Privacy and ethics during an e-recruitment process in the business sector : a qualitative study among recruiters and generation Y in the Netherlands

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Privacy and ethics during an e-recruitment process in the

Business sector: a qualitative study among Recruiters and

Generation Y in the Netherlands

Bachelor Thesis A. Krivopalova

University of Amsterdam

Faculty of Economics and Business Bachelor thesis Business Administration Date: 10 August 2016 Supervisor: dr. G. Kismihók E-‐mail: anastasia.krivopalova@student.uva.nl Studentnr: 10013903

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Abstract

E-recruitment is being used with increasingly frequency, due to the rapid technological advances in organizations to find the perfect person for the job. However, several studies demonstrate that recruiters not always follow or by-pass the standard legal procedure

concerning solicitation, the NVP Recruitment Code. The goal of this research was to find out how recruiters and generation Y perceive the lack of privacy and ethics during the

e-recruitment process. To gain insights from the e-recruitment and generation Y perspective, a qualitative research is carried out by conducting semi-structured interviews with four recruitment and four generation Y contestants that operate in the Business sector in the Netherlands. The results show that recruiter’s main goal is to find on an ethical and legal way the best contestants that they introduce to the departments, managers or clients. They know that discrimination about applicants exist, but is depends on the size of the firm, the

experience of the recruiter, the corporate culture of the firm and the managers, departments or clients above recruiters who have the final decision. Out of the interview with contestants of generation Y can be concluded that applicants need to concern about their own privacy, since everything someone puts publicly online, is their own responsibility and not focusing on this matter leaves them disadvantaged by their own mistake. In contrast, the way some contestants are depreciated because of ethical differences, is ‘not done’, does not correspondent with the diverse 21th century and is a big ignorance and disadvantage of recruiters during an

e-recruitment procedure for selecting the appropriate employee for their companies. Factors that are of influence on this decision are the preference of work a generation Y contestant has, the experience with the solicitation process, the reputation of the firm and the size of competition on a vacancy. To enhance this process, organizations need to focus on capabilities, skills and abilities and not on ethical features. Since this is area is a grey matter, recruiters and

contestant of generation Y wants to stay anonymous, as they present delicate information, which makes this research study one of its kind. These findings speak to the importance of examining how privacy and ethics are perceived during an e-recruitment process by recruiters and generation Y.

Keywords: E-recruitment, privacy and ethics, generation Y, recruitment, application-procedure, social network sites (SNS), NVP Recruitment Code

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Statement of Orginality

This document is written by Anastasia Krivopalova who declares to take full responsibility for the contents of this document.

I declare that the text and the work presented in this document is original and that no sources other than those mentioned in the text and its references have been used in creating it. The Faculty of Economics and Business is responsible solely for the supervision of completion of the work, not for the contents.

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Appendix 3 -‐ Interview protocol Generation Y contestant in English and Dutch ... 56 Appendix 4 – Transcription of the Interviews...Fout!Bladwijzer niet gedefinieerd. Recruiter 1 ...Fout!Bladwijzer niet gedefinieerd. Recruiter 2 ...Fout!Bladwijzer niet gedefinieerd. Recruiter 3 ...Fout!Bladwijzer niet gedefinieerd. Recruiter 4 ...Fout!Bladwijzer niet gedefinieerd. Generation Y - Contestant 1 ...Fout!Bladwijzer niet gedefinieerd. Generation Y - Contestant 2 ...Fout!Bladwijzer niet gedefinieerd. Generation Y - Contestant 3 ...Fout!Bladwijzer niet gedefinieerd. Generation Y - Contestant 4 ...Fout!Bladwijzer niet gedefinieerd.

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List of used abbreviations and acronyms

CV Curriculum Vitae

eHR electronic Human Resources e-‐recruitment electronic (digital) recruitment Gen Y Generation Y

HR Human Resource

NVP Nederlandse Vereniging Personeelsmanagement & Organisatieontwikkeling

RBV Research-‐Based View SNS Social Network Sites

The Code The NVP Recruitment Code Web World Wide Internet

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Foreword

I wrote this thesis because it was a prerequisite to finish my Bachelor degree in Business Administration at the University of Amsterdam.

I would like to thank my supervisor Dr. Gábor Kismihók for his tremendous help and patience with conducting this thesis. His guidance and critical questions regarding the subject, from the beginning until the end, forced me to step boundaries and conduct a very interesting research about a topic that is in trend and much debated.

Also, I would like to thank LinkedIn and everybody who has helped me to find the right contestants to participate in the interviews. I would like to thank the eight participants for their cooperation, honesty and time for participation.

Read and enjoy my thesis!

With kind regards, Anastasia Krivopalova

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1. Introduction

Technology changed the work environment and the process of solicitation. When applying for an available new job position, applicants provide their resume and other job related

information online (Caers & Castelyns, 2010). This method of collecting data differs from the traditional way of recruitment, which is time consuming and does not have the same outreach as online recruitmen. With the change to a more dynamic labor market, many new means arose to attract and select applicants online. Due to the global access Internet provides, more job seekers apply to vacancies they would not have seen otherwise. This causes the pile of applicants to increase, which reduces efficiency (Stone, Stone-Romero & Lukaszewski, 2006). To enhance this process of selection, big data: “the search of gathering intelligence from data and translating that into business advantage” (McAfee, Brynjolfsson, Davenport et al., 2001, pp. 61-62) is used to easily and quickly find the right contestant for the job. Digital intelligence information about applicants, where candidates can be easily, actively and globally found and collected virtually, is called e-recruitment (Sylva & Mol, 2009).

