Situational Analysis and Action Plan-Fall into the Gap
Dawn N. Noguerra
MBA 6241
Human Resource Management in the 21st Century Knowledge Organization

PO Box 1214
Inglewood, CA 90308
Telephone: (323) 204-2783
Email: justsyd2001@yahoo.com
Instructor: Dr. Jane Abstract
Social Recruiting is fairly new tactical way for employers and recruiters to screen potential candidates via social media sites. This trend has been taking place since 2008 and although still in its infant stage, it is slowly but surely gaining momentum in the talent acquisition world. With the world headed into an era where everything is automated or computer driven, Social Recruiting will no longer be a thing of the future but a thing of the present.

My Topic Selection that I have chosen is: Social Recruiting: Talent Acquisition & Social Media. According to David Smooke, a San Francisco Bay Area – Director, Content & Social Media @ SmartRecruiters, “Social recruiting is a contested term. It is a concept at the intersection of recruitment and the embryonic field of social media. There are several terms used interchangeably including social hiring, social recruitment and social media recruitment.”
Allison Doyle, Job Search and Employment Expert at About.com, said, “Social Recruiting is when companies and recruiters use Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other social media sites to source and recruit candidates for employment.”
According to Matt Alder, Strategy Consultant for HR and Founder of MetaShift, said, “Social Recruiting is a concept not a defined technique,” and breaks down the three primary activities of Social Recruiting as 1) Push 2) Pull and 3) Being Genuinely Social.
While Robin Richards, CEO of CareerArc, TweetMyJobs, and Internships.com, told Fox that Social Recruiting “is a proactive process for job seekers and recruiters to search, converse, share, engage and refer each other using social media, web-based and mobile platforms.”

Because of the ever increasing changes in the way which companies recruit their candidates it is most important that companies as well as job seekers keep up with current trends. According to a blog written by Jeanne Miesler late last year, she states “It used to be that if you wanted to work for a certain company; you went in for an informational interview or waited for a job opening and submitted your resume. These days, you may be better off “liking” the company on Facebook or joining their Google+ page. That’s because smart companies are no longer waiting for the right candidates to apply. They’re actively seeking them out on social media.” In a previous article Ms. Miester had already forecast that personal branding is the future for the way in which companies will recruit potential candidates and that includes your social media presence. Truthfully when applying for jobs nowadays most companies will ask for the link to your LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter or Google+ profiles. This I can attest to in my own personal job search.

Social Recruiting has been chosen as my topic because our world is ever changing in the way things are done as a whole. Social Recruiting gives a company the chance to really see how a potential candidate may be in his or her “real” life. There is a difference between reading about someone on paper (viewing job history, accomplishments, etc.) and being able to see how a person carries themselves on social media. The process in which a company views a candidate via social media can either make or break the potential opportunity of being procured for an open position. How is Social Recruiting relevant to HRM? In the past recruiting has always been done the traditional way. And that is by sifting through hundreds of resumes or applications, searching for qualified individuals. Social Recruiting is an HR component that is not only on the rise but quickly gaining momentum. According to American Journal of Business Education, a 2010 survey conducted by Careerbuilder.com showed 45% of companies in 2009 used social networking websites as a screening tool for job applicants, a number twice as high as the year before.

This particular topic has relevance to me personally being a graduate student working on an MBA in Human Resource Management. It’s relatable because I am actively seeking a position in today’s highly competitive job market as well. Although my resume says a lot about my experience it does not really give a potential employer a sense of how I carry myself by way of the social media genre. Experienced through research, it has made me realize that I could possibly benefit by following/liking companies of my own career interests. I can use this outlet as a way to stand out from my competition by potential corporate suitors of a candidate with my particular skillset.

Gap, Inc. is the organization that I have chosen to analyze and create an action plan for. Doris and Don Fisher opened the first Gap store in 1969. The reason was simple. Don couldn’t find a pair of jeans that fit. They never expected to transform retail. But they did. Guided by humility, compassion and a strong desire to win, the Fishers grew their company thoughtfully. Customers responded. Today, Gap Inc. is a leading international specialty retailer with six brands – Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Piperlime, Athleta and INTERMIX – more than 3,500 stores and more than 136,000 employees. We’re growing globally, and just within the last few years, they opened their first stores in China and Italy. They have expanded online shopping to customers, too. Today, customers in about 90 countries can buy their products.

