(Published September 21, 2009)
The rise in popularity of social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace has given rise to the question of whether employers can or should search such sites to find out more about potential employees. Most of the respondents on message boards that I've read come down on the side of not using these sites as research tools. And I believe there are more cons than pros to this practice. So I was surprised to see a CareerBuilder.com survey in which 45% of respondents said they do use the sites to research job applicants.
I've never done it. Part of the reason is because I'm not that technologically inclined. The last time I was in hiring mode, I had just created a personal Facebook profile. (It probably took me another six months after that to do something with it.) So looking up applicants was a pretty foreign concept to me, even though I had written about it before.
Would I do it now? To be honest, I can't say I would never do it — curiosity might get the better of me, and I might Google finalists just to see what came up. However, I'm assuming that what would come up is a lot of junk, judging by what came up when I Googled my own name. (C'mon, I know I'm not the only one to Google myself!)
That's just one of the many reasons I'd likely refrain from using Google or social networking sites to learn more about job candidates. Sure, it's quick enough to type someone's name into a search engine, but how many hits will you have to wade through before you get to: 1) the correct individual, and 2) something relevant about the correct individual.
The biggest disadvantage of this practice is that you don't know if you're looking at information about the correct person. Don't be so sure that the most unique name isn't shared by others. One likely case: fathers and sons. Heck, I was surprised to find that there's more than one of "me" out there.
Ok, so what if you've already conducted the interviews, so you know what the candidates look like and you can match them to the name, picture, and some other identifying information that you find online. Then, it should be no problem to use what you find, for better or worse, right? Wrong. The identity could be right, but the information could be wrong. How do you know that that MySpace page filled with racist and sexist rants was actually created by the individual? You don't. The person could have a technologically savvy enemy…or a very unfunny friend.
Another reason I'm surprised that so many people answered in the affirmative in the CareerBuilder survey is that the majority of information typically unearthed has nothing to do with the person's professional life. The less you know about a candidate's personal activities the better. Whenever you make a hiring decision that is based on, influenced by, or appears to be based on or influenced by non-work-related factors — especially if a protected characteristic comes into play — you increase the risk of being accused of illegal discrimination.
Better to use LinkedIn or other professional networking sites, and verify the information in the interview. The best ways to hire the best candidates remain the old-fashioned ones: skilled interviews, reference checks, skills tests.
Now, having said all that, I'd love to hear from those of you who agree with the 45% of the CareerBuilder survey, and have stories of success using Google and social networking sites to research job applicants.
Gloria Ju
Editor in Chief
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