Last week in class we discussed whether or not employers/recruiters should be able to use prospective employees social media accounts. According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, a survey indicated that 43% of recruiters who used social media as a part of the screening process found photos or tweets that led them to not hiring the candidate. Wheras 19% of those surveyed said that the social media accounts they looked at actually increased the chances of hiring a particular candidate. They said that they found information that helped them choose the candidate, and it usually was due to communication skills and professional image. For the recruiters who found that social media accounts hurt the chances of potential employees, they agreed it was due to inappropiate photos and information.
During our in-class debate about whether recruiters should use social media, some of the points made by the opposing side was that it was invasive, biased, and inappropiate to use Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts to screen a candidate. Many will argue and say that social media can help with the hiring process because it will help employers understand who fits company culture and whether they have good communication skills. One of the surverys in this article tells us that social media as a screening tool will hurt candidates more likely then helping them. When this discussion first came to light people worried that employers would find negative posts and images of themselves online. However, now that people are more aware of their social media presence, they are more likely to filter their accounts and make sure they are professional. For those who don’t filter their accounts or don’t mind to make their accounts more professional this could be a problem. Despite the fact that there have been increased privacy settings on social media accounts, what you post or upload could hurt your chances of a job if employers are regularly using social media to screen new hires. The article goes on to explain how social media can cause biased views of a candidate, “It could lead to discrimination, they say, and it may screen out otherwise strong candidates who have done some things the company doesn’t like but aren’t related to work.”
There are many factors that companies use to evaluate a candidate, anywhere from communication skills, personality, and technical skills. A candidates personal social media account shouldn’t be one of them.
Citings:
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303825604579514471793116740
I remember during my first job interview, I came into the room seeing my future employer browsing through my Facebook page. I was shocked. “Wow you have really good social value,” he said. “Social value?” I asked. “Yes, I prioritise candidates who have good morals, a wide social range and supportive friends. I can’t really prove that in an interview and so I screen my candidates on Facebook first. I hope you don’t mind”. Well, what could I say? He was going to be my future boss and I really wanted to work in this company so I just had to go with whatever he said right? But how could he tell all that through my Facebook profile?? This guy is ridiculous. The interviewer went on saying “And I’m glad I don’t see any clubbing and drinking photos. I never hire party people” Phew, boy was I lucky that I had just finished my exams and didn’t have the time to go out and have fun the past two months.
I walked out of that interview feeling pretty conflicted and insecure. How could my future boss be so shallow and superficial to think that he can judge a person just through their social media accounts. If I was rejected due to a personal reason like the point that I enjoy hanging out with friends over a couple of drinks and occasional nightlife, isn’t that a little unfair to me? These factors have nothing to do with my merits as a professional. In a competitive economy, companies need to hire the most qualified applicants. Companies should trust that their employees will be professional enough to separate their personal life from their work life. If a boss were to reject their top candidate just because they don’t enjoy the same lifestyle as that person, the employer loses out on a valuable asset too.
Some people might argue that at the end of the day, a public Facebook page is just that: public. People are responsible for what they post. If applicants choose to make information about themselves available to the world, they should not be able to object when employers take that information into account during the hiring process. However, if I had to constantly be conscious about what I post online 24/7 and apply private settings to everything that goes slightly out of line with the teachings of the company, that would defy the true purpose of a social networking site which is to be yourself so that other people can get to know you and want to mingle with you.
Perhaps, it would be more justified for companies to analyse more professional social media sites such as Linkedin, instead of Facebook and Twitter, to do background checks on the potential candidates. This would make more sense as a job applicant’s well-crafted Linkedin profile can serve as an asset, acting as a kind of extended resume. It could also be used to authenticate the validity of references. Whether or not a company should look into the private lives of people could also depend on the type of job that a candidate is applying for. In the case of a writer, it seems appropriate for the company to read the candidate’s blog to find out his/her style of writing and his/her writing interests.
However, a rule of thumb that many successful corporations use today is to monitor only when there is solid reason to be concerned or when degoratory behaviors or negative emotions start to surface. This would allow a company to prevent any potential damage to the company’s reputation in the marketplace before it goes out of hand. It also allows the company to truly understand how the employee feels about the organisational culture such that higher management can intervene to prevent further misunderstandings from taking place and boost the staff morale. These policies have been in place for many years and have proven to be the way to go on the issue of integrating social media into the employee screening process.