any related topic in this area.

Study objectivesStudy objectives

1. How do HR professionals use social media and Web 2.0

technologies in the different functions of HR departments

in Greece

2. How do Greek HR professionals use social media

internally (within the company intranet)?

3. What are the pros and cons of using social media in human

resources department in Greece for internal and external

purposes?

4. Exploring the companies behaviour in social media usage

Research design and approachResearch design and approach

• Research Design: exploratory research

explore “what is happening and to seek new insights.

• Research Approach: inductive approach

by collecting data and develop theory as a result of our data analysis.

• Research Strategy: a survey strategy

we used a questionnaire to collect our data, by sending the

questionnaire to 100 companies (70 for online and 30 for physical

questionnaire); the survey received 27 responses (13 online & 14

physical), which made the response rate is 27 % ; the study

duration was from 24/09/2012 until 30/09/2012.

Participants & proceduresParticipants & procedures

• The target population (sample) of the study is companies in Greece despite theirbusiness sectors or the size of the companyor professions.

• We collect our data by initiating a convenient questionnaire and we distributed it via email to 70 random Greek companies and it was targeting the HR department directly to fill in the questionnaire, and to 30 physical presented company during AIT career day on 26-27/9/2012.

• We gave the recipient companies one week waiting period to answer the online questionnaire, then we started doing our analysis based on the data we have received from them, and after the analysis part we built a conclusion for the study.

•We built the online questionnaire using Google

document feature

• It contains 30 questions divided between open,

multiple choice and rating questions.

• The questions were created into 5 sections :

A.Demographics (company profile).

B.Social media usage at your HR department.

C.The pros and cons of social media usage in HR

department

D.(Intra-company) usage of social media in work

environments and HR departments

E.Nonsocial media usage companies

Questionnaire designQuestionnaire design

The question Source of the question Study description What is your position in the HR department? How long has your company been using social media for HR purposes? Does your company Provide a social media policy?

Birkman International (2011), Human Resources 2.0: How HR Professionals and HR Consultants Use Social Media and Web 2.0 Technologies.www.birkman.com

Questionnaire: YesYear: 2011Area: USAResponse rate: 1,085%

Does your company use social media?Which social media components does your HR department use to reach external audiences?Does your company provide any social media training to employees who are engaged in social media activities?Does your company Block access to any social media on company-owned computers or handheld devices?

The Society for human resources management (2011), Social Media in the Workplace. www.shrm.org/research

Questionnaire: YesYear: 2011Area: USAResponse rate: 19%

Who is responsible for social media management in your company? Please rate the current usage of social media in your HR department regarding the effectiveness, easiness and trust worthiness?In your company, can employees use the internal social media to communicate directly with the management?

Karen Purser (2012) Using Social Media in Local Government, 2011 Survey Report www.acelg.org.au

Questionnaire: YesYear: 2011Area: Australia Response rate: 225 response

Questions designQuestions design

http://www.shrm.org/research

Study FindingsStudy Findings

Our findings will be categorize into three areas as

the followiong:

A.Demographical findings and responses.

B.Using social media companies findings.

C.Non using social media companies findings.

A. Demographical findings and responses

• The percentages of responses based on thecompany’s size are large companies (37 %); Medium sized companies (18.5 %), small companies (26 %) and

micro companies (18.5 %).• All companies are belongs in the private sector.• The percentages of responses based on the company’s business

sector are HR companies (22 %), IT (26 %), Telecommunications (11%), each of Energy, business services and Pharma (5.5 %) equally, and others (19%).

• The percentages of the responder’s positions in the HR department are managers (41 %), general analysts (18.5 %), each of directors and specializing analysts (11 %) equally and others (18.5 %).

• 85 % of Greek companies are using social media, and 15 % do not use social media in their company at all.

• 70 % of the Greek companies that use social media are using it for HR purposes as well.

• 50 % of the Greek companies that use social media are using it for internal purposes.

B.Using social media companies findingsB.Using social media companies findings

The top percentages of Greek companies who are using social media in HR department based on their size are micro (85 %) and small (80 %) companies.

The two major Greek company’s business sectors that use social media in HR department are HR companies (100 %) and IT companies (71 %).