E-recruitment is defined by Girard and Fallery (2013) as “the use of technology to attract, select and manage the recruitment process and it helps to gain faster access to applicant’s information data”. This process is becoming increasingly important, because studies have found that human capital provides knowledge, skills and diversity, which innovates and improves the firm to create sustainable competitive advantage (Cavalluzzo, Wolken & Cavalluzzo, 2000).Thereforee this process is still rapidly developing and

innovating its methods of how to attract and select the right candidates for the right job. An important aspect is that due to these rapid changes of easy global access to information online, recruiters tend to oversee important factors such as privacy and ethics in the digital search of suitable candidates, which makes privacy, safety and the credibility of the obtained data to be questionable (Whitehouse, 2010; Pillai & Dhobale, 2012). For example, throughout 2016, Dutch news reports have provided new insights into the unethical way in which a minority of job seekers have been discriminated by recruiters in the Netherlands due to their last names, country of origin and social media (joop.nl, 2016; nos.nl, 2015). Applicants are screened and mistreated due to their ethnicity, race, beliefs, sexual preferences, gender, age, social media or other random aspects which are not related to the competences of an applicant (Panteia, 2015; Derous, 2014). Therefore, privacy and ethics during an e-recruitment process are seen as important factors to conduct a fairly equal chance for applicants in the labor market and gives

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an interesting area to invest in to enhance this process which is so debated (De Rijksoverheid, 2016).

The way recruiters perceive and select their employees of great importance for the new generation currently entering and concurring the labor market: Generation Y born between 1980-1995 (Weiler, 2005). They are the first generation that was born and raised entirely in the digital environment, therefore they know how to use this system and cannot imagine their lives without it, because it affects the way of living, how they operate and search for work (Bolton, Parasuraman, Hoefnagel et al., 2013). This ability to get access to everything online without constraints, has made this generation somewhat naïve regarding privacy, as they put everything online and tend to forget about the consequences when they enter the workforce. Thought this generation has unique values and expectations regarding organizations and how they search for jobs (Ehrhart, Mayer & Ziegert, 2012). Generation Y tends to attach more meaning to a work-life balance that focuses on diversity on the

workforce rather than work just as a source of income. These high competences of experience and skills related to the Internet and Social media can contribute to a firms sustainable

competitive advantage, therefore recruiters prefer generation Y contestants. For organizations to attract this group, a firm’s reputation is key. A negative reputation concerning the

e-recruitment process is a factor that can keep potential applicants from applying (Hatch & Dyer, 2004). Recruiters therefore, should focus on privacy and ethics in the e-recruitment process to conduct a legal and attractive way of attaining human capital, which creates competitive advantage to firms (Ehrhart, Mayer & Ziegert, 2012; Derous & Fruyt, 2016).

The goal of this research is to enlighten these perceptions , which can show the advantages and pitfalls of the e-recruitment process. On the basis of these perceptions an overview answer will be given how organization can enhance their e-recruitment process to stay competitive. In the next paragraph there will be an overview of existing literature about the recruitment process regarding privacy and ethics and theories that could enhance the e-recruitment process. Thereafter the problem definition will be explained and a research

question conducted. Then the structure of the research and methodology will be explained and augmented. With the focus on the way data is obtained, collected and how this data is

analyzed. After this paragraph, the results will be presented and analyzed. The next paragraph gives a discussion, reflection and the limitations of the research. Finally a conclusion will be drawn and suggestions for further research will be given.

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2. Literature review

In this part of the paper the existing literature concerning this topic will be outlined. The first section of the literature review will focus on defining and discussing key concepts of

traditional and online recruitment. There will be an explanation of the strengths and

weaknesses of the e-recruitment process. This will be followed by the definition, the factors that influence and the importance of privacy and ethics in the digital world concerning the online search of potential applicants. Knowing the definitions of privacy and ethics during an e-recruitment process, the NVP Recruitment Code (The Code) will be presented to show that companies in the Netherlands need to follow privacy and ethics rules. The next section explains the way recruiters operate, contribute and to who they present their pool of selected applicants. Subsequently the way generation Y (Gen Y) prepares and sees the e-recruitment process is discussed.

2.1. E-‐recruitment definition

The strengths and power of a company are their resources and competences. Employees are the best resources and capabilities a company can possess when it is operating in a

competitive business environment. To attract the best possible human capital for their firm, a company needs to have a recruiter who knows what the company is looking for and the recruiter needs to understand what the core message of a company is and find the right candidates that will fit in that corporate culture (Girard & Fallery, 2011).

2.1.1 Traditional Recruitment

Recruitment is the activity that links the employers and the best capable job seekers together, through the search and stimulation of candidates to apply for vacancies in the organization (Kapse, Patil & Patil, 2012). It is a process how firms hire the perfect employee based on their skills, experiences and the organizational fit (Melanthiou, Pavlou & Constantinou, 2015). Snow, Zurcher & Ekland-Olson (1980) state that recruitment in the 1970s was best done through the interpersonal ties an applicant had with someone familiar in the company, or got to know about the company through references. The second is the availability of an applicant to start working in the firm which enhances the chances of recruiting that candidate.

This process of recruitment starts from finding the right applicant to hiring them in the firm and consists of three steps that are manually conducted:

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Step 1: Attraction: draws people into a pool.

Step 2: Recruitment: filters applicants on criteria basis.

Step 3: Selection: resource-intensive selection of the remained applicants.

The first step is the Attraction phase, which includes providing the right specifications an applicant needs to possess to perform the job. Finding the best candidates for the job is the crucial and a time consuming task in the recruitment process, as a well-defined job

description, but has the advantage to discourage unsuitable applicants which makes the pool of applied applicants smaller and more quality based (Melanthiou, Pavlou & Constantinou, 2015). A recruiter can use his internal firm sources, through transfer from departments, promotions, upgrading and demotion as this is a reliable source because the company is already acquainted with these applicant and knows their competences. Another way to recruit is through external sources, such as agencies, outsourcing and posting vacancies outside the firm. This is a stage where sources to attract potential employees is done through offline advertisement, flyers (scuh as newspapers), radio, television and spokespersons who create awareness and encourage to apply for the vacancy.

The next step is the Recruitment step, where applicants are selected into a pool on behalf of the criteria of the vacancy, if they meet the basic requirements. This sortation is based on the resume and the motivation letter to identify possible sources of qualified applicants. In the final stage applicants with the best potential for success in the job are selected on a resource-intensive base, called the Selection stage. In this stage recruiters get references from former firms, invite applicants on interviews, hold telephone conversations, send questionnaires and make applicants take paper tests on a specific day and location (Bartram, 2000; Kapse, Vishal & Vishal, 2012).

