Cyber-stalking: hiring based on Facebook?

By Maddison Lake

In Germany, a recent draft law on employee data security proposed making it illegal for employers to send friend requests to prospective employees on Facebook in order to access their “private” posts. However, one must consider exactly why people use Facebook in the first place when evaluating the ethical ramifications of using social networking sites as an employment screening tool. Facebook and other comparable websites are by their very nature public; they exist for the sole purpose of social networking, which necessarily involves sharing information.

“Facebook is like a billboard. In my opinion, it is a company’s duty to mitigate liability by properly screening potential employees using any legal method, including looking at information posted on Facebook.”
-Madison Lake

Any individual who posts personal information in such a forum should necessarily expect it to be publicly available. Even if that information is limited such that it can only be viewed by that individual's friends, there is no inherent guarantee that those friends will keep the information private. In short, by making the decision to post information about themselves on Facebook, prospective employees are choosing to make that information public, and it is ethically acceptable for potential employers to use this information as a resource. Facebook is like a billboard. In my opinion, it is a company's duty to mitigate liability by properly screening potential employees using any legal method, including looking at information posted on Facebook

Social networking sites are undeniably very useful to employers when evaluating a prospective employee - though the information Facebook provides regarding any given individual is in no way comprehensive, it is of tremendous utility as a barometer of maturity. One may scrutinize the Facebook profile of a promising potential new hire and find incriminating evidence, such as photographs of illegal drug use. Even if there are no revelations of illegal and/or undesirable behavior, simply looking at the types of people your prospective new hire has chosen to add or accept as Facebook friends will tell you a great deal about their personality. 

We once had a client that ordered pre-employment background checks on a number of prospective hires for a middle management position. Among the candidates was a recent college graduate with excellent credentials and plenty of managerial experience. Although the candidate's criminal record was clean, our client's HR manager decided to check his Facebook as an extra precaution. The HR manager found pictures of the prospective candidate drinking alcohol with people he had identified as his employees. Needless to say, the candidate was no longer considered for the position based on his apparent fraternization with employees. By properly screening potential new hires, employers mitigate risk and work to create and maintain a productive and safe work environment for their current employees.

Facebook and other social networking sites provide employers with useful, pertinent information concerning prospective hires. If nothing else, employers can get an idea of the way a job candidate chooses to represent him or herself in an informal, public forum. However, information obtained from Facebook is obviously not wholly accurate. People can easily misrepresent themselves on social networking sites, so any information found on your applicant's page should be questioned. Investigating the background of a prospective hire using a thorough, professional pre-employment screening service is the only true way to assess an individual's character and judgment. Background checking is among the most important steps in the hiring process to mitigate criminal and financial risk.

I recommend using Facebook as part of the employment screening process, but only in conjunction with hard data pulled from a professional background report. Background checks provide you all the necessary concrete information about a prospective new hire's history, while Facebook can provide you with much supplemental insight on a candidate's character. Utilizing both data sources can give you a multi-dimensional summary of a prospective hire and enable you to make a confident, informed decision as to whether or not the individual would fit your organization's needs.

Biography

Maddison Lake is the President and CEO of Shield Employment. Based in Asheville, North Carolina, Shield helps small to large-scale businesses mitigate liability by providing cost effective, advanced enterprise level employment screening solutions nationwide.