Posted on April - 16 - 2010
Prospective Employees and Social Media: What Are the Rules?
When you’re hiring someone new for your business, it’s tempting to go online and search for his or her name. The information that Google can give you can help you quickly decide whether you really want to hire a particular person. But you do have to be careful with what you go looking for in terms of a prospective employee’s social networking accounts and other information available online.
The Question of Discrimination
Many HR professionals will automatically reject candidates who include a photo or personal information with their resumes. Having such a policy is meant to prevent accusations of discrimination: if you don’t know what a prospective employee looks like or details like religion, you can’t be accused of discrimination if you choose not to hire that particular person. But a wide variety of information is available on the average social networking account.
For instance, on Facebook, you could see information about not only an applicant’s religion, but also his or her relationship status, orientation, political views and far more. That sort of information makes it very easy for a potential employee to claim discrimination if he or she chooses. Unless there is a very good reason otherwise, it’s typically best to simply not visit a prospective employee’s social networking profile. LinkedIn is typically an exception to that rule, since the site is geared towards employment and includes very little problematic information.
Beyond Social Networking
There’s a lot more to the internet than just Facebook and other social networking site, and much of that information is fair game. However, it is important to be cautious when looking up a prospective employee. It’s not always easy to tell if the John Smith interviewing for a position with your company is the same John Smith who pops up as the first result in Google. Try to narrow things down as much as possible.
It is worthwhile to look at any blog or website an applicant maintains, especially if it’s relevant to the field that you work in. You can quickly get an understanding of who the person you may soon be working with operates. It may also give you an idea of how that person might portray your business in the future. A blog shouldn’t be a sticking point in hiring someone, either. If there’s an issue, you can always explain your business’ policies on social media before making a job offer.
After the Hire
It is more acceptable to look at social networking profiles and other sensitive details after you’ve extended an offer of employment and your prospective employee has accepted. At that point, you can also ask your new hire to conform to your business’ social media policies, which may include cleaning up their profile or eliminating certain information from their blog. If your new hire is very active in social media, it may be important to have a conversation about their goals and plans in that area.
Image by Flickr user @boetter
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