The traditional way of recruiting is a reliable process, but because it is done manually, very time-consuming, expensive and effort (manpower) intensive (Melanthiou, Pavlou & Constantinou, 2015). This way of recruitment is still implemented, but advanced due to technological, strategical and societal changes (Derous & Fruyt, 2016).

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2.1.2 E-‐Recruitment

The impact of Internet has had an tremendous influence on companies. They needed to change their way of thinking and operating strategy to maintain their competitive position in the market and gain sustainable competitive advantage (Hatch & Dyer, 2004). The best way to retain this position is to invest in human-specific capital and therefore innovate the process of human capital selecting. Traditional recruiters saw the revolutionary digital shift, the way people search for work, from recruitment offline to recruitment online. This shift is called e-recruitment, digital e-recruitment, online recruitment and web-based recruitment.

By definition, e-recruitment is the process companies follow in order to discover and recruit talented individuals all over the world with the assistance of Internet (Melanthiou, Pavlou & Constantinou, 2015) and it has opened a big window for the more effective, time-saving and low in cost search of the right employee because it eliminates the manual process (Parry & Tyson, 2008). Not only large sized companies have implemented the online search for possible applicants, small- and middle firm take advantage of the cost reduction

improvements digital recruiting brings along. Therefore the reasons and drivers for

implementing e-recruitment, according to Barber (2006) and Kapse, Patil & Patil (2012) are to:

• Reduce Costs • Standardize Systems • Improve efficiency

• Enable new Assessment Tools • Expand the applicant pool

• Attract diverse and qualitative better individuals

The hard task of finding the right contestant became easier as the digital world gives access to job seekers, to find a vacancy that focusses on their specific work area without a middleman, as described on the website of the HRM guide (hrmguide.co.uk). This reduced time and fast accessibility gave the applicant the possibility to be in front of the car seat as it gives the possibility of accessing information about companies 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, at your fingertips. This way of application online enhanced the pool of possible candidates

geographically and as they easily can find tips about the solicitation process online, the quality of their resume (CV) and motivation letter became better as well. The pool of

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efficiency and decreases costs. Better professional assessment test have been developed to give the potential candidates the possibility to test their capabilities through an equal process when they start at the new firm (Bartram, 2000).

Figure 1: Staffing processes and talent flows

Source: Boudreau and Ramstad, 2003

With this technological change enhanced the recruitment process of attracting, recruiting and selecting changed (Figure 1). Recognition of the firm became a key in recruiting high

competence job seekers, as people tend to apply faster to companies they recognize (Melanthiou, Pavlou & Constantinou, 2015). In the Attracting stage recruiters use their reputation to place adverts online to reach a high pool of applicants. This can be categorized into two types of attracting human capital:

• Corporate e-recruitment. • Commercial e-recruitment.

Corporate e-recruitment comes from the business firm itself. The firm offers through their corporate website vacancies and gets direct access to the content of an applicant. Many employers favor this type of recruitment as this approach is industry-specific and they believe it enables to identify more suitable and area specific high competence candidates, because these websites give direct indication and examples what the firms core values and culture are.

Commercial e-recruitment uses outsourcing to place potential vacancies to reach a high pool of candidates online. This can be conducted through Social Network Sites (SNS)

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such as Facebook and LinkedIn or through job boards such as Monster.com,

Nationalevacaturebank.nl and Youngcapital.nl. These types of sites have the advantage of having huge amount of resumes in their databases, which can enhance the wider access to find job-specific applicants who are searching for work. Applicants who did not know about the existence of some firms, get awareness through this way of search to open vacancies based on the reverenced job sector typed in the Website (Parry, & Tyson, 2008).

With this new possibility of attracting job seekers, the way of recruiting the applied pool of applicants works different too. Recruiters still select on the bases of the resume and motivation letter, but because of the huge amount of applicants they start searching on the basis of key words described in the vacancy. On the basis of those key words, recruiters search in the databases of candidates that have applied to the firm (Caers & Castelyns, 2010). This way they can get fast and vacancy specific applicants for the job, which they can process faster. When recruiters find candidates that they think are suitable but still have a few

questions, or contestants that lack some kind of information, recruiters tend to search beyond the resume and motivation to find additional information through Google and SNS (Barber, 2006).

In the last phase recruiters contact applicants on the basis of the available information online to invite them for an interview. In the interview a recruiter gets to know and

understand the goals and capabilities an applicant has. Conducting interviews are of huge importance in the traditional way of recruiting, the difference is that the pool of qualitative applicants became bigger. To give every applicant an equal chance and see if his competences fit to the job requirements, potential contestants get to take online test such as assessments- and personality tests after conducting a successful interview with the recruiter (Parry & Tyson, 2008).

The process of e-recruiting changes rapidly just like our perceptions of the world, reasons that can be influence that process can be found through internal and external factors. The nature of someone’s internal world is to strive and enhance their situation and learn from current systems to become more advanced and efficient in the tasks they perform. These factors are externally influences by strategical, societal and technological changes (Derous & Fruyt, 2016). E-recruitment systems operate on the same basis, firms change their internal structure of operating to innovate and be ahead of competitors with the purpose to achieve greater corporate profits and shareholder return (Marchington & Wilkinson, 2012). External factors that help to achieve this goal are:

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• Strategic issues: hybrid kind of recruitment and testing tools • Societal pressures: demographic changes due to migratory waves • Technological developments: multimedia tools to enhance solicitation

The Strategic role needs to be adjusted continually to stay competitive in the environment. The outcomes of selection testing needs to expand their criteria of selection, as it is too narrow and lacks in testing on additional factors that really matter in performing a job (Parry & Tyson, 2008). Recruiters need to focus more on an applicants a) personality: implement the Five personality traits, look at how applicants can bring new ideas and will cope with the workforce, b). interests: which shows the diverse character of an applicant and the way he can help the firm to explore new fields, c). emotional intelligence: which show how an applicant can implement his knowledge in diverse tasks, or develop solutions to new tasks and the way he stays stable under high pressure, d). integrity: shows the dedication of an applicant and how motivated he is and how he sees norms and values as principles which makes him reliable. When recruiter skip and not monitor these factors of consideration, it can hurt the company and the trust of managers, because potential applicants can be selected on this criteria in advance to test if this applicant will fully fit into the corporate culture (Melanthiou, Pavlou & Constantinou, 2015).

