Social media can be a very useful tool for employers in the
hiring process. It provides much information that is unavailable through other
hiring processes. However, firms have to be very careful about how they gather
this information. There are many pitfalls that must be avoided, particularly
discrimination charges. When employers access social media sites, they have
access to lots of protected information they may not be able to get otherwise,
such as religion, political views, and disabilities. Firms have to be careful
to avoid using this information to disqualify candidates or make important hiring
decisions. Also, firms must consider the timing in which they access social
media sites. It is often more acceptable to look up candidates on Facebook or
LinkedIn after you have had a face-to-face interview with them. One more issue
with using social media is that some personal information you need explicit
permission from a candidate to gain access to, such as when an employer does a
credit check before hiring someone.
Another drawback of using social media for recruiting is
that the candidate pool is not representative of the U.S. population. Studies
have found that the percentage of Latinos and African Americans who use popular
sites, such as Facebook and LinkedIn, is much lower than the actual proportion
of these ethnicities in America. In order to reach these candidates companies
must turn to other form of recruitment, such as magazines and website ads. They
should also clearly display the fact that they are equal opportunity employers
and are looking for diverse applicants on their websites.
So how do you feel about using social media in hiring? If
you were running your own company would you employ this practice? Do the risks
outweigh the benefits? And what are some ways you think companies could help
protect themselves against lawsuits and build good policies on social media?
I have known of some cases where people were not hired by certain companies due to the information that they had on their social media. So, I think that people need to be more aware of what they publish online since companies are starting to use this information into account when hiring new employees.
ReplyDeleteIt is definitely true that people should be wary of what they post, however I feel like the companies should also have potential employees sign a waiver before hand stating that they will check the social media sites as part of a background check.
DeleteI have seen cases where employers look at social media sites, and I have seen cases where they do not. At my current job, I was shocked to see some of the facebook profiles of people who I work with. If I were in Human Resources, I would have probably not hired the individuals based on their public facebook pictures.
ReplyDeleteI think it is important to view social media profiles before hiring an employee because that individual will be a representative of the firm. I do believe that the risks outweight the benefits. A good way that companies could help protect themselves against lawsuits and build good practices on social media would be to stay consistent with their choices and reasoning.
How do you propose companies stay consistent in their choices and reasoning? No two candidates will ever be the same so I think it would hard to standardize like a set of characteristics they look for or something.
DeleteI have mixed feelings about employers using things like Facebook to make decisions on candidates. On one hand, it keeps individuals honorable and professional when using social media sites and what they post, however, like you mentioned, it can be used to discriminate. Linked In, however, I have a different view on. Because that is supposed to be for employment purposes, I think employers have every right to view one's profile and help make decisions on the potential candidate that way. I just think that overall employers need to be careful when using social media sites to base their decisions on different candidates.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree about LinkedIn. It's main purpose is to be a professional network so employers should always check that out. However in what you said about other social networks, I have to say that the point of most social networks, like Facebook and Twitter, is to be social and connect with friends and family and share their lives. Most people aren't worried about being honorable and professional with their family and friends. That's one of the big reasons I feel like social media is not a good place to gain perspective on a candidates work habits. Their is a separation between personal and professional life.
DeleteI think employers should use social media for hiring employees. If I was running a company, I would use social media to assist me in the hiring process. This post brought up things I had not previously considered and will now be mindful of. For instance, discrimination and under representation of minorities, as well as privacy issues and waiting until after our face-to-face interview to look into a candidates social media profile. In order to prevent lawsuits, companies should be careful of what information they are using to hire or not to hire employees.
ReplyDeleteWhile using social media sites helps with the pre-screening process, human nature makes people curious. Curious to look at photos, posts, etc. Unfortunately it is really difficult to fight this instinct to see further than what we should which also makes us judge based on what we have seen and read. Someone who is very careful posting information may be cautious however may not be who they show themselves to be. On the flip side someone who posts anything may lose an opportunity because of a party that got out of hand. I believe the pre-screening process should be left to the resumes.
