Pros and Cons of Social Networks and Vetting Candidates

[Newshound]

We noticed a couple of blog threads today about using search engines and social networks such as Facebook and MySpace to check up on candidates in the recruitment process. It's an interesting topic that's not about to go away for the foreseeable future.

There are some conflicting arguments. The owner of the Job Adder Blog, Brett Iredale, says "Quite frankly if there are photos of you on Facebook being a knuckle then a recruiter has every right to assume you are such and to find a suitable reason not to offer you an interview. ".

Then there's the view of Mary Ellen Slayter in SmartBlog on Workforce who says " DON’T get distracted by irrelevant information. Yes, you now know that your top candidate loves sci-fi movies, old-school Italian cooking and sky-diving, but does it matter? Does this actually have ANY bearing on whether a person could do a great job for you? You’ve also likely learned your candidate’s religion and race pretty early in the game. Do you trust yourself to still make a bias-free decision with this information?"

Maybe the way people use social networking will change in the future when they realise that their public profile on a "Web 2.0" site could prevent them from getting a job!

What do you think?

[mspecht]

(Cross posted on Brett's blog)

Interesting topic.

I Google everyone, if I am going to meet you for the first time, I will have put your name into Google to see what pops out.

But this information needs to be carefully assessed as to whether it will add value to the hiring decision. Just because the candidate has a wall post about being drunk at a party, this should not rule them out of the job unless they are to be a role model and the image does not fit with that undertaking. The same should be said for photo sites such as Flickr, etc. The information needs to be used to improve the quality of hire. Maybe the fact that they go out and have fun means they have a balanced life?

Having said that how do you know that the profile is in fact the person in question? There are limited controls on people creating fake accounts.

Oh and make sure regular reference and background checking processes are still completed!

[kevinh]

There is of course a distinct difference between "meeting someone" for coffee/chat/business and "interviewing" someone for a job.

In addition to mspecht's cautionary note about fake profiles, or it could just be a common name, the interviewer may want to avoid putting them self in a position where they could be accused of discrimination.

When interviewing someone for a job there could actually be an argument for NOT checking the person out on the web, or at least being very selective at what you look at.

If you have been through an individual's Facebook profile, MySpace page and Flickr photos, what happens if they ask you specifically at interview whether you have viewed their photos, comments etc on these sites?

As mspecht said , this is a very interesting topic (or as they say, "can of worms")