The right hire: Should social media be involved?

More and more of us are interacting with Social media as a daily activity, allowing us to know and evaluate ourselves and others according to the information that is available online.

Do we want to see how a person’s daily life unfolds? Simple: Facebook. Do we want to see how they react to an event? Easy: Twitter. Do we want to see how they promote their image? Effortless: Instagram. And if we want to find out how professional development has unfolded, what could be more useful than LinkedIn? But should it really be that simple and quick? And most of all, so ethical and innocent?

Obviously posting pictures or comments of oneself as a frequent drinker cannot be to their advantage when applying for a job. Any company would face the problem that such an employee wouldn’t perform and may generate additional costs through medical expenses or enrollment in specialized programs.

That’s why using Social Media as a resource of additional information, which brings more knowledge beyond the dry and arid content of a curriculum vitae/ resume is not only an advantage but a way to avoid the pitfalls of Negligent Hiring. It ensures avoidance of an incident of an employer failing to vet a candidate well enough to determine with the greatest possible degree of certainty whether or not he or she could represent a danger to the organization.

The results of an opinion poll applied in April-May 2020 on decision-makers in HR departments showed that 71% of them admitted that accessing candidates’ Social Media accounts is an effective screening procedure.

The survey was conducted online in the United States of America by the Harris Poll company at the request of Express Employment Professionals and had 1,005 people as subjects.

In the same survey, 70% of respondents believed that employers should check all social media profiles created by candidates and 67% said they use social media to search for potential job candidates. A topic of interest is that of the recruiters using Social Media to screen candidates, over half (55%) reported finding content that caused them to reject applications. However, about 21% of recruiters claimed that they would not consider a candidate who does not have an online presence. What would be the explanation for this new hiring approach?

Perhaps the reasons are those key elements that an employer considers important and looks for on Social Media accounts: information that confirms or complements the professional qualifications included in the CV (approximately 61% of employers look for such information); the existence of an account on a professional social network (50%); other people’s opinions about the candidates, even if they do not concern strictly professional aspects (37%).

If not being on Social Media is a problem, how present should one be and, more importantly, how should we present ourselves? According to “Career Builder”, a reputable site for employment opportunities and advice on the subject, the most common situations that lead to the rejection of a candidate and which are related to their online activity are:

• provocative or inappropriate audiovisual content;
• information showing drug use by the candidate;
• comments that discriminate or contain hate speech;
• derogatory comments towards the former employer;
• an inappropriate “stage name”;
• high frequency of posts.

Ethical aspects of using Social Media for HR activities

However, a clear line of demarcation must be drawn between does and don’ts when Social Media information plays a role in making an employment decision. And this line must be established from the beginning, including by companies that offer screening services at the request of other companies — just as there is business courtesy, there must also be privacy courtesy.

Furthermore, given that not everyone is equally active on Social Media (there are people who prefer to interact offline or who believe that Big Brother is more than just a story), a person who seems to not post negative content online because they are not very active on Social Media may have a higher chance of being validated than someone whose opinions are more exposed due to heavy Social Media activity.

However, although the use of Social Media Screening can be extremely attractive (including from a cost perspective), such an activity, done in the absence of expertise and without following a working algorithm, can create a false impression of certainty, leading the employer down the wrong track. That is why it is advisable that such screening be done on the basis of clear procedures and methodologies and, possibly, with the help of dedicated software and specialized personnel.

Screening should also follow, rather than precede, an interview, providing additional details intended to complement the general picture of a candidate and not to paint a picture that may cause prejudice.

Those details that…

It is obvious that during a formal meeting with a potential employer candidates (or most of them) adopt conduct that increases their chances of being chosen.  This starts with their attire and ends with their vocabulary or posture, which makes it difficult to anticipate their daily behavior after employment.

A curriculum vitae cannot possibly contain details about how a person behaves with colleagues at work, what their favorite topics of discussion are or when they might react negatively to a joke. And these are elements that are part of everyday working life, even if they are not directly related to one’s professional skills and potential to achieve goals.

Last but not least, Social Media Screening can provide answers to questions that cannot be asked during an interview that lead to exposure of different ideas, views, mindsets, biases, fears etc.

This is where Social Media comes in (or can come in, because it’s not always a solution to the problem), where you can find clues (if not proof) of a person’s way of life, of how they think, act and react.

From Social Media you can see what a person is passionate about, what interests they have, what their financial status is, what they read, movies they prefer and how they usually spend their free time (maybe even where and with whom). Social media also allows you to highlight individuals that the candidate interacts with, and if data is available who those people are.  It can determine how intense a connection with someone is and what the foundation of the relationship was built on.

Last but not least, clues can be found about possible approaches to ideas that can generate tensions in relationships with other potential coworkers, the approach to radical ideologies or the tendency to put themselves in extreme situations.

The types of content someone uploads to a social media platform or how they react (with a simple Like or in a form denoting something more intense such as a Share), using derogatory words, engaging in cyberbullying or activities close to it, all contribute to shaping the profile of a job candidate as accurately as possible.

LinkedIn brings to the forefront not only educational and professional background, but can provide important details such as the recommendations a person has received, especially if they come from the top management of previous jobs.

Tips and more

A few suggestions that can help a potential employer when examining Social Media accounts:

• an individual doesn’t want certain details about themselves to be known and therefore they do not post it on social media — so we ask the questions, why wouldn’t they want that detail to be seen? Does it try to steer perception in a particular direction?
• what’s personal should stay personal — as much as employers want talkative and open personnel, we know that sharing too much can have negative effects. It also highlights the issue of an individual sharing confidential information — intentionally or unintentionally — that they have access too.
• an individual who speaks negatively about a previous employer(s), colleagues or job brings a counterbalance to his/her baggage of skills. It also puts an emphasis on their understanding of ethics, loyalty and integrity.
• the absence of a Social Media profile could be an attempt to hide something, however, the use of privacy settings can be seen as a form of protection and safety. Until the individual is hired and begins to interact and connect with colleagues at the company, we can’t be sure what “leopard is hiding behind the fence”.
• sometimes it can be useful to study a person through the lens of their interactions with others such as “tags” — which are not as inaccessible as they seem.