8. We cannot fully separate our personal and professional lives; some aspect of one or the other will always bleed through or cross the line.
“When hiring new employees I check their public social media profiles to confirm their character and to get more background on their personal hobbies and interests to see if they would be a good fit for our company culture. If individuals are going to post their lives on public social media networks, I see no reason for me to overlook a valuable insight into their character and personality.
– Joel Gross, Founder and CEO at Coalition Technologies @coalitiontech
9. It’s a great way to initially screen candidates because the information is voluntarily posted to a public forum.
“A candidate must believe that information [posted on public social networks] is relevant otherwise why would they have posted it? Furthermore, it’s a great indication of how they behave in public and public behavior is a great indicator of workplace behavior.”
– Charles Krugel, Owner and Attorney at Charles A. Krugel Law Firm
10. Of course, you should use a potential employees public social media accounts to vet them.
“If they’re putting up pictures of them doing [inappropriate things] — that matters. If they post stupid crap and don’t realize why they shouldn’t post stuff like that online, they can be liabilities to [your business] as well. It isn’t just noting stupid stuff they do — it’s [understanding] how much of a liability they are to themselves and how much of an understanding they have of the world around them.”
– Ali Maadelat, President at Lorenz Marketing Group @AliMaadelat
11. We check Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Google to get a feel for the person beyond their resume.
“This is usually to see what their interests are, if they’re into [our industry] and if they know how to engage their audience, even if it’s just their friends. If their profile picture is some ‘saucy’ photo and all of their tweets are about partying, they are definitely not getting a reply from us. On the other hand, if someone shares insightful articles, networks via social media and mentions a good book about the PR industry, they are more than likely a shoe in.”
– Danika Daly, President at Danika Daly PR @DanikaDalyPR
“The risk employers need to understand, when using social media as part of their recruiting process, occurs when the process moves from sourcing to screening candidates,” says Rob Pickell, senior vice president of customer solutions at HireRight, an employment background check and background screening service provider.
“Social media is an ideal way to find and recruit candidates. But, the difficulty occurs when information provided on social media sites is used to screen or explicitly eliminate a candidate from consideration. This elimination, when based on data found through social media content, opens the employer to the potential risks of liability, discrimination claims and non-compliance with regulations. While there is little direct legal precedent around this issue at this point, it’s likely that legislation and case law will become more clear in the near future.”
Should small businesses use social media for recruiting, screening and background checks? Let us know your opinion in the comments section below.
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