Journal of Small Business and Entrepreneurship Development

The Influence of Social Media on Recruitment and Selection Process in SMEs
Zahi K. Yaseen; Marwan, Yussef

Abstract
The goal of this research is to investigate the influence of social media on recruitment and selection in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Social media networking provides great opportunities for businesses and job seekers to a certain extent. A mixed method is utilized for this research which consists of both quantitative and qualitative data collection tools from the selected participants. The population was selected from 1000 firms listed in the Yellow pages of Etisalat. A random sampling procedure was used to select 400 firms from different types of sectors. The respondents of this study incorporated 200 business owners with a 50 percent response rate. The results show that 58 percent of employers in SMEs are using social media to search for high qualified candidates. The highest benefit from using social media in recruitment and selection is to hunt for high qualified employees with 79 percent of the respondents. The paper provides rational evidence for employers and recruiters to have a clear recruitment strategy that is consistent and ongoing to attract job seekers using various methods of social media networking and to build a clear selection method for the hiring process.

Full Text: PDF     DOI: 10.15640/jsbed.v4n2a3