Nowadays, recruitment techniques of firms change in order to create teams with exceptional skills and mindsets as well as create a unique environment. To achieve such aims, companies use social media platforms to attract candidates, allow them to get acquainted with the business and employees, and understand whether the interests of the potential employee align with the company’s. However, sometimes unconventional approaches of companies tend to be more damaging than beneficial, and one of the instances is Zappos’.
In the case of Zappos, an online retail company, a nontraditional approach toward recruitment was incorporated. The business decided to create an online platform where candidates are able to communicate with other employees and express their passion and willingness to work for Zappos (Auriemma, 2014). The objective of the given process is to find suitable candidates through comments and provide them with a position rather than look through a myriad of resumes from job portals. While this idea can be seen as extraordinary and original, this method has potential adverse effects. The candidates, human resources managers, and the company are affected by such experiments.
For example, one of the adverse effects is the loss of interest from candidates. In the given circumstances, candidates seek job advertisements with specifically emphasized responsibilities, work conditions, etc. Knowing this, a person can have a clear-cut idea of the company and its requirements. Moreover, candidates will have an idea about their chances in certain positions. However, in the given situation, potential employees will doubt their chances. Due to the unknown format of recruitment, they can see this task as more tedious than sending a resume directly to the HR department.
Another negative impact can be the result of human resource management quality. The responsibilities of HR are to identify the most suitable candidates based on their knowledge and experience. In the given situation, it becomes problematic to assess the capabilities of the potential employees due to the format of recruitment. HR will have to determine the candidate’s suitability solely on their subjective comments. As a result, many talents might be overlooked, and other candidates might give worse results than expected.
Lastly, considering the previously mentioned factor, a company might face a decrease in revenue due to overlooked talents and inefficient employees. As has been said in the article about Zappos’ case, “bad hires can be costly” (Auriemma, 2014, para.15). As a result, poor productivity and unskilled staff can worsen the results, leading to losing a competitive edge. Thus, the party that will suffer the most will be the firm.
While the case of Zappos does not seem much advantageous, it can still be said that social media platforms can play a crucial role in recruitment when they are used correctly. Recruiters may use social media platforms to disseminate information about job opportunities and the company to both passive and active candidates (Koch et al., 2018). Common recruitment approaches, including job portals or advertising, typically involve only enthusiastic applicants who are actively seeking relevant material. In turn, passive candidates can learn about companies through advertisements.
Hence, the idea of Zappos is captivating and can be beneficial, but only to create the company’s unique culture. While the firm can efficiently select the candidates that express their genuine desire to work for Zappos, there are many potential adverse effects of the practice that involves hiring only via a special platform without open job advertisements. The negative impact can be candidates’ loss of interest due to unpredictability of the process, poor selection by HR managers due to reliance on feedback only, and decreased revenue due to lack of talents.
References
Auriemma, A. (2014). Zappos zaps its job postings. The Wall Street Journal.
Koch, T., Gerber, C., & De Klerk, J. J. (2018). The impact of social media on recruitment: Are you LinkedIn?. SA Journal of Human Resource Management, 16(1), 1-14.