Acting on a hunch: cybervetting and the role of emotions in job recruitment

Abstract

The process of recruiting new employees involves the risk of hiring the ‘wrong’ person. Systematic and extensive information gathering is therefore used to support objective and rational decisions. Today, the use of cybervetting is part of the recruitment process, but prior research shows that emotions, contrary to the ideals of ‘objectivity’, are essential for sorting and selection decisions. Based on interviews with 37 Swedish recruiters, this study demonstrates how cybervetting is motivated, restrained and directed by recruiters’ feelings about the jobseeker and the practice of cybervetting. The study findings also emphasise that recruiters believe in a ‘professional’ means of managing emotions, and the notion that certain emotions represent a tacit knowledge with an emotional foundation that is difficult to articulate.