Scanning Social Media
I’ve heard of cases of employers asking prospective candidates to provide their Social Media (SM) access details to allow said employer to scan the candidate’s SM accounts. This is a controversial subject in today's world.
Such access would be necessary if candidates limit viewing of their SM pages to “Friends/Contacts only”.
Yes, checking social media may give an insight into a candidate, but given that it's done by another human with their own inherent biases (cultural, educational and social), it can’t be taken as the be-all-and-end-all of any screening process. As others have pointed out, one can “clean up” one’s online presence to show only what one wants. How far back does one go to find something that may reflect negatively on the candidate?
Now let me play "Devil's Advocate": if employers are allowed to screen candidates’ social media, why not allow candidates to screen their potential boss' and co-workers’ social media? Many probably do anyway.
The answer is simple: be careful what you put “out there”. Even if you are, the sheer diversity of opinion in this world means that someone will still find something to dislike. Using social media as a crutch to validate one’s personal biases simply means we are willing participants in reinforcing others’ self-image and imperfect perception of the world. It may provide comfort in that a candidate has no “obvious” undesirable qualities or views at the time of scanning but does not mean that this won’t change over time (or that such views were deleted before the scan).
The real skill is in assessing candidates’ characters and potential face-to-face and by taking up references. In certain sectors (e.g. childcare, working with the elderly), “official” reports may be required.
In the end it still comes down to the fact that, when hiring, we are taking a risk that the candidate will prove a success (and this is the case in at least 90% of hirings). If we find that there’s am increasing trend of “problem employees”, there’s something wrong with our hiring system.
I’ve spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience in international financial services around the world running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management. I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email. My website provides a full picture of my portfolio of services. For strategic questions that you should be asking yourself, follow me at @wkm610.
Labels: Career, Risk, Strategy
posted by William Martin @ 13:43
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