eThesis - Kauppakorkeakoulun sähköiset gradut

Research Objectives

The objective of the research is to understand the phenomenon of social media usage in recruitment communication to attract talents. It aims to understand Finnish companies' social media usage for recruitment communication purposes. The research concentrates on recruitment communication that aims to attract job applicants to apply a position in a company and thus the framing of the study is in job marketing and employer branding. Research explores ways of using social media for recruitment communication and the main purposes behind that. In addition it explores the main challenges of using social media in recruitment communication purposes.

Data and Methodology

This research is qualitative and interpretive in nature as it aims to explore core meanings and themes of the phenomenon recruitment communication in social media in data-driven manner. Research data was collected in five semi-structured theme interviews. The themes for interviews were recruitment communication, employer branding and social media. The interviewees were from five well-known Finnish companies who have a strong employer brand already and who are using social media in their recruitment communication in some level. The interview data is then analyzed by thematic analysis.

Key Findings

The main findings of the research are that companies want to increase their visibility through social media presence and thereby attract potential job applicants. However, visibility of the companies is still quite unilateral. In order to gain more visibility in the future, companies need more resources and skills to create interesting and relevant content into social media channels. Also, better understanding towards the importance of employer branding from management of the company is needed. The whole company should be engaged to employer branding in order to convey it genuinely to potential job applicants and attract them. Also, understanding the target audiences in different situations is needed in order to create relevant content for each target and to reach them. Even though social media usage in recruitment communication has some challenges, it also offers opportunities to attract and inform job applicants in an efficient way.