Using Social Network Sites for Selection Purposes: An Investigation of Hospitality Recruiters

Many U.S. employers are using social network sites to screen or investigate job candidates. Although this phenomenon has become increasingly popular for employers to use for marketing purposes, there is a dearth of studies examining how hospitality employers use social network sites as a human resource management practice. Thus, the purpose of the authors in this study was to examine organizational factors that predict the use of social network sites for screening applicants and how these sites are used by recruiters. Participants were industry recruiters attending a career fair. The results showed that 50% of the recruiters reported using social network sites to screen applicants. Negative information from the Internet was rated as more important than positive information of the applicants. Recruiters use social network sites more for management-level and front-of-the-house employees than entry-level and back-of-the-house applicants.