Societal pressures create a more complex society and diverse labor market as there has been a lot of migratory waves in Europe, the Netherlands have encountered many new

nationalities that enhance the diversity in the country. Firms need to implement this trend. As the global world becomes more approachable if there is a big diversity standard inside firms (Derous & Fruyt, 2016).

Technological advancements reshape and innovate the way recruiters recruit and select potential job seekers through multimedia. There has been a big shift of applying resumes. Applicants develop video resumes, where they describe through a video-taped message in short what their positive and negative skills, abilities and characteristics are, this to enhance their chances of being noticed by a recruiter out of a large pool of applicants (Derous & Hiemstra, 2015). The entrance of mobile phone Tinder-based apps like Otso to find in a swipe away an ideal job who filters on basis of your preferences job vacancies, when the available companies like you and you like them by swiping, there is a match (Otso.nl). LinkedIn is used as a recruitment platform, because recruiters type vacancy-based key words to find possible matches or look at competitive firms employees and approach them to work for the firm one recruits for (Melanthiou, Pavlou & Constantinou, 2015).

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The revolutionary process has brought many effective changes along, but every change has challenges and the biggest challenges of e-recruitment regarding privacy and ethics are:

• Quality reduces due to the quantity of applicants • Personal touch reduces

• Diversity reduces

The quantity of applications a recruiter receives online has changed because of the open boarders the digital world brings along, almost three quarter of that received volume are unsuitable applicants and the process of this resource-intensive work is very time consuming which can impact negatively on the residual contestant on which less time is available for qualitative research (Bartram, 2000; Barber, 2006).

The procedure of recruitment becomes standardized and loses its personal touch with the applicant, what can discourage them from applying because they do not feel connected to the firm anymore (Reynolds & Weiner, 2009). This automated process produces the risks of not looking to applicants who took a different route in life, after and during school, to enhance their perception of the world. Some graduates had a non-traditional education backgrounds or are older, which can be processed as not qualified due to the high automatization process, which is incorrect. Or disabled candidates can be discriminated. For certain jobs, firms prefer men instead of woman, due to the intensity of work, culture and to the ability of a woman getting pregnant. This leaves certain ethical minority groups based on age, gender, ethnicity, religion, disability and sexual preference prejudices and disadvantaged (Barber, 2006; Parry & Tyson, 2008).

2.2. Privacy and ethics regarding e-‐recruitment

Due to the World Wide Web, job positions get more in reach for job seekers. This causes more competition between talented people among vacancies, as the availability of finding a vacancy becomes ‘one-click away’. This creates a war among talented applicants for a position (Derous & Fruyt, 2016). Recruiters try to cope with this immense pool of

applications, through selecting the applicants on additional information found online. This negative and positive information about applicants can easily be found online. Based on those features, they can come too quickly to a conclusion, which can disadvantage applicants. On

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those assumptions, recruiters can act unethical or in conflict with the legal procedure of accepting a candidate (Girard & Fallery, 2009). For example, a recruiter is impressed with the information obtains and makes an appointment for an interview, afterwards he discovers online that she is pregnant and cancels the appointment because she will bring a loss to the company for several months due to her pregnancy. When a recruiter fails to hire an applicant based on such situations, because the manager describes not to hire pregnant women, this results in a unfair procedure which is in conflict with legal issues. In reality multiple other factors play an important role why recruiters reject applicants in the recruitment process searching for the right candidate. Because the intensity of the application pool with high competence grows, recruiters need to make decisions based on additional information found online (Festing & Schafer, 2014).

This selection of additional information can be a big enhancement to provide the

company the right fit, but if this process is done unethical and privacy laws are transgressed, it results in discrimination of minorities and eventually lowers the self-esteem of applicants, which can result that they will take comfort with lower level jobs. After all if a company fails to take a fair procedure, it reduces its own chances in developing a growing environment in their company (Parry & Tyson, 2008). Because correctly recruiting applicants online can increase the recruitment process through efficiency advantages, costs reduction and can broaden the pool of candidates: create diversity of applying applicants (Lee, 2005). If the acquiring company (under-) estimates potential employees, it wastes valuable knowledge capital and creates unequal chances on the labor market. Alternatively, applicants will know what kind of firms operate on this behalf and this company gets a bad reputation. In the competitive market of today, a firms success is based on its reputation and if a firm wants to stay competitive, it needs to adapt their perceptions on selecting candidates.

2.2.1. Privacy

The way employees apply on a vacancy have changed due to technological advantages. To stand out of the crowd, applicants use multimedia applications like social networking websites, mobile testing and video resumes (Derous & Fruyt, 2016). However these new applications are vulnerable as they are new developing approaches where little consideration is held with privacy; ‘the condition of being protected from unwanted access by others, either physical access, personal information, or attention’, of an applicant (Bok, 1989).

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In a larger potential applicant pool, recruiters tend to deviate from traditional ways to accept or reject candidates on even more specified qualities, such as their interests,

appearances and pictures to understand an applicant better and to look if they will fit based on these qualities in the corporate environment of the firm (Parry & Tyson, 2008). Social media is a big community where people want to interact with each other and share content, this content in interesting, recruiters tend to collect information found on this. Gen Y is familiar with the (dis-)advantages a public profile brings along. Whitehouse (2010) found that adults who publish private information online, would change that information if they thought it would appear publicly. Therefore, when contestants apply for a position they need to be aware that recruiters tend to look for extra information through SNSs. To prevent this problem, applicants need to secure their profile or delete information that can harm them, still it does not leave that additional information found online should be invaded because it is easily available. On the other side, recruiting based on information found online, can put some applicants in the spotlight, which they would not have gotten without this information. The greatest limitations of the privacy aspect are recruiters who tend to deviate their decision on false, inaccurate, or outdated information, that applicants only want their peers to know about. This search of additional information can lead to negligence and unfair treatment of

applicants (Melanthious, Pavlou & Constantinou, 2015).