There is no major department who is responsible for the social media management in Greek companies, each of HR Dept., IT Dept., marketing Dept. and others are (25 %) equally.


The responsible departments of social media management in Greek companies

LinkedIn (100%) and Facebook (56%) are the most popular social media tools that Greek companies use to reach external audiences.



37 % of the companies have started using social media for HR purposes during the last year in Greece.


Greek companies often use social media for recruiting (44 %) and screening (37.5 %) processes and never use it for termination decisions (69 %).


When asked to rate their usage of social media in their HR departments, Greek companies evaluated their usage as (the effectiveness of using social media is medium (61%), easiness average is medium (62.5%) and the trustworthiness also medium (62.5 %).


The top rated advantages of social media usage in HR departments were found to be as a recruiting tool (88 %), a company’s reputation building tool (80%), an online branding tool (82%) and a community building tool (80%).


A. A recruiting toolB. A communication toolC. A corporate

communications/employee engagement tool

D. A company’s reputation building tool

E. An online branding toolF. An information acquisition

toolG. A community building toolH. A promotional toolI. An internal networking toolJ. An idea generational toolK. A tool for identifying

prospective business partners

When asked: In your opinion, which are the disadvantages of using social media in HR department?

•Requires too much effort.

•Non trustable points.

•The vivid interaction is not easy.

•Cannot control what is being said once it has been published.

•The employees do not accept social media as a tool.

•Illegally used of online information.


Privacy concerns (70%) are the top rated concerns by social media usage in HR departments in Greece followed by productivity reduction (58%); Time wastage (56%) and cost increase (42%).


62% of the companies have started using social media for internal purposes during the last two years in Greece.


LinkedIn (33%) and the private social media networks (25%) are the mostly used for internal purposes by Greek companies.


The top rated advantages in internal social media usage in Greek companies were: Monitor and drive corporate strategies (76%), Knowledge sharing and collaboration (80%), Promote internal networks (80%).


A. Monitor and drive corporate strategies

B. Internal idea generation

C. Knowledge sharing and collaboration

D. Promote internal networking

E. Promote company's news internally

F. Increase communications between the employees and management

G. Internal information retrieval

H. Increasing innovation potential

The most common communication types that Greek companies use in the internal social media are: peer to peer (77.4%) and employee to employee communications (72%).


75% of Greek companies let their employees use internal social media to communicate directly with the management.

25% of Greek companies have a specific internal social media usage policy


Internal social media usage does not depend on company’s size in Greek companies.


When asked: Could you briefly tell us what are the main reasons that prevent you from using social media in your HR department and /or internally?

•Lack of resources

•Working toward hiring the write people

•It is difficult during the crises

•Need a specialist personnel

•It was not in company's philosophy

•You may exclude people for low level job roles because they

are not able to use them

•Privacy issues

•No real need

C.Non Using social media companies findingsC.Non Using social media companies findings

It will take one year for 50% of the Greek companies to start adopting social media in their HR department.


33% of the Greek companies have been proposed or requested to adopt social media in the HR department by their employees.


A glimpse of serious games A glimpse of serious games When asked: Would your company adopt serious games for HR purposes (i.e. training, employee selecting...etc.)?

When asked: Could you please briefly tell us what are the main reasons that prevent your company from adopting serious games in its intranet?

•The internal strategy.

•No real need.

•It has not been looked into thoroughly yet.

•It will lead to somehow lose time for the daily activity of each employee.•Any kind of social media activity or game would necessarily go through a code of conduct control which implies a higher relevant allocation of resources.

ConclusionConclusion

• Many Greek organizations and HR professionals understand the impact of social media usage in human resources departments and how it will be useful if they adopt this approach in doing their jobs, but it still not wide spread and they are afraid of the concerns that it can bring to the organizations.

• The usage of social media in the HR functions still not a primary tool for the HR department in the Greek companies even that they know the pros of it.

• The most popular social media tools to reach external audiences are LinkedIn and Facebook; also they are being used a lot by the Greek organizations as an internal social media tool.

ConclusionConclusion• The percentages of social media usage in HR based on the

companies size shows that small and micro companies are engaging with social media more than the medium and large companies in Greece which mean that small sized companies are trying to expand their audiences and their branding through these tools.

