Social media usage in HR departments in Greece

1. Social media usage in
HR departments in
Greece
By
Ghazi Alnatsheh
Supervisor
Xenia ziouvelou
A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree
of
Master of Management in Business Innovation and Technology
Athens Information Technology
2012

2. Social media overview
Social media is a term used to collectively
describe a set of tools that foster interaction,
discussion and community, allowing people
to build relationships and share information.
•Social media is about conversations, community, connecting
with personalities and building relationships. It is not just a
broadcast channel or a sales and marketing tool.
•Authenticity, honesty and open dialogue are key.
•Social media not only allows you to hear what people say about
you, but enables you to respond. Listen first, speak second.

3. Social media in companies
Companies are feeling the need to be
present on not just one social media
platform, however, on ensuring that
they are “available and listening” to
all people at all times.
• It is interesting to note that over 2.5 million organizations have a
Facebook presence in addition to their corporate websites.
• A lot of reasons are motivating organizations to embrace social
media and also the feel the need to adopt it because all its
competitors are adopting social media too.
• Social media usage in companies is useful in HR, Marketing,
R&D ..etc departments.

4. Social media in HR Dept.
• In 2010, only 6% of companies were using social media for
recruiting. Today, that’s exploded to 89%.
• As the number of global HR professionals climbs close to
one million, so it becomes important for this relatively new
profession to define what it means to be effective, and using
social media is the way for it.
• The choice is simple, you can either interact with your world
or allow your world to leave you in the dust. Today’s HR
professionals must participate in social media to remain
current.

5. Empirical Findings about social
media in HR Dept.
• The current engagement in social media activities for HR
purposes based on the following countries:
USA 44 % Greece !!
Australia 42 %

6. Objectives
This thesis aims to provide an overview of how an
organization uses the social media in the human resources
departments in Greece, and to explore the advantages and
disadvantages of it, in addition to find out the social
media usage in the companies internally through its
intranets and what benefits it can brought for Greek
companies.

7. Thesis Overview
 Literature review
 Study objectives
 Research design
 Empirical study
 Findings
 Conclusion
 Study limitations and future studies

8. Social media usage in HR departments
The exist literature in relation to social media usage in HR
departments will be presented in the following three
fundamental areas :
1.Social media usage at work
place and HR departments.
2.The pros and cons of using social media in human
resources.
3.Internal usage of social media in work environments and
HR department.

9. LR:Social media usage at work place
and HR
• Davison, Maraist and Bing (2011)
• HR Toolbox (2011)
• Birkman (2011)
• Kluemper and Rosen (2009)
• SHRM (2001)
It seems that many organizations are using the social media
especially LinkedIn and Facebook which have the majority of
using. Also many managers and HR practitioners are using social
networking websites to make important HR decisions such as
recruiting, selecting, and terminating individuals. And it seems that
using social media is worthy time wise and it is trustful method of
doing the job.

10. LR: The pros and cons of using social
media in HR
The pros :
by
•Kubitz (2012)
•Jobvite (2009)
•Mike Kohn(2010)
•Social Intelligence Hiring
(2012)

11. LR: The pros and cons of using social
media in HR
The cons:
•Privacy Rights
Clearinghouse (2010)
•Gross, R. and Acquisti,
A. (2005)
The advantages and disadvantages of social media usage in human
resources and in the work place it is clearly obvious that the
advantages are too many and can bring the organization with a lot of
benefits, in the other hand there were few cons of using them but
they are actually concerns more than disadvantages especially when
it comes to the privacy issues.

12. LR: Internal usage of social media in
work environments and HR
• APCO Worldwide and Gagen MacDonald(2011).
• Towers Watson research (2009/2010) .
• Nielsen Norman Group (2009).
• Aberdeen Group study.
• Douglas Karr (2008).
In relation of using social media internally we can conclude that
there is a slowly adoption for it these day but the experts saying
that in the near future most of the companies will adopt it
considering the value and the advantages that they will gain
from it.

13. Social media in HR departments in Greece
Unfortunately!!!
There were no studies done by
anyone under the same subject in
Greece which left us with a huge
gap of studies that we found it
interesting to start a research to
cover and seek an answers for
any related topic in this area.