Business Perspective Gap, Inc. is a global specialty retailer offering clothing, accessories and personal care products for men, women, children and babies. They are headquartered in the San Francisco Bay area and have more than 136,000 employees and more than 3,100 company-operated stores and 375 franchise stores, their presence is felt around the world. Their brands include Gap (including Gap, GapKids, babyGap, GapMaternity and GapBody), Banana Republic, Old Navy, Piperlime, Athleta and INTERMIX.

Gap’s vision and mission are to be the world’s favorite for American style. In the 40 years the company has been in business they have been exactly that-“The World’s Favorite for American Style.” When co-founder Don Fisher started Gap not only did he want to change how retail was viewed, he wanted to “do more than sell clothes.” In the year 2012 the company was able to increase their revenue to $1.1 billion dollars. They were able to achieve this by improving their key financial metrics while expanding their portfolio of brands.

The human resources profile of the company is one that is diverse and always searching for the best talent. Gap has a deep commitment to fostering a diverse and inclusive environment, and developing and recognizing the accomplishments of their employees and realizing that is what helps to keep their employees engaged and motivated. The company seeks to do so by doing the following: • Diversity and Inclusion: To succeed in the global marketplace, they continue to develop a diverse employee base and an inclusive work environment.

• Career Development: They invest in their employees to help them realize their professional goals and lead successful lives.

• Recognition: Retaining the best talent in their sector comes from acknowledging their employees for their innovation, integrity, and responsibility.

• Benefits and Rewards: They provide their employees with a competitive combination of compensation, benefits, and rewards – all important to attracting and retaining the best talent.

By investing in their employees it not only keeps the moral high, it also allows the company to attract great talent through various avenues such as social media.

Organizational Perspective

Gap, Inc. is the organization that I have chosen to analyze and create an action plan for. Doris and Don Fisher opened their first Gap store in 1969. The reason was simple; Don couldn’t find a pair of jeans that fit. They never expected to transform retail but… they did. Guided by humility, compassion and a strong desire to win, the Fishers grew their company thoughtfully and customers responded. Today, Gap Inc. is a leading international specialty retailer with six brands – Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Piperlime, Athleta and INTERMIX – more than 3,500 stores and more than 136,000 employees. They are expanding globally and just within the last few years opened their first stores in China and Italy. Gap has even expanded its online shopping to consumers all over. Today, retailers in about 90 countries can buy GAP products.

In 2012, Gap had the following Key Performance Indicators (KPI):

