25 Apr 2023
The short answer to this question is yes.
Research proves that recruiters, whether that's recruitment consultants, agencies, or direct employers are more than happy to search you out on Social Media and cast judgement before they make a selection decision.
Traditional recruitment methods are still very much in place: CVs, application forms and interviews for the most part. But, recruiters now have access to much more information about you, your personal and professional lives, and they’d be foolish not to have a look before they make you an offer.
With about 50% of the UK now active on Facebook, and millions of LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram accounts up and running, there is an enormous amount of information available out there about many of us. And yes, recruiters are actively looking for it when they are hiring new staff. Some candidates happily share the links to their social media accounts on their CV, making it easier to be found online.
Is this fair?
Whether it’s fair or not, it is perfectly legal. Individuals choose how they live their online life, and all of us have the choice about what we make public on social media, whether that’s our career history on LinkedIn, or our latest holiday snaps on Facebook or Instagram. It has to be said though, some of us have made some pretty poor choices about what we’ve put in a public forum.
It’s not surprising that recruiters are having a look and potentially changing their minds based on what people post. Some of the posts will go against company policies about inclusion, sharing “jokes” that are entirely inappropriate about people with protected characteristics for example.
Other posts about celebrities or politics can make someone who seemed a great candidate in every other respect seem like a potential bully. Recruitment and HR professionals will heed the red flags before even employing such people and will be thanking their lucky stars that they checked social media and, in their view, “dodged a bullet”.
Over the past few years, we’ve seen recruiters change their mind about who to bring on board, simply because of some damaging posts on Facebook. These have included individuals who have made discriminatory comments on their newsfeed, shared some semi-pornographic material or even just used vulgar language.
Tweeting about what an idiot your boss / colleague / client is doesn’t go down too well either.
Be Very Careful Posting Online
If you have an online presence, make sure you know who can see what you place in a public forum. And if you are thinking about posting something you know could be damaging, either a) don’t do it, or b) make sure it’s not publicly available to everyone.
Remember, if you share information on social media, make sure you know who can see it. And if you insist on keeping everything public, then make sure it's not something potential recruiters could view negatively.
Privacy settings are there for a reason. We suggest you use them.
