Employment Screening | Check Facebook Before Making a Hire? Pt. 1
Employment Screening | Just how accurate are social profiles in determining the personalities and capabilities of your prospective employees? A recent study found 30% of employers use Facebook and 22% used Twitter to screen candidates. 44% said they would consider this approach in future. But should a candidate’s social profile be fair game in the screening process?
The ethics and validity of a ‘Facebook check’ is an open debate with strong arguments for both sides. Here are a few pros and cons of using this approach in screening candidates.
FOR: ‘Social media checks are fair game in recruitment’
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There are situations that make checking a Facebook profile legitimate. An example is if the employee in question works in public relations, advertising, marketing, sales or other industries that otherwise serves as a representative of a certain company. In that case, employers are allowed to ensure that the employee is not being an embarrassment to the company. The company’s name is clearly at stake and employers are responsible for keeping it clean and unrelated to anything that might tarnish or spoil it.
- It can serve as an extended resume. An employee who displays his depth of knowledge and interest on his public profile might increase his chances of getting hired. A true passion on a certain subject will be apparent even on a public profile and if the blogs and pictures support it, then that further increases the credibility of his skill.
We understand the importance of each result. This is why we communicate a due date for each request. We always recommend in-person record searches – NOT DATABASE SEARCHES. This means we have someone literally walk into the court house where the person lives/lived to check court records. Although the onsite search takes a bit longer than a database search, this method ensures the most accurate and complete results. Database searches cannot always ensure information source, timeliness or accuracy. -RecruitLoop