“Follow me on my IG”
“Add me on Facebook”
“Hey, watch my latest Tiktok video”
As more and more people live their lives “online”, particularly on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn, interest in so-called Social Media Checks for employment screening is increasing.
The past few years Vanguard Screening has received several inquiries from companies who want to see what their employees and applicants are posting and talking about in their social media accounts.
But why is this so?
Shouldn’t one’s social media presence be kept private? After all we also have to be mindful about privacy and data protection. It turns out—companies can still do social media investigation at their discretion, simply because the information is made public by us.
As an organization, there are benefits in adding social media checks to your background screening program. This is for you to avoid potential bad apples getting into your organization. It might be good though to keep in mind the limitations and potential pitfalls inherent to this type of background check.
You can only check public posts.
Results of social media checks are limited to posts that are made public by the account holder. Private posts that can only be seen by the person’s friends will not be reflected in the report. Also, you should not ask the person to add or “friend” us for the purpose of background checking them – this is unprofessional, in poor taste, and potentially illegal!
Make sure you are checking the right profile or account.
Be conscious of the fact that, unless the profile name is quite unique, there are usually multiple accounts with the same name. Worse is there are instances where someone creates a fake account of somebody else for the sole purpose of embarrassing or spreading false information about that person. You certainly do not want to make conclusions about a person from the wrong assumptions or information.
Be careful not to discriminate.
Checking the social media profiles of your employees or applicants can open a can of worms – you may see thoughts, opinions and activities that may not be agreeable or acceptable to you but are otherwise not reasons for rejection or non-consideration for a job in your organization. Only specific behaviors that are “universally” unacceptable: violence, terrorism, racism are some examples, should be cause for concern and action.
Social Media checks can be mutually beneficial for both employers and employees if done in the proper context and intent. Ensuring that we only be objective and at the same time judicious in our approach can we fully appreciate and maximize the advantages of this type of screening method.