DeleteIn another class (HR), we discussed a study that showed that only 1% of companies actually used social network screening in their hiring process, and of that 1% 67% have stopped using social network screening in the hiring process because of all the legal issues coming from it. Only 6 states have laws preventing employers from asking for passwords and usernames, however in all other states it's still not a best practice. I still think you should watch what you put out there because if they receive the information through a third party they can use it, but it can arise many legal issues when they dig for dirt themselves
ReplyDeleteI have heard from close friends how when they went in for an interview with certain companies they were asked specifically for their Username and Password for their Facebook and other social media cites. They both nicely objected to them having that information. Needless to say they did not end up getting the job. I am curious what the future holds for how this will impact the employment in the future.
ReplyDeleteI think it is disappointing that there are so few states with laws against this type of practice. It seems both discriminatory and unethical. I can see some potential benefit (MAYBE) to checking up on candidates through social media before hiring. But there is no logical reason to have account information like username and password, other than perhaps complete domination of the employee. It seems degrading honestly. I am also of the belief that there should be a firm boundary between personal and professional life. An employer should be able to see no more than what a candidate has made public. By mandating that they turn over their account information to you, you are invading their personal boundary and their privacy. And refusing them employment if they won;t do so is discriminatory. I can't believe this practice is even occurring to be honest.
DeleteI actually have been considering taking my Facebook page down for this very reason. Not really because of the things that I post on my page, but because of the things my friends post on my page. I have a fear that I will be guilty by association as some of my friends don't seem to have a censor button. I have tried to manage access to my page but it just seems like it is more work than it is worth.
ReplyDeleteAs far as ethics are concerned from an employer perspective, I think it is up to us, the user, to police what we want people to see about us. I think if I were going to hire somebody, the very first thing I would do is pop their name into Google and see what I could find out. I think as our lives continue to become more transparent through technology this practice will only grow and become more accepted as a normal and ethical component of the hiring process.
I think what you say about your friends posting on your page is a valid point. You can work really hard to monitor what you do and don't post on your page but you have no control over what friends and family post. Even if you delete things from your page nothing can ever really be deleted off the internet. I think if someone were really determined to check you out they could dig it up. Do you think there are any kind of fail safes social networks should put up against this? Also, even if you delete your page it's never really gone is it? Don't you just deactivate it and you can come reactivity it whenever you want?
DeleteI don't know how I really feel about the practice of looking at social media in the hiring process if I'm the one being hired, because I know it's easy to make inaccurate conclusions. However, I can't really blame the employers for doing so, as long as they also use another form of interaction in an interview process (preferably a face-to-face traditional interview). If I was an employer, I would absolutely want to see a "behind-the-scenes" look at the person I'm hiring to represent my company. It would be impossible not to want to check social media.
ReplyDeleteDo you think perhaps checking social media after having that face to face interview would help the process be a little more impartial? Once you have met someone in person I think you can gain more context about who someone is and then when you look on their social networking pages you can understand the things they say and post a bit more. I think it will also help you judge whether their posts are realistic to who they are or if they are just posting things that make them sound good.
DeleteI do not like the idea of hiring using social media at all! The way that I run my life outside of work is completely different than how I act at work. My life quote is work hard, play harder ;) If I had my own company, I might look at another persons profile, but I would never make harsh judgements based on their social aspects of life. I believe the risks outweigh the benefits by a long shot. Companies will have to be very careful and maybe write up legal papers on how they can access employees information and have them sign it before the actual hiring process happens.
ReplyDeleteIf you were an employer do you think you would be more likely to hire someone who does have a healthy social life? It sounds like you are someone who appreciates the balance of work and play. Perhaps social media for hiring shouldn't be used to see how hard someone works but instead to see how balanced they are. After all, employers can have problems with burn out if they hire people who just work work work all the time.
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