Screening Social Media
Benefit of employers screening social media of potential employees.
Social networking sites are a tool that can be excercised for a variety of purposes, including sharing events or news with others. Some companies utilize social networking sites as a means to advertise (Brown, 2011). Furthermore, artists such as Justin Bieber, Karmin, and Rebecca Black have been known to share their work through social media to obtain popularity and eventually become famous. However, a common use of social media is for interaction by sharing moments, silly and serious, with friends and others (Ebnet, 2012).
An often talked about issue with this use of social media is that it may prevent someone the chance of being hired. Because social networking sites give managers the ability to find more information on applicants, managers have started implementing social media checks on applicants as part of their background checks (Brown, 2011). Rosemary Haefner, Vice president of human resources at Career Builder, noted, “Because social media is a dominant form of communication today, you can certainly learn a lot about a person by viewing their public, online personas.” It is important for employers to choose the righht applicant for the job that is to be done. Social networking sites make that job easier for employers to find information that may assist them into making the right decision. To some, this is seen as an act of invasion of privacy. Potential employees are uncomfortable with their possible boss observing their personal social media uploads (Ebnet, 2012). Although this may be an unfavorable situation for some people searching for a job, employers can and should check on their applicant’s social media activity becaue of potential risk to the company and for more efficient researching.