Social media background checks are a popular tool for employers to use in hiring. They allow them to see how candidates present themselves outside the high-pressure interview room.
While social media screening has its benefits, it also poses certain risks. By working with a reputable vendor, you can stay clear of this tool’s possible hazards.
Legal Compliance
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While social media is a precious tool for companies, but also invasive, a good screening service can balance the benefits with privacy laws.
For example, it is essential to establish a reliable mechanism for confirming that the candidate profile being looked up indeed belongs to your applicant. Otherwise, your company could find itself in violation of privacy and protection laws. It is why it is critical to work with a reputable third-party provider.
Depending on the person’s settings, they may share private information about their life online, which can help you predict how they would behave at work. While these details may not directly affect their ability to do their job, they can undoubtedly impact your hiring decision.
Social media background checks can be a powerful tool for vetting candidates against potential risks and red flags.
Risk Management
Adding social media background searches to your hiring process allows you to take a more comprehensive view of candidates. It can help you to spot inconsistencies or red flags that may not be readily discernible from a resume, such as exaggerated work history, excessive cursing, or extreme political opinions.
But using social media searches as a hiring tool comes with risks. There’s no research to support that they identify good hires or prevent bad ones, and they can expose your firm to legal trouble if protected information is discovered in the process (such as religion, sex, or political affiliation).
Social media searches also require extensive time commitments to manage effectively. And due to the many different platforms and security settings, finding the candidates you’re looking for can be challenging. Outsourcing your background checks to a provider that uses automation and artificial intelligence to review social media, with a seasoned analyst to enhance the results, can speed up your search and ensure that no protected information is overlooked. Then, you can focus on finding and assessing the right candidate for your team.
Identifying Red Flags
Social media background searches allow companies to see how applicants behave in real life. They can identify posts about drinking or drug use, racy photos, and offensive statements. A hiring manager may not want to hire someone with these characteristics if they represent their business to the public.
In addition, an employer can also get an idea of how well a candidate might perform their job. For example, if a candidate regularly complains about their current employer online to other employees, that’s a red flag. However, it’s critical to remember that labor regulations safeguard relationships between employees and employers. Thus, it would be unfair to disqualify a candidate for such a position.
Of course, a company must have a framework to determine what constitutes a red flag. Ensuring all social media background checks are conducted legally is also essential. Using third-party firms to perform these searches ensures compliance and removes any potential liability from the company working with them. In addition, a good background check firm will filter these searches for sensitive information that may not be relevant to the role being filled.
Predicting Performance
In addition to a criminal record check, employment verification, and a reference check, social media background searches can provide direct insight into how a job candidate will perform in the role. It is crucial to consider because a poor hire might cost your company up to 30% of the employee’s first-year compensation.
Social media searches can identify red flags that are difficult to spot during a job interview. Moreover, they can reveal affiliations with criminal organizations, groups linked to violence or extremism, and other dangerous behavior. Running a social media background search also helps detect cyber security threats, which are increasingly common within companies.
While conducting social media background checks in-house can open up your firm to legal risks, outsourcing the process to a reputable third party will ensure consistency and compliance with a range of policies that will protect your organization from discrimination claims. It will also reduce unconscious bias, which can disqualify candidates for the wrong reasons. It is crucial for an unbiased and fair hiring process. A reputable third party will use social media screening software that locates candidates on all significant platforms and looks for the promotion of violence, harsh language, or other risky activities.
Identifying Potential Issues
A social media background check is an excellent way to double-check the information a candidate may have provided on their resume, such as their education and previous employment. It can also uncover issues a candidate may not know, such as tweets containing offensive language or controversial political views.
Misogynist views on social media aren’t just an individual problem; they can reflect negatively on a company’s reputation, which could affect everything from recruitment to public image. Identifying such sentiments on a potential employee’s social media can help a business decide whether or not to offer them a job.
However, businesses must take the time to learn more about how to conduct social media background checks properly. In particular, it’s vital to avoid using any information protected by law, such as gender, age, religion, sexual orientation, and health conditions. Instead, hiring a third-party background screening service with a strong track record of compliance with FRCA requirements is a safer option. It ensures that only relevant, accurate information is considered in the hiring process.
