In today's digital age, the hiring process extends beyond resumes and interviews. Social media background checks have become a crucial step for many employers, offering valuable insights into candidates beyond their professional qualifications. However, while these checks can be beneficial, they also present challenges that employers need to navigate carefully.
Understanding Social Media Screening
Social media background checks involve scouring a candidate's online presence to gauge their suitability for a position. From public profiles on platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook to blogs and comment sections, employers delve into various digital footprints to uncover details that may not surface in traditional interviews.
What Employers Look For:
During these screenings, hiring managers search for red flags such as illegal activities, offensive language, aggressive behavior, and breaches of confidentiality. Beyond assessing professional qualifications, they aim to gauge a candidate's character and potential risks they may pose to the company.
Platforms Under Review:
While LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter are commonly checked, platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and personal blogs are increasingly part of the screening process. Each platform provides unique insights into a candidate's personality and behavior, offering a more holistic view for employers.
Benefits of checking a candidate’s social media
The content applicants post on their social media can give hiring managers an idea of each candidate’s character. A thorough review of social media accounts can help the hiring team make a more informed decision:
Vetting culture fit: Some people post about their values, goals, and personality on their social media profiles, allowing you to get a sense of how they could contribute to the company culture.
Identifying warning signs: A review of applicant social media posts can alert you to erratic or concerning behaviors that could cause liability issues for the business or cause friction.
Protecting your company’s image: If your company has a prominent image, you may need to have high standards when it comes to your employees’ public image, including their public posts online. Employees who make offensive or concerning posts on social media may be traced back to their employer and cause bad publicity.
Negative effects of social media background checks
Because social media background checks involve learning about a candidate’s personal life, they come with multiple privacy and ethical concerns. If not conducted properly, social media background checks can spread misinformation or inappropriately impact the hiring process in these ways:
Legal Violations: Perhaps the worst thing an employer can do in the process of running a social media background check is to require a candidate to hand over access to their social media profiles. In some cases, employers provide spots on their job applications where they ask applicants to provide social media usernames or even passwords. In other cases, employers ask candidates to login into their Facebook profiles during a job interview so hiring managers can look at the contents. These practices are extremely problematic and are even against the law in certain parts of the country. According to the Society for Human Resource Management, many states — including California, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, and New Jersey — have made it illegal for employers to request social media usernames or passwords from their candidates.
Possible discrimination: Just like with criminal background checks, social media background checks need to comply with federal regulations. It is possible that you could discover protected information during a social media check that could impact your hiring decisions inappropriately. This bias, unconscious or not, can lead to employment discrimination, which can result in lawsuits, reputational damage for the employer, and other issues.
Privacy infringements: During social media searches it’s almost impossible to avoid viewing off-limit hiring information that covers factors like religion, sexual orientation, political affiliations, and family status. And if the candidate has not yet been interviewed, the screener will see gender, race, age, and disability. Once this type of information has been viewed, the firm will now have the burden of having to prove that it did not use this off-limits information to make its hiring decision.
A non-standardized process produces inconsistent results:
Most recruiters and hiring managers use their own self-developed process for social media background checks. And without a uniform defined process, protocols, checklists, and performance metrics, there can be no consistent assessment of candidates. Legally, this means that the process will not be reliable. Without guidelines, in addition to assessing nonjob-related factors, background screeners may view information on nonstandard social media sites beyond LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram.
Duplicates and false information: Not all information online is reliable. Many people share the same name, and you may be unable to determine which account belongs to the job candidate. How do you know you are viewing the information for the “right” candidate?
Wasting time: If you decide to conduct social media background checks in-house, they can be extremely time-consuming. There are a number of social media websites you may need to check for each candidate without being sure they even have a profile on each site.
Best practices for conducting social media background checks
To stay compliant with the law and get the most out of your social media background check, use these strategies:
Use a third-party reporting agency that complies with strict FRCA requirements.
Develop policies about your social media monitoring and be clear about them during the hiring process.
Ask for written consent from the applicant to review their social media to comply with federal reporting rules.
Only review public information, and never ask for a candidate’s password.
Document your findings if you discover concerning content to protect against discrimination allegations.
By mastering the art of social media background checks, you unlock a wealth of insights while safeguarding against potential pitfalls. If you would like assistance with evaluating your hiring and onboarding processes, reach out for a consultation with The Jule Group: Hello@thejulegroup.com
Additional References:
1. Keep It Clean: Social Media Screenings Gain in Popularity, David Cotriss, Contributing Writer, Business News Daily, November 2023
2. Hiring Resources, Recruiting and Hiring, Indeed, Social Media Background Checks, March 2024
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