View Courtney Hunt's profileI recently wrote a blog post/white paper entitled “Social Screening: Candidates – and Employers – Beware.” When I shared the piece with Nick Fishman of EmployeeIQScreen, he directed me to a related post on ERE.net, which then led to a series of other posts. I really enjoyed reading the extended digital conversation. And because this is such an important issue for both individuals and employers, I decided to write a follow-up post to direct people to the expanded debate and additional resources.
I’ve formatted this post similar to how I format the News Digest posts so people can get an “at-a-glimpse” sense of each item, as well as my perspective. I begin with the ERE piece and add related items in the order in which they were introduced in that post’s comments.
I’m also including two other pieces I think add to the discussion, especially in terms of the ethical issues associated with social screening (and searching for digital information generally). And since it’s important to consider the legal perspective explicitly, I also include two pieces written by attorneys on the subject.
Please be sure to read the comments where they’re available, as they are a key element of the discussion and debate. And of course, as always, you’re encouraged to share your thoughts as well!
ERE.net and Related Posts
Title: Background Checking … Using Social Media
Source: ERE.net
Author: Todd Raphael
Lead Paragraph: Employee referrals and social media have begun to blend together. Could background checks and social media be next? A new company called “Social Intelligence” says it’ll “track the worldwide network of social media, including Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, LinkedIn, individual blogs, and thousands of other sources.”
Brief Commentary from SMinOrgs
My blog post/white paper was inspired in part by conversations I had at the HR Technology Conference with Geoff Andrews of Social Intelligence and a rep from a company called SocializedHR.
From my perspective, the process of conducting social background checks is inherently risky, regardless of whether a service like SocialIntelligence is used. Though they may facilitate the process, plenty of employers can - and ARE - conducting these searches manually. At least when a third party is used, recruiters and hiring managers can insulate themselves against certain risk factors (e.g., seeing protected class information that is not relevant to the hiring decision). And because using a third party invokes the FCRA, employers would have to get permission in advance and disclose that these checks were being conducted. They'd also have to share the information they discovered with candidates and give them a chance to respond. I am not a proponent of social background checks and I don’t know if SocialIntelligence can fully comply with the requirements of the FCRA, but from my conversation with Geoff they have created a lot of checks and balances in their system and have designed their service to be compliant. I did not get the same degree of assurance from SocializedHR, which strikes me as a much more dangerous alternative.
It’s important to remember that recruiters, HR folks, and hiring managers are conducting social searches to source candidates as well, so the risks aren't just inherent in the background checking process.
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Title: HOW TO Avoid the Top 10 Faux Pas Seen in Twitter Profiles
Source: AvidCareerist
Author: Donna Svei
Lead Paragraph: Future employers search for you on Twitter and other social media sites. Why? They’re looking for dirt, that’s why. The less formal the social media site, the more likely people are to let their hair down. Thus, many recruiters want to know how job seekers show up on Facebook and Twitter.
Brief Commentary from SMinOrgs
Donna’s recommendations inspired quite a bit of commentary regarding the propriety of individuals including certain information about themselves in cyberspace. For me the key point in the discussion is that candidates should make a conscious choice to reveal certain personal information that can reflect on their professional identity. Many of the commenters have apparently done that, which is great, but far too many people disclose and post without any regard to the potential consequences of their sharing. This post is a good reminder that it is incumbent upon all of us to manage our digital identities thoughtfully.
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Title: Social Network Background Checks of Job Applicants Present Challenges for Employers and Recruiters
Source: ESRNews
Author: Lester Rosen
Lead Paragraph: It appears that a new industry is popping up, whereby employers can go to third party firms that will scour the internet and locate and assemble a dossier on an applicant’s cyber identity. These “social network background checks” will search social networking sites like Facebok and Twitter, blogs, and anywhere else on the Internet for information about job applicants, including things they may have put online yeas ago and completely forgotten about.
Brief Commentary from SMinOrgs
This post explicates some of the risks associated with social screening by providing specific examples of some of the requirements employers have to meet as part of their screening efforts. The post also includes links to additional resources.
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Title: How Not to Use Social Media
Source: I Hire People blog
Author: Mark
Lead Paragraph: This post is probably going to definitively out me as an HR person (if I haven’t done that already). I’m already a little bit of a skeptic when it comes to hiring and social media, but the existence of this company frankly just makes me uncomfortable.
Brief Commentary from SMinOrgs
See comments above for ERE.net post.
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Title: Recruiting with Social Networking Sites – What You DO Know can Hurt You
Source: EmployeeScreenIQ
Author: Nick Fishman and Jason Morris
Lead Paragraph: Social networks are a fantastically exciting tool for recruiters. Sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook offer new ways to find and connect with passive candidates. Furthermore these sites, particularly Facebook, appear to offer insights into a person’s character. However, recruiting with social networks is an area with real—but rarely recognized—legal risks. These risks can place the recruiter in the odd position where what they know may actually hurt them.