14. Study objectives
1. How do HR professionals use social media and Web 2.0
technologies in the different functions of HR departments
in Greece
2. How do Greek HR professionals use social media
internally (within the company intranet)?
3. What are the pros and cons of using social media in human
resources department in Greece for internal and external
purposes?
4. Exploring the companies behaviour in social media usage

15. Research design and approach
• Research Design: exploratory research
explore “what is happening and to seek new insights.
• Research Approach: inductive approach
by collecting data and develop theory as a result of our data analysis.
• Research Strategy: a survey strategy
we used a questionnaire to collect our data, by sending the
questionnaire to 100 companies (70 for online and 30 for physical
questionnaire); the survey received 27 responses (13 online & 14
physical), which made the response rate is 27 % ; the study
duration was from 24/09/2012 until 30/09/2012.

16. Participants & procedures
• The target population (sample) of the
study is companies in Greece despite their
business sectors or the size of the company
or professions.
• We collect our data by initiating a convenient questionnaire and
we distributed it via email to 70 random Greek companies and it
was targeting the HR department directly to fill in the
questionnaire, and to 30 physical presented company during AIT
career day on 26-27/9/2012.
• We gave the recipient companies one week waiting period to
answer the online questionnaire, then we started doing our
analysis based on the data we have received from them, and after
the analysis part we built a conclusion for the study.

17. Questionnaire design
•We built the online questionnaire using Google
document feature
• It contains 30 questions divided between open,
multiple choice and rating questions.
• The questions were created into 5 sections :
A.Demographics (company profile).
B.Social media usage at your HR department.
C.The pros and cons of social media usage in HR
department
D.(Intra-company) usage of social media in work
environments and HR departments
E.Nonsocial media usage companies

18. Questions design
The question Source of the question Study description
What is your position in the HR department? Birkman International Questionnaire: Yes
How long has your company been using social media for HR (2011), Human Resources Year: 2011
purposes? 2.0: How HR Area: USA
Does your company Provide a social media policy? Professionals and HR Response rate: 1,085%
Consultants Use Social
Media and Web 2.0
Technologies.www.birkm
an.com
Does your company use social media? The Society for human Questionnaire: Yes
Which social media components does your HR department resources management Year: 2011
use to reach external audiences? (2011), Social Media in Area: USA
Does your company provide any social media training to the Workplace. Response rate: 19%
employees who are engaged in social media activities? www.shrm.org/research
Does your company Block access to any social media on
company-owned computers or handheld devices?
Who is responsible for social media management in your Karen Purser (2012) Questionnaire: Yes
company? Using Social Media in Year: 2011
Please rate the current usage of social media in your HR Local Government, 2011 Area: Australia
department regarding the effectiveness, easiness and trust Survey Report Response rate: 225
worthiness? www.acelg.org.au response
In your company, can employees use the internal social
media to communicate directly with the management?

19. Study Findings
Our findings will be categorize into three areas as
the followiong:
A.Demographical findings and responses.
B.Using social media companies findings.
C.Non using social media companies findings.

20. A. Demographical findings and responses
• The percentages of responses based on the
company’s size are large companies (37 %);
Medium sized companies (18.5 %), small companies (26 %) and
micro companies (18.5 %).
• All companies are belongs in the private sector.
• The percentages of responses based on the company’s business
sector are HR companies (22 %), IT (26 %), Telecommunications
(11%), each of Energy, business services and Pharma (5.5 %)
equally, and others (19%).
• The percentages of the responder’s positions in the HR
department are managers (41 %), general analysts (18.5 %), each
of directors and specializing analysts (11 %) equally and others
(18.5 %).
• 85 % of Greek companies are using social media, and 15 % do
not use social media in their company at all.
• 70 % of the Greek companies that use social media are using it
for HR purposes as well.
• 50 % of the Greek companies that use social media are using it
for internal purposes.

21. B.Using social media companies findings
The top percentages of Greek companies who are using social media in
HR department based on their size are micro (85 %) and small (80 %)
companies.

22. B.Using social media companies findings
The two major Greek company’s business sectors that use social media
in HR department are HR companies (100 %) and IT companies (71
%).

23. B.Using social media companies findings
The responsible departments of social media management in
Greek companies
There is no major department who is responsible for the social media
management in Greek companies, each of HR Dept., IT Dept., marketing
Dept. and others are (25 %) equally.

24. B.Using social media companies findings
LinkedIn (100%) and Facebook (56%) are the most popular social
media tools that Greek companies use to reach external audiences.