• 45 stores opened in China

• 300 franchise stores globally

• Banana Republic flagship store on the Champs Elysees in Paris

• First international Old Navy store opened in Tokyo

• First Piperlime store opened in New York City

• 35 Athleta stores opened in the United States

• Acquisition of the multi-brand retailer Intermix

The restructuring and tremendous growth of the company has created more jobs all over the world, for example: China, Tokyo and Paris. Social Recruiting will play a huge role in the company being able to not only fill positions but fill them with local prospects that are familiar with and to the area. 1. 45 stores opened in China: 2. Banana Republic flagship store on the Champs Elysees in Paris: 3. First international Old Navy store opened in Tokyo: In my humble opinion, Social Recruiting can be beneficial to the corporation by having an entirely new market to reach out to. Lots of youth frequent a lot of sites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and the likes. The company can advertise links on these various sites offering employment positions to anyone interested. By these prospects filling out applications and some personal information, allows recruiters to possibly visit the profiles. Observing how potential employees conduct themselves on the aforementioned sites, may give additional information to determine if the candidates are a good fit for a particular store or not. Additionally profiles may show what circles prospects travel in, what groups they may belong to and what other sites they may frequent to see if Gap Inc. can also advertise there as well for more recruiting. This is merely one way Social Recruiting can be an asset to any corporation. With China having such a huge market, Gap Inc. was able to build 45 new stores. The KPI here is astounding, being able to break ground on that large a number of facilities. With recruiters knowing and understanding the population size makes this an ideal place for numerous facilities as far as employment and revenue generation goes. Social recruiting can be a very cost effective way to reach potential candidates having such a vast number of people to pick from. Opening a Banana Republic in France and an Old Navy in Tokyo are two other great examples of KPI that the Fishers can benefit from using Social Recruiting. By implying the same process mentioned in the previous paragraph the recruiters are able to bypass several obvious “unemployable” potential prospects. In October 2012, Gap announced a new global brand structure designed to fuel their company’s long-term growth. With the start of the 2013 fiscal year, the company brought together their North American, International, Online, Outlet, and Franchise divisions under a single global executive for each of its Gap, Banana Republic, and Old Navy brands. In addition, Gap Inc. formed a new Growth, Innovation, and Digital team to build on their online and technology advances.
Cultural Perspective Let us take a look at Social Recruiting from a Cultural Perspective and how this can be beneficial to furthering the growth of GAP Inc. as a brand. By Social Recruiting being relatively young, it still has not yet become the #1 option for jobseekers but it is quickly gaining a lot of momentum. There are new sites popping up recently about this. On top of that there are new Mobile Applications or Apps like The Now Hiring App 1 and The Gravity App 1, becoming highly popular amongst those on the hunt for employment. The two aforementioned are both featured on Newton’s Social Recruiting 1 website. Another site available for companies to socially recruit from is called ZipRecruiter 2. These are just a few examples of how Social Recruiting is going to catch on like wildfire. Giving new options for not only Gap, but almost every other corporation to advertise vacant employment positions and search for potential staff members. We live in technological times and since this is the case, Social Recruitment will be a part of our new and current Culture. The Newton Social Recruiting site states “Newton’s social media recruiting applications provide employers, with simple, smart, safe ways to leverage the relationships that people build with your brand. All of our social media tools are fully integrated with Newton, our leading applicant tracking system and employers use them at no addition cost. 1” Also with Newton you get two great social recruiting tools like the two apps briefly mentioned in the opening paragraph. They are described as follows: “The Now Hiring App provides future employees with a place to connect with your organization using a branded Facebook Career Site. Put your jobs and employment brand in front of millions of passive candidates on their favorite social network. 1”

“The Gravity App is an employee referral tracking software application that’s social, mobile and engaging, Employers create referral programs to recognize and reward employees that take an active part in the hiring process. 1

The Newton website also features YouTube videos showing just how their Facebook NOW HIRING App functions. YouTube videos of the Gravity App are also available for your viewing pleasure. There are people on the site also Tweeting about the social recruiting site and yes even Instagram. Twitter, LinkedIn, Monster and Instagram, are a few other social media sites that are extremely popular that sees tons of traffic which equates to millions if not billions of people. That large a number of people give a corporation like GAP Inc. an extensive pool of potentials to offer employment. ZipRecruiter2 boasts on their site that they are “The #1 Way for Recruiters to Find Qualified Candidates”. They say any company can post positions in just 4 steps that include: 1. How many jobs do you need filled?

2. Post your first job FREE!

3. We’ll notify you when candidates apply! (contact info)

4. Select button that says “Create FREE Job”

ZipRecruiter states that companies like GAP Inc. can “Join 25,000+ recruiters who have connected with more than 750,000 qualified candidates!” It offers to company recruiters that their positions will be will “Post to 50+ Job Boards”, “Search 2.5M+ Resumes” and also “Contact Candidates”. This site posted that it has “Over 25,000 Happy Recruiters”. That’s not all that they offer either. What they claim to do is if a company like GAP uses their service the will be able to: - Post Once. Distribute Everywhere - Post to Paid Job Boards in Seconds

- Enjoy Built-in Social Recruiting - Embrace the Mobile Job Seeker

- Discover Candidates in the - Add Unlimited Users to Your

- Resume Database Account

- View and Share Formatted Resumes - Screen Candidates the Easy Way

- Customize Your Branding

- Create an Instant Job Page on Your Site

…just to name a few.

