There is an ongoing debate over the legality of using information found on social media as a form of pre employment screening.
For some employees, Social media is an outlet for their personal expressions. In spite of their need to over share personal information or their questionable behaviors, many in the job pool believe that their personal lives should remain private. Any digging into social media sites would therefore constitute a violation of their privacy.
That hasn’t stopped all businesses from cruising the social media sites to see if they can find a potential candidate. With privacy and security controls as they are, it should reasonably fall to the responsibility of a job candidate to keep their sites private and block public viewing.
Unfortunately, this is not always the case as some businesses are finding out through the court system.
That doesn’t mean that there is some validity to information garnered from social media sites. There are sites specifically designed and created for the working individual. These sites give potential employers unofficial background checks that are allowable for hiring purposes. Since the site is to be shared within the professional community, instead of a personal network of friends and family, employers are welcomed more freely to investigate through those networks.
The down side to using these for informal background checks is that the job applicant puts the information on the site. It is at their discretion what is posted and what is omitted. The biased information may not be a reliable form of pre employment screening.
To purchase Pre-Employment Screening Services or for more information on background check experts, background checks, criminal background checks, employee background checks or pre employment screening contact us at the background check company or call 1.770.426.0547