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Social media becoming an important platform for employers in the Netherlands

By alanlwhitford, on 17-12-2009 10:28

Favoured : 6

Rotterdam, December 2009

Social media is becoming more important as a tool for research and information in the labour market in the Netherlands. . A sixth of the working population looks up an employer via LinkedIn or Hyves, before applying for a job. In addition, a quarter of the candidates invited for an interview research the recruiter online. Social media is becoming a platform for employers to present themselves. These are some of the results from the Arbeidsmarkt GedragsOnderzoek (AGO) of Intelligence Group, the Netherlands based labour market research company.

As a prelude to a more detailed research project on social media, 552 people were asked about their jobseeking behavior by Intelligence Group. Figures show that Google and a person's network are the most important sources of information when considering applying for a job. However, the impact of social media should not be underestimated. 19% of the working population conducts research on LinkedIn. This is even more among respondents of higher (masters degree) educational level (30%). Hyves shows the opposite trend. One out of five respondents of primary and secondary educational level look for a company profile on Hyves.

Table 1 Research Results Intelligence Group Survey

Imagine you are considering applying for a job: will you look for information…	Yes	No
On Google?	91%	9%
If someone in your network works/ has worked at this company; ask them for more information about the company as a employer?	87%	13%
On LinkedIn	19%	81%
If the company has been discussed on web based discussion groups (like fok.nl)?	19%	81%
If the company has been rated by companyrating.nl or other rating sites?	16%	84%
On Hyves for a company profile	15%	85%
If there are videos of the company on Youtube?	11%	89%

Source: Arbeidsmarkt GedragsOnderzoek (AGO), November 2009, n=552

Hyves and LinkedIn are not the only online social media used by candidates. Company rating sites and discussion groups get many viewings when one is looking for information about the company. The age category 35-44 seems to be receptive for this trend, with 20% of this group visits rating sites to see the scores of a company. A quarter search on discussion groups for relevant information. YouTube is a relatively important information source for young people. 17% of the age category 15-24 look up videos of the employer on YouTube.

The figures show that social media are partly taking over the role of recruitment sites. An important aspect is the perceived credibility of these sites. Researcher Hans Hoekstra says: “Interesting group discussions were held during the preliminary study about this subject. It seems that “airbrushed” communication is not believable. Jobseekers believe that the messages on recruitment sites are “perfected” by communication agencies. Therefore, a large proportion of the study sample (mostly young) participants prefer to look for information on social media channels."

Intelligence Group will soon start a detailed quantitative research on social media, due to be published I 2010,

Statistical Background
The figures in this article are based on the Arbeidsmarkt GedragsOnderzoek (AGO), dated November 2009. Respondents who are part of the working population of the Netherlands (N=552) were asked to respond to positions related to information seeking behaviour when considering applying for a job. This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Hans Hoekstra for further information.

The original article in Dutch can be found below.

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