25. B.Using social media companies findings

26. B.Using social media companies findings
37 % of the companies have started using social media for HR purposes
during the last year in Greece.

27. B.Using social media companies findings
Greek companies often use social media for recruiting (44 %) and
screening (37.5 %) processes and never use it for termination decisions
(69 %).

28. B.Using social media companies findings
When asked to rate their usage of social media in their HR departments,
Greek companies evaluated their usage as (the effectiveness of using
social media is medium (61%), easiness average is medium (62.5%) and
the trustworthiness also medium (62.5 %).

29. B.Using social media companies findings
A. A recruiting tool
B. A communication tool
C. A corporate
communications/employee
engagement tool
D. A company’s reputation
building tool
E. An online branding tool
F. An information acquisition
tool
G. A community building tool
H. A promotional tool
I. An internal networking tool
J. An idea generational tool
K. A tool for identifying
prospective business partners
The top rated advantages of social media usage in HR departments were found to be as
a recruiting tool (88 %), a company’s reputation building tool (80%), an online
branding tool (82%) and a community building tool (80%).

30. B.Using social media companies findings
When asked: In your opinion, which are the disadvantages of using
social media in HR department?
•Requires too much effort.
•Non trustable points.
•The vivid interaction is not easy.
•Cannot control what is being said once it has been published.
•The employees do not accept social media as a tool.
•Illegally used of online information.

31. B.Using social media companies findings
Privacy concerns (70%) are the top rated concerns by social media usage
in HR departments in Greece followed by productivity reduction (58%);
Time wastage (56%) and cost increase (42%).

32. B.Using social media companies findings
62% of the companies have started using social media for internal
purposes during the last two years in Greece.

33. B.Using social media companies findings
LinkedIn (33%) and the private social media networks (25%) are the
mostly used for internal purposes by Greek companies.

34. B.Using social media companies findings
A. Monitor and drive
corporate strategies
B. Internal idea
generation
C. Knowledge sharing
and collaboration
D. Promote internal
networking
E. Promote company's
news internally
F. Increase
communications
between the
employees and
management
G. Internal information
retrieval
H. Increasing innovation The top rated advantages in internal social media usage in Greek
potential companies were: Monitor and drive corporate strategies (76%),
Knowledge sharing and collaboration (80%), Promote internal
networks (80%).

35. B.Using social media companies findings
The most common communication types that Greek companies use in the
internal social media are: peer to peer (77.4%) and employee to employee
communications (72%).

36. B.Using social media companies findings
75% of Greek companies let their employees use internal social media
to communicate directly with the management.
25% of Greek companies have a specific internal social media usage
policy

37. B.Using social media companies findings
Internal social media usage does not depend on company’s size in Greek
companies.

38. C.Non Using social media companies findings
When asked: Could you briefly tell us what are the main reasons
that prevent you from using social media in your HR department
and /or internally?
•Lack of resources
•Working toward hiring the write people
•It is difficult during the crises
•Need a specialist personnel
•It was not in company's philosophy
•You may exclude people for low level job roles because they
are not able to use them
•Privacy issues
•No real need

39. C.Non Using social media companies findings
It will take one year for 50% of the Greek companies to start adopting
social media in their HR department.

40. C.Non Using social media companies findings
33% of the Greek companies have been proposed or requested to adopt
social media in the HR department by their employees.

41. A glimpse of serious games
When asked: Would your company adopt serious games for HR purposes
(i.e. training, employee selecting...etc.)?
When asked: Could you please briefly tell us what are the main reasons that
prevent your company from adopting serious games in its intranet?
•The internal strategy.
•No real need.
•It has not been looked into thoroughly yet.
•It will lead to somehow lose time for the daily activity of each employee.
•Any kind of social media activity or game would necessarily go through a
code of conduct control which implies a higher relevant allocation of resources.

42. Conclusion
• Many Greek organizations and HR professionals
understand the impact of social media usage in
human resources departments and how it will be
useful if they adopt this approach in doing their
jobs, but it still not wide spread and they are afraid
of the concerns that it can bring to the
organizations.
• The usage of social media in the HR functions still not a primary
tool for the HR department in the Greek companies even that they
know the pros of it.
• The most popular social media tools to reach external audiences
are LinkedIn and Facebook; also they are being used a lot by the
Greek organizations as an internal social media tool.

