Using Social Media to Assist with Recruiting and Hiring
The impact of reviewing the candidates’ Facebook and Twitter pages and how their postings affected my judgment about who should or should not be hired.
Reviewing a candidate’s Facebook and Twitter pages is mainly done to predict the job performance of the prospective employee. One of the impacts of reviewing a candidate’s Facebook and Twitter pages is that it offers a better insight to the employer about how an employee will perform in the workplace based on the personality brought out by what the employee posts on these pages. Regts & Mollenman (2016) argue that social media posts offer a better comparison of an employee’s extraversion and neurotic attributes. Social media posts also reflect employee unconsciousness, thus better predicting employee behaviour. The posts also reflect an employee’s abilities and skills, thus enabling the employer to determine whether the candidate is fit for the open job position or not.
Reviewing the candidate’s posts on Facebook and Twitter affected my judgment about who should not be hired because I eliminated any individual who had posted offensive content and inappropriate photographs. For instance, some candidates had posted photos revealing their bodies and partying. I considered this inappropriate because our employees represent our brand, and we would not want to be associated with such individuals. I additionally made an assumption that individuals with many partying posts would have high absenteeism and be less productive after weekends because they may have probably spent the weekend partying.
My concerns, including potential risks, as an HR recruiter in learning about the content of applicants’ social media public-facing content.
One of my concerns as an HR recruiter in learning about the content of applicant’s social media public-facing content is the accuracy of the information I find on the candidate’s social media platforms. I may hire a candidate based on inaccurate information and deny other qualified candidates a chance of getting the job. Inaccurate information could include false information about qualifications and previous employers. The other concern is legal issues relating to discrimination due to information about sex, gender, race, disability, or religion that may be gathered through social media and is considered as a factor contributing to hiring or not hiring a candidate. For instance, a candidate may not be hired because of being female or male, thus creating discrimination. Another concern is facing lawsuits due to negligent hiring. According to Bennett-Alexander & Harman (2019), negligent hiring occurs when an employer hires a candidate who causes harm to other employees, while the situation could have been avoided if the employer spent more time screening employees.
One potential claim of discrimination that an unpicked candidate could file and why he or she may have a legitimate case against the bank.
One potential claim of discrimination that an unpicked candidate could file is that the information retrieved did not match the employer’s expectations due to attributes such as race and gender, did not have interpretability because it was based on behaviour, and there was no research concerning the validity and reliability of the information. Relevant information could have, therefore, been overlooked. The candidate may have a legitimate case because he or she was not asked to verify the information provided on their social media platform, and the employer may have been biased in determining the relevant information that should be considered to make the decision on whether to hire a candidate or not. According to Andrew & Ashley (2015), an unpicked candidate could file a discrimination claim if he or she feels that the employer did not interview them because of their sexual preference, gender, race, religion, or other information that may not be provided through a face-to-face interview.
Whether I feel that HR can legally utilize personal and/or professional social media pages of potential employees and whether I think HR should ethically utilize public-facing social media content, especially for high level employees in an organization.
In my opinion, HR can legally utilize personal and/or professional social media pages of potential employees because there is no law restricting employers from using the information on a candidate’s social media profile to make a recruitment decision.HR can also legally utilize the information because the owner has posted it for the public to see, and it is, therefore, not an invasion of privacy. HR should also ethically utilize public-facing social media content, especially for high-level employees in an organization, because an employer intruding a job applicant’s private life on social media without consent or in a coercive way is immoral based on Kantian ethics. An employer’s arbitrary, unjustified and invasive review of social media content without consent is an insult to an individual’s privacy, security, and dignity. Using social media in making employment and hiring determinations when social media content or communication is not relevant to the employee’s ability to complete the tasks in the job would be demeaning, disrespectful, and unfair to employees and job applicants regardless of consent. Villeda & McCamey (2019) argues that employers may also see private and sensitive activities that are not relevant to the job but may influence the employer’s opinion of a candidate, which results in ethical and legal questions. Being unable to independently verify information about the public profile of an individual implies that the credibility of what is found relating to the candidate’s background is at risk. Candidates whose identity may have been stolen may have no idea that there is an existing virtual profile to which their name is attached and under which they are examined. Employers may also consider how reviewing the online background of an employer can affect the general morale of current employees, who may feel less contented with their workplace because of fear of their profiles on social media platforms.
References
Andrew, H., & Ashley, T. (2015). Legal and Ethical Considerations for Social Media Hiring Practices in the Workplace. The Hilltop Review, 7(2).
Bennett-Alexander, D., & Hartman, L. P. (2019). Employment law for business. Ingram.
Regts, G., & Molleman, E. (2016). The moderating influence of personality on individual outcomes of social networks. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 89(3), 656-682. https://doi.org/10.1111/joop.12147
Villeda, M., & McCamey, R. (2019). Use of social networking sites for recruiting and selecting in the hiring process. International Business Research, 12(3), 66. https://doi.org/10.5539/
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Question 
Consider the following scenario:
You are the director of HR at New York City’s FirstBank and have been overseeing the process of recruiting candidates for a vice president position. Through an extensive process, 250 applicants have been whittled down to three finalists. The vice president will be in charge of making final decisions on commercial loan approvals, among other duties, so he/she will have a public-facing job, meeting with business owners, CEOs, and CFOs on a regular, daily basis. Each finalist has gone through significant background checks, and all are extremely well-qualified for the job. You are well aware that your bank is trying to become more diverse, and while it has succeeded in achieving diversity in the lower levels of employees, the vice presidents, board, and president of the bank are all white males. After multiple call-back interviews, the president and board of directors have asked you for your recommendation as to which finalist to hire. While thinking through your decision, you decide to see if any of the candidates have open Facebook or Twitter accounts. Though this effort didn’t provide you with a lot of information, you did copy and paste what you found into a document to reflect on as you decide on your recommendation.
Using Social Media to Assist with Recruiting and Hiring
To complete this Assignment, review the Learning Resources for this week and other resources you have found in the Walden Library or online and respond to the following bullets in a 2- to 3-page paper.
*Analyze the impact of reviewing the candidates’ Facebook and Twitter pages. Explain whether/how their postings affected your judgment about who should or should not be hired.
*Analyze your concerns, including potential risks, as an HR recruiter in learning about the content of applicant’s social media public-facing content.
*Consider a situation where one of the candidates you did not pick files a discrimination charge, and through the legal discovery process, your investigative file is found. Name one potential claim of discrimination that an unpicked candidate could file and why he or she may have a legitimate case against the bank.
*Conclude by stating whether you feel that HR can legally utilize the personal and/or professional social media pages of potential employees. Defend your answer. Then, state whether you think HR should ethically utilize public-facing social media content, especially for high-level employees in an organization. Defend your answer.