• The very high percentage of the HR companies of social media usage for HR purposes indicates that these companies are the most who know the benefits and advantages of the social media adoption followed by IT companies.

• We can also conclude that there is a variety of differences in social media usage between Greece and other countries. For example the different social media usage between USA and Greece, and it shows that in some cases Greece have better results and worse in some other aspects.

Question / Region USA ** Greece

The current percentages of usage in social media activities to reach external audiences in organizations.

68 % (1) 85 %

The current engagement in social media activities for HR purposes

44 % (1) 70 %

The percentage of organizations that block access to social media on company-owned computers or handheld devices.

43 % (1) 37 %

The most used social media tool for HR purposes LinkedIn(75%)Facebook(66%) (2)

LinkedIn(100%), Facebook (56%)

Percentages of organizations that have start using social media for HR purposes during the last year.

25% (2) 56 %

Percentages of organizations that provide any social media training to employees who engage in social media activities

27 % (1) 19 %

Percentage of the organizations who had a policy for social media usage

31 % (2) 56 %

Greece VS USAGreece VS USA

In relation to the internal usage of social media:

•The adoption of internal social media within the intranet in the Greek organizations is not common.•Within the next few years it will be trending because the organizations are becoming aware of the advantages of adopting the internal social media in their intranets.•Facebook and linked in are the top common tools for internal usage as they are the top in the external usage.•Even though that the communication types that Greek companies use in the internal social media are almost similar, but it mostly common use as an employee to employee communications, which limited the direct communications between the employees and the management.•Privacy and control considered as a reasons that prevent companies to adopt internal social media, in addition to that the crises matter and the lake of resources are being an issues nowadays in Greek companies.•The company size does not seem to play a role in the adoption of internal social media in Greek companies.


In relation to the companies who do not use social media in HR departments or for internal purposes, a lot of these companies are planning to adopt social media in their companies in one year period which is a promising point. It is not obvious if the industry type or the companies size effect the decision of social media in Greek companies.


The best practices for social media usage for HR purposes in GreeceThe best practices for social media usage for HR purposes in Greece

•Keeping up with industry social networks by practicing recruiting, selection and screening processes via participating in LinkedIn and Facebook since they are the most common social media platforms.•Adopting social media in the HR departments can be very useful as a recruiting tool, a company’s reputation building tool, an online branding tool, and a community building tool.•Subscribing to Blogs and RSS feeds.•Getting on Twitter which is the trend nowadays.•Initiate a policy for social media practices to clear out the goals of the usage and to control it more, and it can limit the concerns and cons of the social media usage.•Defined a particular department to be responsible of social media management in the company, you could make it a separate department or you can add these authorities to one of the existed departments.•Providing training to the employees who are engaged in social media activities is a smart move and highly recommended.

Study limitationsStudy limitations

1. The sample size is considered convenient but due to the limited companies contact list that we used we were unable to reach more participants in the questionnaire which will make the results more accurate and the generalization of the conclusion will be more effective.

2. The available time was a little short for us which can affect the richness of the literature review otherwise we could collect more ideas and discussions in the topic.

3. The study did not include any other methods to collect data rather than the questionnaire, using another method such as interviews and observations will increase the accuracy level of the study.

Future studiesFuture studies

• It would be interesting to compare the social media usage in HR departments between different countries or to investigate more about the culture types and how would the results be affected with this variable.

• It is recommended that further researches be undertaken in the field of social media usage for external purposes and how could the management take advantages from it and to investigate if it is possible to earn some money by adopting and using the social media by the organization.

• Further investigation and experimentation into how HR uses the social media is strongly recommended, and how to perceive new employees and to measure the efficiency of the selected employees by social media platforms are recommended.

• Also it would be interesting to assess the effects of the social media usage policy implementations inside the organization for internal and external purposes.

• A new phenomenon is trending now a days which is “Gamification”, so a researches in Gamification and how to be used in HR departments should be worthy.

• A future research is recommended to examine why and what are the reasons that prevent the companies from adopting social media in their companies.

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QUESTIONS !!QUESTIONS !!

Social media usage in HR departments in Greece

Business

nielsen norman

news internallyincrease

social networking

towers watson

social media

social intelligence

aberdeen group

reach external