“Las redes sociales su influencia en el reclutamiento del talento en las PYMES del sector comercial en Cuenca Ecuador”

Abstract

The study aimed to analyze the impact of strategic use of LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram on the effectiveness of talent recruitment in SMEs in the commercial sector in Cuenca, Ecuador. A quantitative approach was adopted, with a non-experimental, cross-sectional, and correlational design, using a structured 15-item Likert-type survey administered to a sample of 71 SMEs registered in the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC, by its Spanish acronym), 2023. The instrument presented adequate levels of reliability (α = 0.85–0.91) and was administered via Google Forms during the first quarter of 2024. Statistical analysis included Pearson's correlation and linear regression to strengthen the robustness of the results. The findings showed a strong positive correlation between social media use and recruitment effectiveness (r = 0.78; p < 0.001; 95% CI [0.65, 0.87]), explaining 60.8% of the variance (R² = 0.608). Active interaction with applicants emerged as the most significant predictor (r = 0.70; β = 0.35; p < 0.01). Likewise, SMEs that use multiple platforms reduce recruitment time. In conclusion, social networks are consolidating their position as strategic tools for optimizing recruitment, despite limitations such as non-probabilistic sampling and a ±11.6% margin of error.