Cybervetting perceptions of job seekers in Saudi Arabia

Organizations have leveraged the use of social media (SM) in recruitment and selection to reach a wider pool of job applicants. The purpose of this study is to understand the perceptions of job seekers in Saudi Arabia using the job seekers’ attitudes toward the cybervetting (ATC) scale. This research is a quantitative cross-sectional study in which an online questionnaire was distributed among the target population who were seeking jobs and using social media sites. The ATC was translated to Arabic language and back-translated to English language and administered to a sample of 160 job applicants. The results showed negative perceptions of social media use as a screening and selection tool. Moreover, respondents perceived cybervetting negatively on the three dimensions tested: justice perceptions, privacy invasion, and face validity. The findings of this study have practical implications for human resources managers about the use of social media as an employee selection tool.