Right now the Australian online recruitment community have started a debate/discussion about the concept of using the content from social media as part of background checking.

Social media provides hiring managers a unique insight into candidates before they join the organisation. Now I agree last Saturday night’s drunken party photos have no place in the recruitment process, well maybe they do let’s see where this goes…

By Michael Specht – specht.com.au

Right now the Australian online recruitment community have started a debate/discussion about the concept of using the content from social media as part of background checking.

Most of the discussion from the agency perspective is focusing around the ethics of using what is in the public domain to access candidates. There is a sub-discussion on disclosure and relevance.

Social media provides hiring managers a unique insight into candidates before they join the organisation. Now I agree last Saturday night’s drunken party photos have no place in the recruitment process, well maybe they do let’s see where this goes.

Cultural Fit
Job Fit Motivation refers to the degree to which the activities and responsibilities of a particular job are consistent with the activities and responsibilities that an individual finds personally satisfying. In short will somebody want to do the job?

Organisation Fit Motivation is defined as an individual’s compatibility with an organisation’s values and mode of operation. While organisational fit covers a range of organisational attributes the most common and frequently cited element centres on the congruence between individual and organisational values. This is often referred to as Culture Fit.

HOW are HR departments assessing for cultural fit?
The top four methods for assessing cultural fit were:
• Behavioural interview questions specifically targeting values (91%)
• Panel interviews (61%)
• Reference checking against values (58.3%)
• Informal meetings with team members and colleagues (48.6%)

On a final note 90% of HR professionals surveyed said that while assessing cultural fit was difficult it still should be included in the process.

Two of the top four methods of assessing cultural fit, reference checking against values and informal meetings with team members and colleagues, benefit from using social media information as part of the process. While we have not yet solved the objectivity side of things, what candidates place online provides a unique insight into potential fit of them and the organisational values. Pictures on Flickr from their local cricket team games shows a candidate who has a balanced life. Yes they might include some from the end of year party but they are meaningless to the assessment. Videos  on YouTube from the candidate’s work on the local primary school’s fête shows a commitment to community values.

Let’s look at some of the possible legal issues with using the information found online as part of the candidate selection process.

Discrimination
The first potential issue is that of discrimination.

If employers are to use social media as part of the recruitment process to comply with the law they need to ensure that the selection process is not influenced by information around race, colour, national or ethnic origin; sex, pregnancy or marital status; age; disability; religion; sexual preference; trade union activity; or some other characteristic specified under anti-discrimination or human rights legislation.

There is nothing in any of the laws that explicitly prohibits the use of information about a person’s character as part of assessing organisational fit through what is posted on social media. In the same manner that assessing their character based on simulations of values based questions are not prohibited.

However given a lot of social media is about personal information there is a very large chance that you may discover information about a candidate that falls into the broad categories above. Which if the candidate does not get the role may have grounds to attempt to sue you on discrimination.

Privacy
The next area is that of privacy. Over the last few years recruitment agencies have worked very hard to develop clear and consistent policies around how they comply with the Privacy Act’s specifically in the areas of a collections statement, referral consent, reference checking and access to information. Employers while required to comply with the same principles, have not necessarily been under the same specific pressure to openly state how these policies apply to recruitment activities. Most employers do provide some form of privacy policy and larger ones require you to agree to it before applying for a job.

The issue here when it comes to social media and background checking is around how have you been complying to your organisation’s Privacy Act’s during the process. Have you collected information that is broader than your collections statement? Have you extended your reference checking process beyond the stated personal information within your privacy policy? It is the breech of this policy and the ethical implications that have been stated by some as a reason not to use social media as part of background checking. However you could say the same about verbal reference checks as well.

Essentially if you use social media, make sure you store the sources and inform the candidates that you will use “publicly available source”.

Objectivity
Another major question that has been drawn from the discussions so far is how can someone objectively assess what is online for truth and accuracy? One way may be to use the DIKW model, where once intelligence is overlaid on data it turns into information, knowledge and eventually wisdom. It is through this process we are able to turn these “online clues” into insight about a candidate and objectively assess the online content.

A key method in demonstrating objectivity is to have a defined process on how you use social media as part of your selection process. If you are going to Google candidates, then every candidate needs to undergo the same treatment, and the result stored so that you can demonstrate fairness in your processes. Further when developing your selection criteria for the role, make sure you include statements around the relevance or not of social media information.

The End Game
A lot of this discussion actually come down to the fact that when we are online we lose access to many of our traditional social inputs.

Social media is now providing us with tangible evidence of how many people lack (or fail to demonstrate) the basic skills required to get along well in the playground. And these are the same skills we need to work successfully with other grown-ups, both online and offline.

However in the end I see this whole issue is actually about the candidates, not agencies or employers. Candidates need to learn that they should be proactive about their online reputation. Before you say why should they? I would ask why did you go to school, university or attend training? Why do you network? To proactively manage your career. So the same should be true for your online reputation.