Our Culture is constantly changing as the world becomes more and more global. This fairly new technology is truly becoming, not only American a World Wide culture. Social Recruiting offers GAP and the likes, a new market of people they may not have been able to reach using more traditional ways of recruiting new members to add to their workforce. This is definitely what is on the horizon for companies that either have facilities or plan to have them in different cities, states, countries and even on different continents. The Culture of Social Recruitment will, with a ton of certainty, be an asset to a Corporation just like that of the Fisher’s GAP Inc.

Action Plan The action plan that would be necessary for Gap, Inc. has to be one that aligns with the company’s mission and core values. In this paper I have covered the company’s business, organizational and cultural perspectives and show how they all correlate with Social Recruiting. The reading thus far shows that Social Recruiting is the way of the future for companies looking for new and fresh talent. The achievement criteria necessary to make the action plan for Gap, Inc. work is:

1. Utilizing the free websites referenced in the Cultural Perspective portion of the paper.

2. Also looking into companies, such as Jobvite, that assist corporations with their Social Recruiting needs.

Social recruiting can only help build Gap, Inc.’s brand by expanding the way in which the company looks for new talent. The resources required to enable the action plan objectives would be a strong talent acquisition team, free websites that have recognized success with Social Recruiting strategies, other outside resources such as Jobvite that specialize in Social Recruiting. Also needed is the drive, the knowledge and the focus to learn all about Social Recruiting and how it can take Gap, Inc. to the next level with acquiring top talent for the company.

The goal achievement date for this action plan would be 6 months to 1 year after its implementation. This gives the company time to really buckle down and learn about the ins and outs of Social Recruiting, how it works and how it will be beneficial to Gap, Inc. I believe that the achievement date is more than enough time for the Talent Acquisition team to address any comments, questions or concerns regarding the new way that searching for new hires will take place.

The action plan results will be reviewed by the Director of Talent Acquisition along with the VP of Human Resources. When reviewing the results they will compare the results with the achievement criteria listed above to make sure that the requirements were met. If the criteria has not been met, the Director of Talent Acquisition and VP of Human Resources will call a meeting with their team to see what feedback they have in regards to how the implementation of the new process is going for the group. They need to find what the likes and dislikes are of the group. If this is done it provides opportunity to somehow re-do or re-work the criteria list.

Conclusion In conclusion this Situational Analysis and Action Plan for Gap, Inc. shall allow the company to introduce Social Recruiting to their staff worldwide and allow them to implement the process seamlessly. Social Recruiting is the wave of the future and by Gap implementing this new process into their company it allows them to have a leg up of the competition or at least stay competitive with those already on this bandwagon. Technology is and will continue be our way of life in this new millennium and the Fishers should and must keep up with the times. There is an astoundingly large pool of talent that exists on the internet and Gap must dive in and retrieve those that will not only keep them competitive but, take them to the next level and beyond. Gap Inc. has to take a advantage of Social Recruiting for the simple fact that not only is it an efficient way to search for staff members but it is an extremely cost effective way to reach the masses. So just like Fishers and all the companies’ continuous growth being on the rise, Social Recruiting is also following the same trend.

References
Budden, M., Elkersh, D., Vicknair, J., & Yancey, K. (2010). The use of social networking websites as a recruiting tool for employers. American Journal of Business Education, 3(11), Retrieved from http://scholar.google.com/scholar_url?hl=en&q=http://www.cluteonline.com/journals/index.php/AJBE/article/download/57/55&sa=X&scisig=AAGBfm0sXfTxdC3ZV7Ewkckf2xAFgs-bOQ&oi=scholarr
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Smooke, D. (2012 March 8). Question: What is social recruiting? Retrieved from http://www.smartrecruiters.com/blog/question-what-is-social-recruiting/
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ZipRecruiter About us Retrieved from https://www.ziprecruiter.com/about