The Use of Social Media to Attract Generation Y in Organisations

Generation Y are increasingly entering the workforce, and will account for around 50% of the global workforce by 2020. They come to the workplace with distinct characteristics and expectations causing organisations to rethink their traditional working practices. This short paper will present the main themes from the literature on the contemporary working practices that involve the use of Social Media to attract generation Y employees to organisations. Based on the literature, a conceptual framework is presented which offers direction for future practitioners and researchers. The three main issues identified in the literature are the characteristics of generation Y employees, the use of Social Media in recruitment practices and practical implications for the use of Social Media in recruitment. The emerging research themes for future studies are: interactive engagement with employees; employee training, organisational transparency; gamification in recruitment and the increasing importance of organisational SM policies.