19 Jul 2023
You've just received another batch of CVs to look through and you've some time to kill, so you decide to look your candidates up on various social media platforms.
Is it morally wrong?
We think not, as we're firmly of the belief that all people have a responsibility to manage their online presence: they should know what the general public can see about them (that they post themselves) and should accept that in today's digital society, recruiters can find information about them all over the place, if it's been posted. They should also understand the potential impact of what they post online, regardless of whether they believe that the impact is fair.
It is also important to note that if you are going to be looking at social media for candidate, you need to be sure that it is actually theirs before taking anything on it into account. There are a great many people who have the same name as each other and we are sure some have been unfairly penalised because of the views of some of the people who share their name..
If, as a recruiter, you feel the need to add to the selection process by checking out your candidates' social profiles, then here are a few useful thoughts:
For the professional business community, LinkedIn is used for networking, public discussion forums, recruiting and general marketing. Many see their LinkedIn profile page as an opportunity to post an online CV, which then gives recruiters the chance to double check their profile against the CV they've just received.
It also means you get to see more about a candidate's interests, networks, views and opinions on a wide variety of mainly business related topics, if they've been shared. Content on LinkedIn is 99% business related, and so not used for fun in the way Facebook and Twitter, amongst others, can be.
It is an excellent place to check out the professional face that they want to present to the world. It is hard to get it too badly wrong on LinkedIn, so if they are even getting it wrong on there, we would actually consider this to be a bit of a worry.
Used for a mix of personal and business networking, individuals aren't always as guarded on here, and tend to comment on personal stories, share personal experiences and disclose opinions about a whole range of matters without thinking their views will be under scrutiny. Twitter accounts are not as closely guarded as others, and it's very common for everything people share on there to be publicly available.
It is often the case that people get into trouble or even into the newspapers for views that were shared on Twitter. Journalists comb the platform as it is an easy way to add some relevant content to any article they are writing. If a sports journalist is writing a story about football they can go on twitter and immediately report that: “On Twitter, @username123 was delighted with their team’s win today, going as far as to describe the performance as ‘Brilliant’.”
This isn’t so bad when it is a harmless sporting story but when people get involved in controversial news stories, demanding that people be hanged for certain types of crime or that kind of thing, it can cause reputational damage for their employer, who wouldn’t want to be associated with those views.
Probably the most widely used social media platform, and potentially the most dangerous from a candidate perspective. Facebook tends to be used for primarily personal reasons, and it's where people share personal stories, photos and opinions about all types of things - homelife, social life, holidays and work amongst others.
Many wiser individuals take great care to ensure that the content they share can only be seen by close friends, but sadly some don't think in the same way, and their whole life is available for the world to see, online.
Taking care to shield the most private parts of your life from social media is always good advice generally but now that we have successive generations who have grown up with it, it is like trying to shut the stable door once the horse has bolted.
Of course there are so many more social media sites these days, including Instagram and TikTok but it is impossible to focus on all of them.
We don't think using social media to check your candidates out is cyber-stalking; we see it as a reality of modern life. However, we would always warn recruiters to take great care when allowing social media to affect their selection decisions.
If you have seen something online which leads you to deselect a candidate, how would you deal with it?
There are too many different options in terms of answering that question, but if you are going to be honest with your candidates, remember the following points:
The main issue recruiters fall back on when they allow social media to affect selection decisions is that of poor judgement, and by that we mean the judgement shown by a candidate who has shared / commented on / published content in a public way which could affect any or all of a) working relationships b) employer reputation c) client relationships and d) trust and confidence in the candidate.
Many cases where poor judgement is cited tend to be photographs from nights out. Being completely honest, who can say they have never had the kind of night out they wouldn’t want a potential employer to see photos from?
All we would say on this whole matter is - be careful, be consistent and be fair.
