International Research Journal of Education and Technology

With the accelerating digitization of talent acquisition in India, social media platforms — particularly LinkedIn — have become primary channels for candidate sourcing, employer branding, and professional networking. This study investigates the impact of social media recruiting on quality of hire across five dimensions: Job Performance, Cultural Fit, Retention, Time-to-Productivity, and Hiring Manager Satisfaction. A quantitative cross-sectional research design was employed, collecting primary data from 254 HR professionals, hiring managers, recruiters, and social media-sourced employees across four Indian industry sectors: IT/ITeS, Manufacturing, BFSI, and E-commerce/Retail. Analysis was performed using SPSS v29, employing Cronbach’s Alpha reliability analysis, one-sample t-tests, Pearson correlation, multiple linear regression, and One-Way ANOVA with Tukey HSD post-hoc testing. Results demonstrate statistically significant positive impact of social media recruiting on all five quality of hire dimensions (all p < 0.001). Cultural Fit emerged as the strongest predictor of Hiring Manager Satisfaction (β = 0.369, R² = 0.819). One-Way ANOVA revealed significant inter-sector variation in quality of hire perceptions (F-statistics ranging from 4.37 to 8.24, all p < 0.01), with IT/ITeS consistently recording the highest mean scores and Manufacturing the lowest. Profile Misrepresentation (mean = 4.11) and Difficulty Assessing Soft Skills (mean = 4.04) were identified as the most significant challenges moderating social media recruiting quality. The findings support a person-oriented talent acquisition paradigm grounded in P-O Fit Theory, Social Capital Theory, and Signaling Theory, with implications for HR strategy, employer branding investment, and AI-assisted sourcing governance in Indian organizations.

Keywords: Social Media Recruiting, Quality of Hire, Employer Branding, Cultural Fit.