Social Network Impact on E-recruitment. Investigating the Degree to which French Students and HRM Managers Would Adopt LinkedIn E-recruitment Web- site

Abstract

Online recruitment is currently at the heart of the news, especially since the Covid crisis. We call this E-recruitment. People had to adapt and use websites like LinkedIn. Job seekers and recruiters are very active on this platform because in view of the lockdowns, they could not move around in companies. Using this type of software has many advantages for both parties. They need to have a faster and more efficient recruitment process. In addition, re- cruiters and job seekers have access to a larger database in terms of candidates and offers. For all these reasons, employment platforms are now essential. They must meet particular demands and be innovative in terms of func- tionality to attract users. The study focuses on the LinkedIn platform. Indeed, it is one of the most widely used networks in many countries. In order to understand the subject and to answer general research questions, a quantitative questionnaire was chosen. It’s a survey that allowed to obtain 156 responses. In this study a pragmatic philosophical stance was used with explanatory purpose of the research and deductive approach. Knowing that only one type of questionnaire was used we can conclude that in terms of methodological choice, a mono-method was applied. In addition, the data were collected in the 2021-2022 school year and the theoretical elements are based on an existing thesis by Guselin. M, Jörgensen. J and Johansson. S (2016). In terms of time horizon, it was a cross-sectional study. The conclusion is that there are four main elements which positively influence users: brand equity, brand aware- ness, perceived quality and brand loyalty. With a score of five on a scale from one to seven, the concept of per- ceived quality has the most influence on intention to use. This score increases from 16,6% to 27,6% if people found a job thanks to LinkedIn. The second most influential concept is brand loyalty. 49,4% of respondents rated their loyalty with a grade of four out of seven or higher. For future research, it might be interesting to extend the data analysis to several countries. This study focuses only on french respondents. However, having a global view could help to better understand the market of online re- cruitment platform such as LinkedIn.