social media background checks Archives

The Pros and Cons of Social Media Background Checks

You are in the process of interviewing candidates for a position and you have narrowed it down to your top 3. Typically you conduct background checks by calling references and verifying previous employment. But in today’s world where everything revolves around social media, it’s no surprise that Human Resources departments are turning to social media platforms to check their candidates’ backgrounds before making any hiring decisions.

Let’s take a look at the Pros and Cons of conducting social media background checks:

Advantages

1. Easy Background Check

Social media screening is a cheap way for a background check, the employer can access them anywhere they are and can make an immediate decision of hiring the candidate. It saves a lot of time to learn about the candidate through Facebook and LinkedIn profiles and does not require any additional money to be spent. Facebook posts are an easy insight into the candidate’s day to day life; Twitter is good to learn about how opinionated they are or about their personal thoughts. On the other hand, LinkedIn is good to learn about their professional makeup. With so many aspects available on the web, it is easy to know about the candidate in a complete way.

2. Eliminating Discrepancies

Social media background checks are a good way to confirm information on a candidate’s resume. Social media sites often provide information on the user’s previous occupations and work history. You can compare to see if there are any discrepancies in the resume they submit for the open position. A candidate may also claim to be an expert in a specific subject matter or have participated in certain volunteering efforts. Most of this information can be confirmed online on their social media platforms.

3. You Learn Who Your Candidate Really Is

Why do people tend to be more open and vulnerable on social media? Whether on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, users often let their guard down and are completely honest. Whatever the reason, this can prove to be beneficial to HR because few candidates feel free to truly be themselves in such a formal and high-pressure environment. During the job interview the candidate tends to put up the best foot in every aspect, hence, it does not provide the complete picture as to how a candidate will behave on a day to day basis at work.

But looking at online profiles can tell you what someone is passionate about or how they treat other people. It can also help you spot red flags. Does your candidate have a habit of ranting about her boss and colleagues online? Does an applicant who seemed friendly in the interview crack racist or sexist jokes on Twitter?

The information revealed by a social media background check is rarely essential to the hiring process, but in some cases, it can help you spot major red flags about a person’s character. Respect for others is always the main agenda for an employer that they look in a candidate and this information can easily be found in social media space. Someone who badmouths a company or spouts off derogatory remarks online is not a good ambassador for your brand and is probably someone you want to pass over when you are hiring.

Disadvantages

Legal Risks

While your social media background screening may seem innocent and purely professional, you could be exposed to potential legal risks in terms of privacy and human rights should your background screening methods be used against you. The legal risks may arise from the public information you gathered about the candidate.

For example, a candidate might list his age, race, religion, or sexual orientation as part of a Facebook profile. Whether you want to admit it or not, subconsciously learning this information about an applicant may affect how you feel about them. Hiring managers are at full liberty to have their own opinions about sensitive political, religious, and lifestyle matters, however, the second those opinions influence a hiring decision, they become discrimination.

Privacy Settings

Most social media sites allow users to adjust the privacy settings on their profiles. Smart candidates are more careful with what they post online. With this knowledge, candidates can easily create a social media profile that works to their advantage and HR has no choice but to accept what can be seen publicly as the truth. Be mindful that what you see is not always what you get.

You Might End Up Wasting Time

One of the biggest problems with social media background checks is that it’s unpredictable. Finding people on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn can be a challenge if you don’t share any connections or mutual friends. And even if you do find your candidate, privacy settings on social platforms can make it impossible to view their posts. Social media background checks can end up being a lot of work for potentially no return.

Conclusion

If you’re thinking about browsing the social media profiles of your top candidates, you need to consider both arguments before deciding.

Always run other types of background checks regardless of your position on social media background checks. Social media can tell you more about a person – from general likes and dislikes to character details – but it can’t replace traditional and trusted background check sources such as criminal screenings and employment verification checks.

If you ever decide to use a candidate’s social media profile for hiring purposes – whether to find contact information or to run a full-blown social media background examination – have someone other than the hiring manager do the work. Looking at a Facebook page can unintentionally reveal too much information – as such, it’s a good idea to have a person uninvolved with the hiring manager look through the applicant’s social accounts and prepare a report of relevant or potentially relevant information. This person can act as a filter, keeping information that might create a bias out of the hands of the hiring manager.

