Indian Employees trust Social Media for finding a Job: Ma Foi Survey

Indian employees use social media as an effective job search tool across the globe, reveals the latest findings of Ma Foi Randstad Workmonitor 2011 - Wave 1. This survey is a quarterly review of “mental mobility status” of employees, i.e., their readiness to change jobs conducted by a global HR services provider, Ma Foi Randstad.

While the positive sentiment of an employee’s ability to find a relevant job in the market continues to be upbeat in 2011, 82% of Indian employees are extremely confident on using the social media such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to enable them to find a new job quicker and more efficiently. So are Chinese employees (83%), who share the similar sentiment.

As per the Workmonitor survey, 87% of Indian employees use the social media to find information about an organisation’s work culture, 75% track movements and events of their favourite companies, so that they are up-to-date for attending job interviews and 75% would hesitate joining a company, if their co-workers have given negative reviews about the company.

Among the Indian cities, employees in Mumbai (85%) and Delhi (83%) are most confident towards social media helping them find a job and they take the maximum initiative in profiling themselves as an employee on networking sites such as Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter. Compare to other cities, employees in Mumbai and Bangalore are given the maximum access to websites by employers during work at 96% and 97% respectively, finds the survey.

Key Insights:

• 90% of Indian employees have an individual accounts on facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, etc. of which 81% use it for professional purposes
• 93% of Indian companies are ensuring social media access through computers for employees at work
• Employees within the age group of 35-44 use social networking the highest to further their professional interests
• Employees privately employed are the group with the highest membership statistics to social networking websites.
• 90% Temporary workers believe that they reap extremely high business benefits from social networking websites
• Employees in the income brackets of 2 to 5 lakh and 5 – 10 lakh are the highest users of social media websites with accounts in LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook
• 78% of social media users in India use the platform only to present themselves professionally. Globally, only 29% of the workforce use social media to profile themselves as employees.
• Privacy as a concern issue amongst employees globally, seems to be decreasing, with increasing (70%) number of workforce being ready to share their personal information with the professional world.
• The Indian workforce is much more active using social media, with 79% of the workforce who have updated their social medial profiles in the last month itself.
• Globally, however, the level of social media activity seems to be quite lower with only 54% of the global workforce who have updated their social media profile in the last month.

Other findings:

• Indian workforce continues to remain the most mobile in the world with a highest index of 145. India is followed by China, and with Mexico in the third place.
• The mobility index is least in Luxembourg and Germany indicating least employee churn. The mobility index is similar for both gender groups with males at 145 and females at 146.
• The mobility index is highest (154) in the age group of 18 to 24 and lowest (132) in the age group of 45 – 54.
• The mobility intent has declined marginally across employee groups of moderate and high education. Factual job change is highest in the group of low education at 93%.
• The mobility index is the highest (166) amongst temporary employees and has declined among the government and private sector employees as compared to last year
• The mobility index is highest (160) among employees earning less than Rs. 90,000 per annum
• The mobility index is highest in Delhi (151) as compared to other locations
• Indian employees trail China in their confidence of securing both different and comparable jobs over the next six months.
• Employees in India, France, Italy, Poland and Mexico have become more satisfied with their current employer than in Q4 2010. Outside Europe, the most satisfied employees can be found in India (77%), Canada (77%) and Mexico (75%).

Commenting on the findings of the report, Mr. E. Balaji, MD & CEO of Ma Foi Randstad said, “Recruiting using Social Media has taken many parts of the globe by storm and this revolution is here to stay. Social media has become a potent tool for both employers and employees and as a low cost - high return option, recruiting through Social Media will soon become a key differentiator in the current global recruitment market. The advancement of technology will also fuel this growth with easier interface and ultra refined searches, helping employers and employees finding the right fit jobs.”

The Ma Foi Randstad Workmonitor is a ‘lead indicator’ on employee mobility that can enable organizational preparedness for future scenarios. As part of this survey, the state of mind of over 60,000 employees in 26 countries across five continents is studied, compared amongst countries and finally presented in the form of an index. The index shows the extent to which employees are thinking of changing their jobs in a short-term while compared to other countries in the world.

A complete report of this survey can be downloaded from http://www.mafoirandstad.com/our-services/consulting/ma-foi-randstad-workmonitor.html