Managing Tech Giants: How It Affects Recruiters

What’s going on with finance and tech giants recently?

Recently social media giant Facebook has been the centre of a good deal of negative press. Recent data leaks by data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica mean that as many as 87 million Facebook users may have had their personal information shared without consent. This data was used to influence the public’s vote for Brexit as well as the US election that saw Donald Trump become the 45th US President.

This has prompted public outcry over Facebook’s existing data security policies. Questions are being asked such as; just how many people’s personal information has been shared previously? As a result of this scandal, Facebook’s stock market value has dropped by billions, with the #DeleteFacebook movement in full force.

In the wake of this news, many senior finance officials are calling for crackdowns on tech giants such as Facebook.

How Safe Is Our Information?

An important question needs to be asked; how safe is our financial information online? What kind of information has been and can be leaked without warning? Are our personal details, email addresses, passwords, and financial details secure? For our own financial security, it certainly seems that we should all be more vigilant with what information we share online.

Thankfully, with GDPR in full force, online privacy and information storage laws are changing for better for the public. People now have greater knowledge of what information of theirs is being stored, what it’s being used for, and who it’s being shared with.

GDPR also gives the public greater control over the storage of this information, with people being able to request their data to be deleted.

This is great news for the general public’s online privacy, and means that our data is at less risk of being misused and shared without permission. But what does it mean for recruiters?

These recent developments will certainly help separate the good recruiters from the bad. Gathering and approaching candidates will certainly now require a different approach, but quality recruiters and headhunters should still be able to work without much issue. In fact, GDPR may help discourage the act of gathering and storing candidates for irrelevant roles, and encourage quality proactive recruitment practices.

Sites Like Facebook For Recruiters: Good or Bad?

So what’s the verdict on the effect that companies like Facebook have on recruiters? On the bright side, social media sites such as Facebook can be a great opportunity for recruiters to find candidates. Facebook in particular is the largest social media platform in the world, with over 2 billion users globally. This means it contains a great audience that encompasses a huge amount of demographics. This can be a fantastic opportunity for savvy recruiters and job-hunters alike.

On the other hand, ‘general’ social media platforms like Facebook are a lot less optimised for career opportunities than, say, LinkedIn. Generally speaking, people don’t look for senior job opportunities on Facebook.

What advantage Facebook does grant for recruiters, however, is the number of people that it has introduced to social media and online opportunities. The platform has allowed many to discover the benefits of social media, which in turn helps career and recruitment orientated platforms such as LinkedIn grow a bigger audience.

However, with recent data leaks such as this, people are becoming more and more wary of the safety of social media sites. This means that some may be discouraged from using sites such as LinkedIn, which could make recruiters’ jobs a lot more difficult.

Increased cautiousness regarding social media privacy and safety isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it’s encouraging that more and more people are taking precautions and becoming more aware of their online privacy. However, it may in turn discourage some people from exploring and finding new opportunities online. Understanding privacy issues and smart social media use is great, but we shouldn’t let it shut us off from new opportunities.