2.2.2. Ethics

The rapid spread of information online in the digital era needs development of new ethical guidelines (Whitehouse, 2010), because a healthy organization needs a diversity of human capital. Diversity on the workplace tends to improve customer satisfaction, enhances workers motivation, improves supply of labor and avoids costly discrimination programs since the work floor is already highly divers (Marchington & Wilkinson, 2012).

More often governments employ independent organizations to test firms and write rapports on the way they select their employees. Especially since the unemployment rate in the Netherlands is around 6,4 per cent (CBS, 2016) and to lower this rate and improve equal chances among minorities, governments need to know why and on what criteria’s certain applicants do not get selected or discriminated. Heckman (1998) states that ‘Discrimination is arises if an otherwise identical person is treated differently by virtue of that person's race or gender, and race and gender by themselves have no direct effect on productivity’. This kind of discrimination brings the labor market in danger, by giving minorities complex feeling about

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their self-esteem when rejected continuously and provides disunity and envy between job seekers. It even can create an adverse impact, which unintentionally discriminates applicants for pursuing quotas (Derous, 2014).

Derous (2014, pp. 13-20) describes that due to social evolutions, globalization and diverse demographic movements in the society, the age of life expectancy increased and women and immigrants entered the labor market, which increased the diversity of employees. Nevertheless firms still imply the old-fashioned type of an ideal employee and are afraid to deviate from that type as they think it will harm their corporate culture and with that, their reputation. Especially as the pool of high competence job seekers enlarges, which leaves companies to base their decision on additional factors than their competences and skills, which can enlighten the habits of selection on the basis of discrimination.

Figure 2: Average type of clicks, e-mails/ voicemails and missed calls a fictional male candidate (between 23 years or between 35 years) to

ethnicity got.

Source: Panteia (2015)

In the Netherlands the two most important bases of discrimination during an e-recruitment process are based on ethnicity and age as reported in the Panteia rapport (Figure 2), which was conducted in 2015. In table 1 criteria on which selection is prohibited the Netherlands in presented. The main criteria the Werving & Selectie Gids (2016) raises are ethnicity, religion, gender, age, political convictions and sexual orientation. For example, recruiters tend to distinguish applicants based on their last names, in result they put aside contestant with non-Dutch last names and based on this event they make a distinction, which is not relevant for performing the job. Some firms implement the policy of anonymous solicitation, which is

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based solely on the motivation letter, with the goal to avoid discrimination of certain minorities (Werving & Selectie Gids, 2016).

Table 1: Criteria on which selection is prohibited in the Netherlands Prohibited

criteria: For example: Grey area: Objective justification

1_:

Ethnicity and nationality

Ethnical origin, skin color, language

proficiency/accent, surname

Requirements on clothes, appearance features and behavior

language barriers when language requirements are asked

Religion and belief

Headscarves, skullcaps, beard growth, applicants who refuse to shake hands with opposite sexes

When a job requires a lot of handshaking for closing deals, if a applicant refuses to work with the policy of alternative ways

Demanding a groomed beard, neutral appearance for everybody (headscarves) Gender Pregnancy, sexual

intimidation, glass ceiling, positive discrimination

Justified sex-‐determined

functions When operating in specific gender areas like sales (lingerie-‐ store)

Age Young and old, just graduated/school-‐ dropout, maximal years of work experience,

contestants with a maximum age

Half-open system: difference on

behalf of age is prohibited, unless there is a sufficient reason to it (objective

justification)

When the labor policy is adopted by law, there is a substantial business interest (bankruptcy) and there is a good reason for distinction

Marital status

Not giving a contract because someone is not married, which gives the impression of not being loyal to the company

Political convictions

Different political

opinions an applicant has When someone’s political conviction harms the firm workplace or imposes to colleagues

When choosing governing bodies for the government, if an applicant is an extremist Disability

and chronic illness

Social payment, wheel

chair, re-‐organization An applicant needs to inform in advance if an employer has the opportunity to adapt to his circumstances, when strong physical work load is inquired

When the adaption’s that are needed to be done are

disproportionately a burden to the work environment and in costs

Sexual orientation

Reveal strong statements

through clothes Dressing on a lavish way, which does not fit in the firms policies of representation, harass people with his orientation

Source: http://www.wervingenselectiegids.nl/selectie/het-selecteren-van-brieven

1_{Objective
justification:
good
reason
for
distinction,
when
the
goal
is
legitimate,
the
sources
are
suitable
to}

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2.2.3. NVP Recruitment Code

As a reaction to the high discrimination in the e-recruitment process in the Netherlands the Dutch Labor Foundation and the Dutch Association for Personnel Management and Organizational Development (NVP), developed a code that needs to be observed by

organizations, recruiters and applicants during the selection process of e-recruitment process, referred to as ‘the Recruitment Code’ (the Code). The purpose of this code is to provide a standard for a transparent and fair recruitment and selection procedure and the rules to obtain such procedure are in short (Appendix 1, 2016):

1.1 The underlying principles for the Code are: the applicant gets an equal opportunities for equal abilities; the organization will choose on the basis of suitability; applicants will be fully informed of the application procedure; candidates provide only the information that is needed for the position and must be true and representative; privacy of an applicant will be treated confidentially and with respect; both parties are aware that information online and from third parties is not always reliable.

1.2 The importance that the applicant has a clear understanding of the application procedure to be followed.

2.1 Only the relevant details of a vacant position are set out regarding the duties and responsibilities that accompany such a position.

2.2 Job requirements may relate to professional competences to the extent that they do not conflict with statutory regulations.

3.1 Will state the method of application, the information to be provided by the applicants, any additional selection procedures and/or methods.

3.5 Regardless of the method of application the organization will mention that candidates can be sought over the Internet, including social media.

3.6 The organization will not require a photo of the applicant prior to the applicant being invited for an interview

5.1 If the organization requires further information about the applicant from third parties, the internet (such as social media), and other sources, it will request the applicant’s prior consent. The information obtained must be directly related to the job vacancy

This Code is not implemented by all organizations but the government strongly suggest to hold on to this Code, to prevent lawsuits and an unfair e-recruitment process.

