In the war for talent, many organizations have started marketing the use of social media as a platform to communicate with and attract talent as part of their e-recruitment strategy. Recently, some of those organizations have begun replacing part of the e-recruitment process with social media platforms with video, such as Snapchat. Technology continues to advance and social media use has largely become an acceptable method for people to communicate, share ideas, and portray themselves both personally and professionally. Participants (n = 535) were surveyed regarding whether they would apply to an organization that marketed video-enabled social media as part of their hiring process, as well as their privacy concerns and attitude towards an organizations perceived trendiness. The results indicate that whilst privacy concerns exist, if organizations are only using video-enabled social media as part of their e-recruitment strategy to be perceived as ‘trendy’, then applicants are less likely to apply for the job.

Introduction

With the proliferation of social media, video-enabled social media has become an acceptable form of communication, from sharing ideas to portraying oneself both personally and professionally. Technology savvy organizations are exploring how social media fits into the workplace and how video-enabled social media can be more readily used during the e-recruitment process, as well as to better understand job applicant attitudes towards the use of such technology in regards to applying for a new position with an organization. Video-enabled social media is currently at the forefront of how people interact with each other, and share information. Individuals are able to connect with people from many different aspects of their life, including work, which can sometimes blur the lines between what constitutes appropriate use of social media when it comes to interaction with an organization as well as internal and external organizational relationships. Many employers search the social media profiles of potential candidates and form opinions of who that candidate may be outside of the interview process. Greysen et al. (2010) suggest that organizations need to create consensus-based standards for online professionalism if they intend to engage users of video-enabled social media in the e-recruitment process. Moreover, the screening of job applicant social media sites and/or video based applications as part of the recruitment process causes the applicant to feel as though their privacy has been invaded which negatively affects their attitude and perception towards the attractiveness and trust of the hiring organization (Stoughton et al., 2015). To be seen as ‘trendy’, organizations use new technologies by connecting job applicants personal and business lives and video-enabled social media provides additional value because it connects online communities who distribute content and information as well as being active consumers (Van Esch et al., 2017). Moreover, such trends need to extend beyond just the e-recruitment process and be a part of an organizations overall business strategy (Culnan et al., 2010; Qualman, 2010). Hence, the purpose of this study is first, to investigate the effect on the use of video-enabled social media on job application likelihood as part of the e-recruitment process and second, to explore the effect of the candidates’ attitude toward the organization in mediating the relationship between the use of video-enabled social media and job application likelihood. Lastly, to explore the effect of both privacy concerns and trendiness as 1st and 2nd stage dual moderators on the mediated model. This research is expected to guide organizations when they are marketing the use of video-enabled social media as part of their e-recruitment processes, in that, they also need to focus on the potential candidates’ attitude towards the organization as well as their concerns relating to privacy and perceived trendiness, especially if they want to positively increase job application likelihood.