Bullhorn & TalentWise | Social Recruiting, Employment Screening & Background Checks

Using social media within recruiting agencies is fast, easy and free. In addition to going beyond traditional job boards, social media sites offer an uncensored peek into how job candidates act in uncensored moments. However, social recruiting challenges do exist.

While it makes sense to leverage all publicly available information to screen job candidates, improperly using social media sites for screening purposes may lead to potential legal hot water with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) or claims under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).

The biggest potential issues you need to concern yourself with are: discrimination, privacy and authenticity.

Disparate impact: Does the use of social networks, although appearing neutral at face value, have an unintentional and unjustified adverse impact on members of a protected class?

Identity: How do you know the profile you are viewing is actually your candidate? How certain are you that the content found on these sites is accurate?

Relevancy: Are you able to ensure that all information found on these sites is job-relevant?

To understand those issues in greater detail, consult with your legal counsel or screening provider. They'll be the first to tell you that you should consider whether the use of social media is really necessary as part of your screening process.

Now, if you do go forward with using it, make sure you don't use it as your ONLY screening tool or do it last. Also obtain the consent of your candidates to perform the search before you run one.

If you do incorporate social media into your job candidate screening process -- outline your social media policy and put it in writing. Make sure that policy includes non-discriminatory procedures regarding the use of candidate information available online and keep detailed records to help protect you against potential discriminatory claims.

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Science & Technology

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