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2.3. The power of Recruiters

Recruiters have within reach all kinds of databases of resumes to help and find talent quickly online through career websites such as LinkedIn.com, Randstad.nl and Magnet.me. Find additional information through Social Network Sites (SNS) like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Recruiters can post vacancies on different sites, have online applications and can even conduct interviews online (through Skype, Viber and WhatsApp) (Pillai & Dhobale, 2012). Recruiters need to be careful because this system has no filter to secure an applicant’s private information or ethical background and cannot distinguish between private life related- or work related information (Chen et al., 2012)

Therefore Business sectors face much criticism. As the digital search for the right contestant, is being influenced by other factors than their competences and the motivation letter. This search on finding additional information about a contestant is a reaction to the tight labor market where a lot of contestants apply for the same vacancy and to find the right applicant who fits in the firm’s corporate culture, recruiters tend to search for a specific type of applicant. E-recruitment helps to gain faster access to applicant’s information data but privacy data, safety and the credibility of information can be questionable (Pillai & Dhobale, 2012).This online search can disadvantage applicants in advance, by not selecting competent applicants for an interview where they can show their capabilities. This process leaves little room of an equal process among minorities, or creates online misrepresentation between high competence people to show their abilities (Pager, Western & Bonikowski, 2009; Whitehouse, 2010).

When a candidate is screened, there are additional factors that influence the perception of the recruiter. There are four factors that can be of influence for recruiters to choose

candidates out of the pool who have applied on a vacancy. The first is the size of the company for which the recruiters works for. Is the firm international or national based and how many employees does that company have. When a company has many employees, different features of applicants create diversity (Goede, Van Vianen & Ute-Christine Klehe, 2011). The second factor is the corporate culture of the firm into which a recruiter has to choose an applicant for. The recruiter needs to understand which traits and competences of an applicant are important for applicants to fit into the corporate culture of the firm to conduct a healthy work

environment. The third factor is the experience a recruiter has. The more he is trained to see through some candidates with whom he personally does not have a click with but knows who will fit into the company. This experience gives recruiters to look in a fast way onto resumes,

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be more time efficient and confident in detecting unfair methods or go in contradiction with clients (Barber, 2006). The final factor that is important for selecting candidates are the managers or divisions that are above the recruiters, since they are the people who have to work with the possible applicants, they need to select wisely out of the recruiters selection. Because they are more sensitive to additional information, they are easier distracted with inappropriate and maybe false information found online, or can discriminate some applicants because they do not fit in the some corporate culture where a certain type of employee is searched for (Felman & Klaas, 2002; Festing & Schafer, 2014).

2.4. The versatile Generation Y

Wisdom comes with age, but to function in a growing and extremely competitive market, proper usage of media is key. Age plays a part in the difference of traditional and modern media such as newspapers, television and the Internet. Though the content of the information found online or offline is essential in the implementation process at work (Coleman & McCombs, 2007). The generations that are now actively entering the job application

procedure is the Y-generation born between 1980-1995 (Yilmaz & Ozkocak, 2010). Because this generation looks differently to media and how HR-departments conduct their

e-recruitment process, they are interesting to research (Martinsons & Ma, 2009). In this process of data gathering candidates are not aware or conscious of the infringement on their privacy. The information data recruiters collect are ambiguous, as holding to the firm's policy on ethics and privacy; most of them still deviate or operate in a grey area when gathering background information of candidates. The way people interpret ethics and privacy differs from their age, environment, geographic, psychographics and demographics (Caers & Castelyns, 2010). Therefore it would be interesting to look at the way people of generation Y perceive this data.

De Goede, Vianen & Te-Christine Klehe (2011) report that job seekers already have expectations about certain organizational culture before they visit companies’ websites and apply for functions. Firms try to maintain and improve this reputation, by showing their organizational culture to the environment with the help of SNSs. This reputation has a goal to reach as many as possible individuals to provide potential job seekers to recognize their firm (Melanthiou, Pavlou & Constantinou, 2015). This recognition creates benefits as job seekers tend to apply fast to firms they recognize. Because the more job seekers perceive an

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organization’s culture to fit their own cultural preferences, the more attracted they are to the organization and the more likely they choose to apply (De Goede, Vianen & Klehe, 2011).

Other factors that are of influence on the way Gen Y contestants perceive privacy and ethics in the e-recruitment process are their preference of work sector, where they want to work in. Because each sector has different depends on which companies select. This brings to the factor which reputation an organization has. Because a firm with a high reputation

perceives more applicants for a vacancy. The fourth factor that can be of influence in the perception of Gen Y contestants is the size of the competition on a vacancy. When more applicants apply for a position recruiters tend to not have enough time to process an applicant as qualitative as in a selection pool where less candidates applied for (Bolton, Parasuraman, Hoefnagel et al., 2013).

Problem definition

3.1 Problem definition and research question

Because recruiters get easier access to applicants due to globalization, the corporate culture has changed into a more diverse environment (Breaugh & Starke, 2000). The search on diversity of characteristics can create privacy and ethics problems in the e-recruitment

process. These problems tend to conflict with the perceptions that recruiters and generation Y contestants have, lead to misinformation and misinterpretation of a contestant and can end in an unethical way of e-recruitment which (dis-)advantage generation Y contestants and the firms for which recruiters select.

Despite the fact that digital recruitment grows intensively, there is little research concerning thoughts of recruiters and generation Y contestants about privacy and ethics. To get a better understanding, of what someone really perceives it is important to understand the underlying meaning of someone’s behavior towards the e-recruitment process to enhance it. Especially because earlier research has focused more on the success and use of the

e-recruitment process (Parry & Tyson, 2008), factors affecting e-e-recruitment (Stone, Stone-Romero & Lukaszewski, 2006), how e-recruitment enhances the process of finding and attracting the best applicants online (Girard & Fallery, 2011) and how organizations can understand how to manage their resources to attract valuable generation Y capital (Ehrhart, Mayer & Ziegert, 2012). Thanks to these researches and rapports conducted by the

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government, a NVP Recruitment Code has been developed (Appendix 1), which recruiters need to follow in order to conduct a fair recruitment process in the Netherlands. However, it is not self-evident that all companies stick to this code. There are factors that influence the behavior of recruiters. One factor is the size of the firms that has a different approach on selecting the applicants because they are more dependent on the way the fits into the

corporate culture; the experience of the recruiter to make informed decisions and look through inappropriate information found online; the corporate culture into which a recruiter has to find a perfect fit and the managers, clients or departments above the recruiter which have the final decision of hiring an applicant (Marr, 2007; Kapse, Patil & Patil, 2012). For generation Y contestants the perception of e-recruitment is influenced through factors such as their personal preference of the kind of work they want to work in, their experience they already have with the solicitation process, the reputation of the firm a contestant wants to work for and the size of the competition a vacancy has when applying for one (Stone, Stone-Romero &

Lukaszewski, 2006).