43. Conclusion
• The percentages of social media usage in HR based on the
companies size shows that small and micro companies are
engaging with social media more than the medium and large
companies in Greece which mean that small sized companies are
trying to expand their audiences and their branding through these
tools.
• The very high percentage of the HR companies of social media
usage for HR purposes indicates that these companies are the
most who know the benefits and advantages of the social media
adoption followed by IT companies.
• We can also conclude that there is a variety of differences in
social media usage between Greece and other countries. For
example the different social media usage between USA and
Greece, and it shows that in some cases Greece have better results
and worse in some other aspects.

44. Greece VS USA
Question / Region USA ** Greece
The current percentages of usage in social media 68 % (1) 85 %
activities to reach external audiences in organizations.
The current engagement in social media activities for 44 % (1) 70 %
HR purposes
The percentage of organizations that block access to 43 % (1) 37 %
social media on company-owned computers or handheld
devices.
The most used social media tool for HR purposes LinkedIn(75%) LinkedIn(100%),
Facebook(66%) Facebook (56%)
(2)
Percentages of organizations that have start using social 25% (2) 56 %
media for HR purposes during the last year.
Percentages of organizations that provide any social 27 % (1) 19 %
media training to employees who engage in social media
activities
Percentage of the organizations who had a policy for 31 % (2) 56 %
social media usage

45. Conclusion
In relation to the internal usage of social media:
•The adoption of internal social media within the intranet in the Greek
organizations is not common.
•Within the next few years it will be trending because the organizations
are becoming aware of the advantages of adopting the internal social
media in their intranets.
•Facebook and linked in are the top common tools for internal usage as
they are the top in the external usage.
•Even though that the communication types that Greek companies use
in the internal social media are almost similar, but it mostly common
use as an employee to employee communications, which limited the
direct communications between the employees and the management.
•Privacy and control considered as a reasons that prevent companies to
adopt internal social media, in addition to that the crises matter and the
lake of resources are being an issues nowadays in Greek companies.
•The company size does not seem to play a role in the adoption of
internal social media in Greek companies.

46. Conclusion
In relation to the companies who do not use social media in HR
departments or for internal purposes, a lot of these companies are
planning to adopt social media in their companies in one year period
which is a promising point. It is not obvious if the industry type or
the companies size effect the decision of social media in Greek
companies.

47. The best practices for social media usage for HR purposes in Greece
•Keeping up with industry social networks by practicing recruiting,
selection and screening processes via participating in LinkedIn and
Facebook since they are the most common social media platforms.
•Adopting social media in the HR departments can be very useful as a
recruiting tool, a company’s reputation building tool, an online branding
tool, and a community building tool.
•Subscribing to Blogs and RSS feeds.
•Getting on Twitter which is the trend nowadays.
•Initiate a policy for social media practices to clear out the goals of the
usage and to control it more, and it can limit the concerns and cons of the
social media usage.
•Defined a particular department to be responsible of social media
management in the company, you could make it a separate department or
you can add these authorities to one of the existed departments.
•Providing training to the employees who are engaged in social media
activities is a smart move and highly recommended.

48. Study limitations
1. The sample size is considered convenient but due to the
limited companies contact list that we used we were unable
to reach more participants in the questionnaire which will
make the results more accurate and the generalization of
the conclusion will be more effective.
2. The available time was a little short for us which can affect
the richness of the literature review otherwise we could
collect more ideas and discussions in the topic.
3. The study did not include any other methods to collect data
rather than the questionnaire, using another method such as
interviews and observations will increase the accuracy
level of the study.

49. Future studies
• It would be interesting to compare the social media usage in HR departments
between different countries or to investigate more about the culture types and
how would the results be affected with this variable.
• It is recommended that further researches be undertaken in the field of social
media usage for external purposes and how could the management take
advantages from it and to investigate if it is possible to earn some money by
adopting and using the social media by the organization.
• Further investigation and experimentation into how HR uses the social media
is strongly recommended, and how to perceive new employees and to
measure the efficiency of the selected employees by social media platforms
are recommended.
• Also it would be interesting to assess the effects of the social media usage
policy implementations inside the organization for internal and external
purposes.
• A new phenomenon is trending now a days which is “Gamification”, so a
researches in Gamification and how to be used in HR departments should be
worthy.
• A future research is recommended to examine why and what are the reasons
that prevent the companies from adopting social media in their companies.

50. PLEASE ADOPT SOCIAL
MEDIA !!

51. THANK YOU
QUESTIONS !!