Hiring professionals may believe there’s no such thing as too much information when searching for talent. This is especially true in the healthcare sector, where the lives of an employee’s patients literally can hang in the balance.
From that perspective, the emergence of social media may appear on the surface to be a boon to HR departments. After all, platforms such as Facebook and Twitter encourage users to share any and all personal details. This makes them a potential treasure trove of information for recruiters to review when vetting candidates. However, the decision to mine social media for details about a potential candidate isn’t as simple as it appears.
Just because a person makes certain information about his or her life public knowledge on the Internet doesn’t mean it’s a good idea for hiring professionals to factor it into a candidate search. Indeed, there may be ethical and legal repercussions for employers who choose to make this part of their process.
That’s why it’s important to establish and follow guidelines before digging through a potential new hire’s social footprint. Transparency, discretion, and skepticism should be applied in equal measure to ensure that social media searches yield only the most relevant and useful data.If your business wants to make social media screening part of its hiring process, check out the checklist below produced by our friends at Grant Cooper. It contains some pros, cons, and useful guidelines you should know.
Author
Paul Slezak
With over two decades of experience in the recruitment and human capital industry, Paul Slezak has established himself as a transformative force in the realm of leadership and career coaching, group facilitation, and talent acquisition. His unique perspective, drawn from his early career as a leader in global recruitment firms and his entrepreneurial success with his own start-up, has enabled him to make a significant impact on leaders, teams, and organizations across the world. Paul's passion for helping others achieve success and high performance is evident in his commitment to transforming leaders and their teams at local, national, and international levels. He specializes in promoting the importance of human-centered intelligence, focusing on soft skills such as authenticity, transparency, and trust to complement business-centered acumen and drive better workplace outcomes. As an impartial facilitator, Paul brings his expertise to team offsites and strategy days, ensuring alignment on goals, values, and culture while keeping participants on task. His engaging and energetic presence, coupled with his unique "entertraining" and "edutaining" delivery style, enables him to connect with audiences both large and intimate, sharing personal and professional anecdotes that inspire and energize.