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Fired for Posting on Social Media

When posting to any social media platform, it might help to think of all of it as potentially public. Remember that anyone can take a screenshot or copy and pass on your post without your knowledge.

There’s something about social media that enables users to say or do anything and think they can get away with it. Is it the fact that they are hiding behind a screen? Or maybe they are pretending to have an alter ego?

In the age of social media there’s a phenomenon that sees users across the world, broadcast messages to the masses that they might not actually say aloud. Whatever the reason, negative or inappropriate social media posts can have severe implications on your career and even your life.

Here are some examples of what not to do on Social Media if you want to keep your job.

1. Complaining about your Job

It seems like a no-brainer. If you complain about your job or make a derogatory or racist remark on social media, someone at your company is going to hear about it. It’s inevitable. Even if you delete it after the fact, the damage has already been done.
After securing a job at a pizza restaurant, Texas teenager Cella took to Twitter so her friends could know how much she dreaded her upcoming first day, calling it a “f*** a** job.” Her friends may have found it funny, but her new boss certainly didn’t. He replied to her on Twitter that she didn’t need to bother showing up; firing her before she even stepped a foot into her new place of employment. Ouch.

2. Political Opinions and Racist Remarks

Radical political opinions can get you in trouble no matter who you are, but when you vow to never follow orders from your Commander and Chief, and you happen to be a Sergeant, it can get you in real trouble. Former Marine Sgt. Gary Stein voiced his opinion on both the country and Obama in a highly negative Facebook post. This ended with a dishonorable discharge and some pretty huge life changes as he watched his career go down the drain.

Drawing all over your passed-out friends and posting the picture to social media is nothing new – but it becomes distasteful when you add a Nazi theme, swastikas and anti-Semitic words to your “art”. Caitlin Davis, a cheerleader for the New England Patriots, drew several symbols on an unconscious party-goer. When the photo found its way onto Facebook, fans and random viewers alike were understandably outraged – encouraging the Patriots to do the patriotic thing and fire Caitlin Davis.

3. On the Job Antics

One hospital in Wiltshire, England, didn’t share the sense of humor displayed by its employees when they took a few seconds out of their workday to lie down in strange places around their workplace, tagging it “The Lying Down on the Job Game.” When a few hospital employees decided to play along, they posted pictures of themselves lying around the hospital on the floor or even on the helipad. The higher ups decided if they had that much time on their hands, why not have more? They were all fired.

4. Involving Children

Daycare workers are bound to have bad days, and sometimes a large group of kids can wear your nerves thin. But this caretaker took it too far. Not only did they make an offhanded Facebook post complaining about their job, but they went as far as posting photographs of the children along with snide comments, which actually reached one child’s mother. Following this, the child’s mother immediately made justified complaints to the daycare, ensuring the employee was fired.

5. Criticizing Leaders

Elizabeth Lauten, communications director for the Republican Representative of Tennessee, apparently forgot the value of positive communication. Lauten criticized Obama’s two daughters by posting this on Facebook: “I get you’re both in those awful teen years, but you’re part of the First Family, try showing a little class”. She also criticized the morals of the President and First Lady, and ended her post with a final suggestion to “Act like being in the White House matters to you. Dress like you deserve respect, not a spot at a bar.” Her boss had a suggestion for her as well – apologize and then resign, which she did.

If you feel strongly about maintaining a social media presence and want to continue to voice your opinion, make sure that only the people you want seeing your posts are seeing them. Double check your privacy settings so only friends can see your Timeline. And pay attention to who you add as a friend.

A case study in Harvard Business Review pointed out that your privacy settings are null and void if you’ve friended your boss or your clients – both types of people could be offended by a political opinion or joke. Always think before you post.

Social media is part of your personal brand so you need to remember to keep it somewhat professional at all times. This doesn’t mean that you can’t have fun with your friends or vent from time to time but try to remember that nothing online is ever truly private.