Using Social Media to Screen Employees

There are millions of people in the U.S. that are currently searching for a job. You might be one of them and have probably been between jobs longer than you’ve ever experienced.  By now your resume has probably made the rounds on CareeBuilder.com, Monster.com, and Craigslist.com. You have probably gone to many interviews and felt you have done all the right things to seal the deal, but no one has called you back for a final interview. You might say to yourself, “could it be there is more qualified competition out there?” Well, maybe it’s your Facebook profile. About one out of three employers, according to recent data, use social media to screen potential employees. The first thing that comes to mind is whether or not employers should be able to screen us through our profiles on social sites? The second is, are the social profiles we post a good representation of us?

Many of us have social media and networking accounts; the most popular social sites are MySpace, Facebook and Twitter. These social sites allow for the most vulnerability to our privacy because of the details we are able to share and the media that we post. The reason why I think using a social site to screen employees could be unfair is because employers could find information that they would otherwise not feel comfortable asking about as appropriate in a job interview. They can find out your age, your marital status, whether or not you have kids, your political views, and your religious background. For an employer, this is an information jackpot. For an employee, it can leave you vulnerable to decisions based on one or more levels of discrimination.

Maybe from a moral standpoint it might seem wrong, but we have to ask, can an employer use our social site profiles in order to gain insight into who we really are? When we create a profile, we are usually schematic about the information we post and the images we choose to share. Social sites allow us to create a representation of ourselves which at times may be purposefully embellished. We might use our sites to “show off” or seem more interesting, happy, and popular. It seems we are more willing to share information when there is no actual face to face contact. I feel that even with all those factors in mind, if you have images posted up on Facebook, MySpace or Twitter, it’s because you wanted them to be seen. The question is, is it right to be judged by them?

In my profession, I am required to have accounts on most social sites for SEO purposes. In the office, most of us have accepted each other on our profiles to be “friends”, including our employers. I knowingly made these choices, allowing the people who sign my paycheck to see my profile. Fortunately, our bosses understand that we also make posts that are not work related. I am usually private about my shenanigans, but recently we had a situation in our office that could’ve been avoided if we would have paid more attention to what an employee had on their profile. It was a learning experience for us as a company. When we held interviews for a replacement, I was not surprised that my boss was Googling each candidate’s name and searching for their social site profiles, and photo sharing sites like Flickr. Each finding gave us a pre-conceived notion of the person’s character, however, we did not truly rule them out until we met them in person. In most cases we felt our notions were true. Others were lucky because they didn’t have too much information posted (ha-ha)!

I feel there is no real scientific way to prove that a Facebook, MySpace or Twitter profile could be a great way to screen a potential employee. Some may argue that what people do in their social life is separate from their professional life.  Others may argue that social profiles can give you a clue as to what kind of employee you will be hiring and if they have genuine intentions or not. Either way, if you are currently looking for a job, you might want to think twice about what you have posted on your social sites because employers are pre-screening you whether you agree with it or not.  Ultimately, you are risking assessment and evaluation with every public post in the social media that provide potential employers the free reign to reach conclusions about you.