We’re living in an age in which people practically live online, and it’s almost too easy to Google information about job candidates. It’s also understandable to want to use that information to figure out if someone will fit into the company culture. While employers can conduct social media background checks themselves if they are lawful and non-discriminatory, this is easier said than done.
Factually speaking, a candidate’s online and social media presence is very likely a treasure trove of information with tons of valid information that could be useful for making an informed hiring decisions. But there are other pieces of information that may lead to unintentional bias in the hiring process – and that can lead to some murky hiring practices.
Why do hiring managers check social media?
Social media is often the easiest way to get a glimpse of a person’s public persona before meeting them. It could be a great way to get to know their hobbies or interests outside of work, or to catch an immediate red-flag warning that this candidate may have beliefs or values that, to put it kindly, don’t align with the company.
Social media background checks may be more relevant to some positions than others. The online presence of employees who work with the public and directly represent your company may have more of an impact than the postings of back-end staff that do not associate their name with their employer.
TMI Potential
If social media checks are a go, it is best to proceed with caution. Consider how a scenario plays out if and when the interviewer learns aspects about the private life of an applicant that can’t legally be used in making a hiring decision – including their age, religious beliefs, political affiliation, medical conditions, military status, and disabilities.
Even if the employer does not use the knowledge to impact the hiring decision, the candidate could challenge an adverse employment decision made for a completely unrelated reason. Although a later claim of discrimination may have no merit, just being exposed to the information can subject your business to EEOC investigations, costly litigation, and bad press.
Then again, you could get in trouble for NOT knowing that a prospective employee posts inappropriate material. Consider this scenario: Someone hired in a role that puts them in frequent contact or supervising children regularly posts sexualized images of young children on their Instagram – but your hiring department decided not to include a social media check. A few months after the probationary period ends, they are arrested for statuatory rape and that’s when your hiring team discovers the red-flag Instagram posts.
An argument could easily be made that, had you looked at the posts, you wouldn’t have placed that person in such a job. It would also be a blow to discover someone you’re hiring posts occasional racist rants that are in violation of the company anti-discrimination policies – discovered by employees who feel unsafe as a result of the postings.
What could go wrong
Beware of imposter accounts: With billions of active social media users on the planet, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram have become feasting grounds for identity theft. It can happen quickly, before someone even knows their accounts have been hacked or cloned by cyber attackers. Basing hiring decisions on postings done by imposters could violate fair employment laws.
Social media background check can be time consuming: There are a number of social media platforms you may need to check for each candidate without being sure they even have a presence on each site. Not to mention, checking them can also feel like going down a rabbit hole. It takes specialized knowledge to investigate various sites and know exactly what information is admissible and what is not, and even more to do it without wasting company time figuring it all out.
Just because it’s public, doesn’t make it pertinent
That said, it’s important to understand what is in the public domain and what is off limits. Since LinkedIn is a business and career-focused platform, checking out a job applicant’s presence, their network and what others say about them is completely legit. But still, looking at LinkedIn could have unintended consequences because you can’t help but see a photo of the candidate. Even if you don’t make overt judgements based on the person’s appearance, it can affect – or more importantly be perceived to affect – hiring decisions.
Applying the same rules to Facebook, Twitter, TikTok or Instagram would be wrong. While these sharing networks offer users the opportunity to use privacy controls, not everyone opts to put those guardrails on – and that’s where the legal grounds get murky. Even if they’re over-sharing – posting about how drunk they were at a recent party – that may be information a hiring manager wishes they hadn’t learned about their job candidate.
Best practices for conducting social media background checks
To stay compliant with the law and get the most out of checking social media, use these strategies:
- Develop policies about social media monitoring and be clear about them during the hiring process.
- Assign a trained professional in the company to consistently conduct social media searches.
- Ask for all prospective hires’ written consent in the job application to review their social media in compliance with federal reporting rules.
- Look later in the process. Checking social media profiles after an applicant has been interviewed, when his or her membership in protected groups is likely already known, is much safer.
- Be consistent. Don’t look at only one applicant’s social media profiles. It would be wrong to not check all candidates’ presence who are vying for the same job.
- Review only public information, and never ask for a candidate’s password.
- Know state and local laws about privacy protection. Some jurisdictions prohibit adverse action based on off-duty conduct, except under narrowly defined circumstances.
- Document all decisions. Print out the page containing social media content on which you base any hiring decision and record any reason for rejection, such as bad judgment. This protects you if damaging content has been deleted by the time a decision is challenged.
A final word:
Don’t let the complexities of background checks and social media deter you from making informed hiring decisions. Contact First Contact HR today to schedule a consultation and ensure a successful and lawful hiring process.