Malaysia has been ranked the world’s fourth in workers’ use of social media in making their career decisions, according to the 2014 Kelly Global Workforce Index (KGWI), an annual global survey.

Kelly Outsourcing and Consulting Group (KellyOCG) vice-president D Anthony Raja said at least 60 percent of the local workforce use social media as a job search tool contrasting with the global average of 36 percent.

“This phenomenon is more inclined in Asia Pacific countries, which stands out as a hot spot with approximately half (51 percent) of the employees involving their social media network for employment decisions.

“This is significantly higher than Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) (34 percent) and the Americas (a combination of North and South America) (30 percent),” he said in a statement in Kuala Lumpur today.

However, he said, less than 30 percent of job positions in Asia Pacific countries are landed via online job boards.

“This opposing trend warrants a re-think about how organisations engage the right talent, with the worldwide talent gap continuing to widen and projected to reach 81 million by 2018,” he noted.

On the rising importance of online talent communities, he said the concept is still relatively new in Malaysia but forward-thinking employers recognise it as the next generation of sourcing and social recruiting.

He said employees are becoming more willing to open up about work and workplace challenges, with Asia Pacific countries recording the highest at 25 percent, followed by the Americas (19 percent) and EMEA (10 percent).

The survey also found that Asia Pacific attracts only seven percent of global workers who are willing to relocate, while Europe stands out as the destination of choice with more than one-third (34 per cent) of workers nominating it.

It also revealed that more than 80 percent of Asia Pacific candidates prefer to apply for a job via digital or electronic resumes or applications.

- Bernama