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What HR Professionals Need to Know About Social Media Searches (When Vetting Potential Candidates)
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"Google him!" "Let's look at her MySpace profile. " "Did you see those Flickr photos of her drinking beer?" These are the common things that can be heard in any office when a potential new hire comes in for an interview. According to MSNBC, 23% of recruiters already research social networks* as part of their hiring process. Sometimes it seems like a contest, with all the current employees seeing who can find the most information about the new hire on the internet. The problem is that it is not a game. Traditional background checks are a serious business and the rules have been clearly defined by the FCRA . However, social media searches are unchartered territory. Consequently, there are no best practices established when using them to make hiring decisions.
These are some initial suggestions for a framework of standards that your organization can use when searching social media for employment purposes.
Employers should absolutely use social media searches when qualifying candidates.
Employers don't necessarily care about "drunken spring break photos" on a candidate's MySpace page. However, they do care about their company's credibility and public image. A corporate reputation that took generations to build could be ruined in seconds because a single employee has chosen to mismanage their online profiles. On the Internet, once an association is made between a person's online identity and an organization, the damage lasts forever.
Social Media Searches should act as a supplement to traditional background checking services, NOT as a replacement.
These two functions need to work in tandem in order to make responsible hiring decisions. First of all, nothing can replace a criminal background check, which is imperative for avoiding potential fraud and danger in the workplace. Furthermore, as it becomes easier and easier for anyone to upload ANY information to an online profile it becomes even more necessary to confirm what is found through your social searches. Education and work experience verifications are still necessary.
As is the case with traditional background checks, employers should get permission from candidates when running social media searches.
Currently, the law is unclear on the legal obligations pertaining to running unauthorized social media searches and there have been no high profile issues to date. If an employer uses Google to run the searches, there is a high probability they will pick up "false positives." Therefore, there is no way to know that the information they are looking at pertains to the actual candidate in question.
The idea of the search is not to spy, but to ensure that the organization and the candidate are in fact a good fit for each other. For example, our company recently made a hiring decision based on the enthusiasm and insight a candidate displayed through his twitter profile. Social media searches do not have to be just about digging up skeletons in someone’s closet, they could actually help you learn more about who someone is and what they aspire to be.