Sep
2015
Social Media Screening– Informative or Illegal?
As technology continues to become ingrained within our culture, lines have become blurred when it comes to social media and the professional world. Questions and arguments rise in the Human Resources department as to whether the use of social media for pre-screening job applicants is ethical or even legal. Many employers believe that it is a great tool for effectively recruiting new employees, where some view it as prying into a candidate’s personal information.
Keeping it Professional
According to a study done by the Society of Human Resource Management, many employers shy away from using social media sites to learn about job applicants out of fear of learning information that should rema
in personal. From my personal experience, I have been asked to deny Facebook friend requests from campers as a summer camp counselor in order to keep my professional life separate from my private business. I see no reason why employers should not have the same standards, as my social media pages reflect little about my professional abilities.
Relevance of Social Media
It is likely that employers may find information on an applicant’s social media page that is completely un-job related that may turn them off from the candidate. This brings to question if the information found on social media is even relevant to an applicants professional abilities. In one article, the idea of social media screening is supported by the fact that an applicant’s true maturity level is more clear on social media than in an interview– as the candidate may simply fake their true character. However, if the candidate is clearly acting differently in the workplace than how they portray themselves in their personal life on social media, where is the issue? If an employee acts professional in the workplace there is no problem to address– they are entitled to carry themselves in whatever manner they desire in their personal life.
On top of all of this, there is no proof that a social media page actually belongs to the person whose name its under. There are so many fraudulent social media profiles on the internet due to the fact that anyone can make an account under whatever name they desire. So there is no evidence to prove that these social media pages actually belong to the applicants that employers are trying to learn more about.
Overall, the use of social media to screen applicants is risky business. The information necessary to determine if a candidates qualifies for a job can all be ethically and legally obtained through applications, resumes, and other hiring processes.
3 Comments on Social Media Screening– Informative or Illegal?
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Simon
October 14, 2015 at 12:29 pm (9 years ago)I completely agree with your stance on this issue. I don’t think it is ethical for employers to do a background check on someone through their social media. In the past, I do believe this tactic was used by a lot of employers because, back in the day when social media was so new, people didn’t know how to use it. Nowadays, kids are being taught how to use social media correctly because it is a part of everyday life in this age of technology. I think employers are stemming away from screening potential employee’s social media because of several reasons.
1) Privacy on social media is very regulated today and anyone, like myself, choose to make their social media sites private to the public and only available through friends.
2) Like you stated in you article above “if the candidate is clearly acting differently in the workplace than how they portray themselves in their personal life on social media, where is the issue?” Along with this, there is no proof that whoever is using the social media site is who they really say they are.
3) Employment today is so competitive and employers receive applications from hundreds of students every semester from colleges all over the world. To sit down and analyze every applicants social media sites would take an extraneous amount of time.
des5449
October 2, 2015 at 5:04 pm (9 years ago)I could not agree more with your stance on this issue. Since the introduction of social media, this topic has been a point of fiery debate. While everyone is aware of the risks associated with what they put on social media, this still does not give employers the right to judge candidates based on information they are trying to share semi-privately with friends and family. In an article from HR Zone, they cited a survey by CareerBuilder, which reported that 43% of managers who researched candidates did not hire that candidate based on something they saw on social media. The problem is are those things related to a bona fide occupational qualification? Not always. Many times the things recruiters find on social media and use to not hire a candidate relates to sexual orientation, race, sex, or aggressive behavior. The lines for what is and is not appropriate in terms of social media screening need to be further defined in order to qualify as “fair judgment”.
http://www.hrzone.com/talent/acquisition/social-media-screening-is-it-ethical
Chia-li Yeh
September 29, 2015 at 8:50 pm (9 years ago)I think you brought up an interesting point that screening the candidate’s social media profile might be an unfair technique to determine the personal image of a candidate. Companies are not able to verify that the information is accurate on each potential candidate’s social media page that they are viewing, especially since there are lots of people who share the same names. To verify a candidate’s qualification for a particular job, companies could use different methods in a more professional fashion. Using the social media profile screening approach for identifying potential candidates is still controversial. Here is another article about this related topic. http://www.shrm.org/publications/hrmagazine/editorialcontent/2014/1114/pages/1114-social-media-screening.aspx