The e-recruitment process is known for its cost and time reduction and effective way of search, using little resources. It creates new opportunities and chances for applicants that have been hard to recruit before. This creates a bigger pool for recruiters to select from. There is a possibility that some rules concerning privacy and ethics during an e-recruitment process will not be obtained or will be of shortage. To get more insight about and prevent an unfair e-recruitment procedure, there must be research obtained from recruiters and generation Y contestant who are familiar with such selection procedures and how they perceive privacy and ethics in such a process. Which steps they have encountered in online selection, how much they have prepared for this process, which pitfalls or success factors of such a process there are and what do firms need to change in the e-recruitment process to attract those generation Y contestants to attain sustainable competitive advantage. To get a better understanding of this process the next research question will be conducted:

“How do recruiters and generation Y perceive privacy and ethics during an e-recruitment process in the business sector in the Netherlands?”

On the basis of a few sub questions for recruiters and generation Y contestant an answer will be drawn to the research question. For recruiters the first sub question will be: In what way do recruiters use social network sites and additional online information to conduct background checks to screen their applicants, and in what way does this affects the hiring decision?

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Through this question recruiters can enlighten the factors on which they select their applicants online and if there is a possibility for change. The next sub question will be: Are recruiters aware of legal implications associated with online additional applicants information and how ethical the selection criteria of their actions believe to be. And does experience, the size of the firm, the corporate culture and the decision of managers or departments above recruiters has to do something about it? In order with this sub question research can show why recruiters select the way they do, that there are other major factors influencing the selection procedure. The final sub question will suggest how to change the e-recruitment process to attain a diverse corporate culture and therefore attain generation Y human capital, through a legal and ethical procedure: What needs to be enhanced or changed to conduct an e-recruitment process that gives generation Y contestants the feeling of belonging in a firm, because of the fair e-recruitment process?

Since generation Y is self-conscious and knows how to use the Internet, they are usually not aware how recruiters conduct an e-recruitment process, there for the first sub question will be asked: In what way does generation Y contestants prepare online for a solicitation and are they aware of the requirements this process brings along and which additional online factors are of influence on the hiring process regarding privacy and ethics? To see the train of thought generation Y contestant have on privacy and ethics regarding to recruiters the second sub question will be asked: In consideration with the high competition of generation Y contestants applying for a vacancy, in how far can recruiters go or deviate regarding privacy and ethics to select a generation Y contestant? The last sub question

focusses on the same point of question as the recruiters do, this to find a deeper understanding of their perception: What needs to be enhanced or changed to conduct an e-recruitment

process that gives generation Y contestants the feeling of belonging in a firm, because of the fair e-recruitment process?

Through understanding these factors, a conclusion will be given to understand the (dis-)advantages of the e-recruitment process and to conduct an answer as to which areas need more involvement. This will not only give companies a better competitive advantage, but also creates a healthy labor environment in which all applicants are equal, who only have to compete on their competences instead of the way they look, their ethnicity, gender and their age.

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3.2 Relevance and Contribution of the Research

Traditional recruiters have seen the fast shift from recruitment offline to recruitment online. This shift has opened a big window for the more effective and low in cost search for the right employee. The digital era has created global access to applicants, which gives recruiters a larger choice of high competence contestants to select from. Furthermore, the number of vacancies in the 2nd quarter of 2016 grew to 2,5 million online job spots, which is a rise of 23,8 per cent in comparison to the numbers of the 2nd quarter last year, onto which applicants could apply for in the Netherlands (jobfeed.nl, 2016; textkernel.com, 2016). Because this pool is so competitive, recruiters tend to search beyond the resume and motivation letter. They search online through SNSs, disrespecting an applicant’s privacy and search on specific keywords, which can disadvantage minorities with ethical differences or create online misrepresentation of high competence people to show their abilities (Pager, Western & Bonikowski, 2009; Whitehouse, 2010).

The problem rising is that a lot of companies misinterpret the importance of

conducting a fairly equal e-recruitment process, even though it enhances the diversity of the human capital at the firm and therefore the chances to stay competitive in the rival economic market. Also it creates new ways of learning different perceptions. Secondly, it creates the ability to innovate better in an environment that is diverse and has different ideas about the products the firms are selling. The third enhancement for the firm is that through a diverse labor force, the firm can attain easier international access to other markets and organizations (Marr, 2007).

Therefore the market of searching the right contestant for the right job is an important process that needs to innovate regarding privacy and ethics in the e-recruitment process, when choosing the right contestant to attain since there is a high competition of contestants for jobs. The goal of this study is to understand and interpret the pitfalls and advantages of the e-recruitment system of attracting and selecting generation Y applicants. To answer the above problem definition will contribute to map the way recruiters and Gen Y perceive the e-recruitment process regarding privacy and ethics. This research’s goal is not to develop new theories or to test old theories, but to understand how recruiters and generation Y applicants perceive the revolutionary way of recruitment.

On the basis of the outcomes of interviews with recruiters and generation Y contestants, an appropriate advice will be drawn on what companies need to focus on and

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improve in the e-recruitment process regarding privacy and ethics to conduct a fair recruitment process for generation Y contestants.

3.3 Structure of the Research

The goal of this research is to gather information about the way privacy and ethics are considered during an e-recruitment process by recruiters and generation Y contestant to understand how to enhance the procedure. Though there will be a theory analysis of the e-recruitment procedure. This to look in how far the NVP Recruitment Code can be

implemented in real life. From here there will be an overview on which levels this

understanding is a good basic to implement from and where this method has shortages, as this method is a theory but implementation of it can be different. It will be of importance if there is a case of reappearing patterns of perceptions or different views, which can enlighten new aspects in the e-recruitment process to enhance it, or for organizations where the focus on the process needs to be.