Brief Commentary from SMinOrgs
This white paper provides a nice complement to many of the ideas I articulated. Nick also wrote a blog post related to the ERE item and was gracious enough to include my blog/white paper on their University site.
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Title: Social Media Checking Goes Very Big Brother!
Source: NortonFulgate: The Recruiting Unblog
Author: Bill Boorman
Lead Paragraph: Unusually, this is the second post of the day. I’m writing this post because I picked up on a service being introduced by a company called Social Intelligence.
Brief Commentary from SMinOrgs
I enjoyed this post, and especially the comments, many of which reflect my own thinking on these issues. The issue of transparency and the impact of screening on the authenticity of what we share online is an important aspect worthy of further debate.
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Title: Social Media Snoopers
Source: Inside My Head blog
Author: Gareth Jones
Lead Paragraph: Try to imagine your reaction to reading the following in your usual paper or news website: Major corporation proposes to send ‘scouts’ out to spend 2 weeks with all job applicants to assess their private, social interactions and personal habits. Speaking on behalf of XYZ Corp, Stikma Nozyn, Head of resourcing, said “Despite having a set of existing robust measures to select and identify suitable candidates, we decided it would be better to go one step further and have one of our people spend time with each applicant 24/7 so we can see what they are saying and doing at home and in the bar when they are with friends. We think the information gathered will provide a much better and more accurate way of assessing candidates suitability for a role and their overall future potential.”
Brief Commentary from SMinOrgs
One of the unique tangents with this post and its comments is the focus on using social media technologies for "good," recognizing its positive potential. That was a key part of motivation for my founding the SMinOrgs Community in May 2009. The Community now has over 6000 people across multiple platforms, but most of them are rookies and lurkers. We could use more dialogue and thought leadership from folks like those who commented here.
Other Posts Focused on Ethical Issues
Title: Whose Ethics Apply in Social Media?
Source: The Net-Savvy Executive
Author: Nathan Gilliatt
Lead Paragraph: Today's Wall Street Journal had Twitter abuzz about social media monitoring and privacy in closed communities ('Scrapers' Dig Deep for Data on Web). Specifically, a health discussion board and a social media analysis vendor using individual accounts to access personally identifiable health information. It's obviously an ethical question, but whose ethics apply? As far as I can tell? Nobody's (yet).
Brief Commentary from SMinOrgs
This post initiates an important discussion we all need to engage in, regardless of how we may choose to use social media. The WSJ article referenced in the post is worth reading as well.
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Title: Regulating the Use of Social Media Data
Source: Danah Boyd
Author: Apophenia blog
Lead Paragraph: If you were to walk into my office, I’d have a pretty decent sense of your gender, your age, your race, and other identity markers. My knowledge wouldn’t be perfect, but it would give me plenty of information that I could use to discriminate against you if I felt like it. The law doesn’t prohibit me for “collecting” this information in a job interview nor does it say that discrimination is acceptable if you “shared” this information with me. That’s good news given that faking what’s written on your body is bloody hard. What the law does is regulate how this information can be used by me, the theoretical employer. This doesn’t put an end to all discrimination – plenty of people are discriminated against based on what’s written on their bodies – but it does provide you with legal rights if you think you were discriminated against and it forces the employer to think twice about hiring practices.
Brief Commentary from SMinOrgs
I enjoyed reading this post and the many great comments it inspired. I especially enjoyed the contributions from folks outside the US. It’s great to have a more international perspective on the issues of privacy and how digital data should be managed.
Pieces Reflecting the Legal Perspective
Title: Social Media in the Workplace, Part 1
Source: Whiteford, Taylor, Preston LLP
Author: Eileen Morgan Johnson
Lead Paragraph: This is the first of two articles on the potential legal issues that can arise from the use of social media in the workplace. The articles will cover the use of social media in pre-employment, employment and post-employment situations.
Brief Commentary from SMinOrgs
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Title: The Use of Social Media in Hiring – Risks and Tips
Source: Ogletree Deakins
Author: Nicholas J. Walker
Lead Paragraph: n/a
Brief Commentary from SMinOrgs
I don’t agree with all their recommendations, but I appreciate the fact that they included practical risks as well as legal risks.
Although it doesn't address social screening per se, this piece from an attorney explicates some of the requirements employers should keep in mind when conducting background checks:
http://www.dinslaw.com/applicant_background_check_pittfalls/#page=1
Posted by: Courtney Shelton Hunt, PhD | October 24, 2010 at 08:51 AM
I’ve just written a new blog post that provides more in-depth discussion of the practice of social screening, particularly by third-party firms. Here’s a link:
http://tiny.cc/SocialScreeningFacts
Posted by: Courtney Shelton Hunt, PhD | July 25, 2011 at 12:43 PM
The privacy of the employee is always a concern as well. You don't want to get too personal. Some feel it's discrimination, others feel that they are just wanting to hire the right folks for the right job. Employment screening is definitely a big part of the hiring process as most employers do background checks on prospective employees. But some stretch it too far.
Posted by: James | July 31, 2012 at 01:42 PM