To answer the research question this research is divided into a few structuralized steps. In the next part, the methodology will be explained. The methodology will explore why the current method of researching is conducted and how this method is elaborated. In the fourth part the results and analysis of the research will be given. Part five will present the discussion, critique and limitations of this research and the final part will give the conclusion and

implementation for further research.

4. Methodology

In the previous paragraph the extant literature about privacy and ethics of the e-recruitment process has been explored. In order to gain a better insight ‘how’ and ‘why’ recruiters and generation Y contestants perceive privacy and ethics during an e-recruitment process a qualitative research is undertaken and will be explained in the research design. In the

following paragraph, the research unit will be explained and in the third part will be explained why semi-structured interviews with recruiters and generation Y contestants are conducted. In the final paragraphs the data analysis for obtaining data from interviews is described and the quality of the research through internal-, and external validity and reliability is shown.

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4.1. Research design

In this paragraph will be an explanation how the research question will be answered. The research question is: How do recruiters and generation Y perceive privacy and ethics during an e-recruitment process in the business sector in the Netherlands? To answer this research question and to give a suggestion for firms how to conduct a better e-recruitment process there will needed to be obtained relevant data. This data will be obtained through empirical sources and through semi-structured interviews (Saunders, 2011). The empirical sources will show how the e-recruitment process is conducted in theory regarding privacy and ethics. Access to these sources are available through the online thesis databank of the University of Amsterdam, articles from search engines such as Google Scholar and Social media such as Facebook, to find articles, publications and rapports that are highly discussed among generation Y users. The second source to understand how this theory is implemented is through anonymous semi-structured interviews with recruiters and generation Y contestants who are aware of the e-recruitment process, who can suggest new implications to the process from own experiences (Baarda, 2009).

A qualitative research will be undertaken because the goal of this research is to understand and obtain in-depth information about the discrimination problem in the e-recruitment process daily news reports and give suggestion how to enhance or adapt this procedure afterwards. Privacy and ethics are complex, difficult and sensitive issues that people find hard to discuss especially since a lot of companies select employees on the basis of features that are in theory explained as ‘not qualified for the vacancy’, but in real life contrary with legal laws regarding privacy and ethics of an applicant. Therefore the ‘how’ and ‘why’ questions will be analyzed, to understand the advantages and pitfalls of the

e-recruitment process. Another advantage is the extra information a researcher can obtain through reaction on unexpected events during the interviews, which can acquire knowledge or new insights to solve practice-related problems (Wester & Peters, 2004; Baarda, 2009).

The biggest disadvantage of a qualitative research is that only a small sample out of the population in taken, therefore the information obtained cannot be a representative of the total population, it can only be a suggestion (Saunders, 2011). Therefore to enhance the representation of the research, this research will combine the literature research with the interviews of relevant contestants (Baarda, 2009)

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4.2. Research unit and participants

This whole research is based on the perception recruiters and Gen Y contestants have about the e-recruitment process in the Netherlands. The Netherlands as country is chosen since contestants for interviews will be easier obtained and local news provides issues with specific Dutch rapports. Since in general recruiters from all sectors use online recruitment systems to find applicants. The sector that is most competitive is the business sector (Investopedia.com, 2015), because the graduate Gen Y contestants focus on that specific area, which makes it necessarily for applicants to differentiate themselves and focus more on the e-recruitment process than in other sectors, where the competition among Gen Y contestants in less competitive.

The interviews will be held with recruiters that are operating in the business sector (Table 2). The size of the firm is of great importance and to generate an overview of recruiters perceptions: small-, middle- and large with different corporate cultures firms are chosen. To obtain a difference in overview, recruiters with different experience in work were

interviewed, to show if the experience of the recruiter is a factor when recruiters select applicants.

Table 2: General information about the interviewed recruitment staff

Recruitment Recruiter 1 Recruiter 2 Recruiter 3 Recruiter 4

Age 25-‐30 25-‐30 25-‐30 25-‐30

Gender F M F F

Experience # years 0.5 3 5 2 Branche of work HR HR Technology Law #employees in firm >2300 >2300 >125.000 <100 M/F Ratio in % 23/77 23/77 67/33 50/50

Source: https://business-‐courses.nl/business-‐talent-‐network; https://www.beste-‐werkgevers.nl/

The other group consists of anonymous generation Y contestants aged between 20-30 years, who are graduating from a institute or university or taking an internship (Table 3). The contestants need to have been in contact with the solicitation procedure, this to explain their

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experiences and perceptions, they need to know about online search tools such as Facebook and LinkedIn and want to operate in the business sector to connect with the group of

recruiters, how they select. This because the business sector is competitive, there for a different approach regarding solicitation is needed.

Table 3: General information about the interviewed contestants of generation Y

Generation Y Contestant 1 Contestant 2 Contestant 3 Contestant 4

Age 20-‐25 20-‐25 25-‐30 20-‐25

Gender F M F M

Branche of work HR Innovative Technologies International HR Marketing Facebook X X X X LinkedIn X X X X Sollicitation experience X X X X Source: Interviews The participants get questions that they will need to support with their own experience and perceptions. All these experiences and perceptions are subjective therefore to conduct answers on the research question there needs to be a guidance of the same questions asked to

participants. The answers will be analyzed and processed in the results.

Eight participant, four recruiters and four generation Y contestants were interviewed. Three of the participants were male and five female. All participants live in the Netherlands and have experience with the e-recruitment process.

4.3. Data collection: Semi-‐structured Interviews

For this research there will be kept eight anonymous semi-structured in-depth interviews with four different recruiters of small-, middle- and large firms who are operating in the business sector and four interviews among student who are in their final year of their university or institute study and are focusing on the labor market, or taking an internship. This way of conducting interview puts the focus on the specific subject but creates room to discover and ask for more insights and new additional information that was not found in the literature

Privacy and ethics during an e-recruitment process in the business sector : a qualitative study among recruiters and generation Y in the Netherlands