Cassandra Kinsley is the hiring manager at an advertising agency, and she must choose between two final candidates, Bradley Adams and Jennifer Rensi, for a senior media analyst position in the firm. Both applicants are equally qualified. However, Adams started out with an edge because of reports Kinsley was getting about his very strong leadership and communication skills and the boundless energy he commits to his work. But when she Googled both candidates, a different impression emerged. The search on Rensi revealed only work-related sites that seemed solid. Entries on Adams were more noteworthy, including references to nonprofit work and an award for exemplary community service. Unfortunately for Adams, though, one of his friends failed to enable the privacy settings on his Facebook page, opening a back door that led Kinsley to pictures of Adams drinking and partying with friends from his college days. The reference to "smokin' blunts" was particularly damaging, and the overall profile convinced Kinsley that it would be best to hire Rensi, which is exactly what she did.
It is very efficient to conduct online searches, which is why Kinsley has come to prefer them to the laborious task of checking references. However, she is very much aware that there may be problems with this method, and that is causing her to wonder if she should really be using it. For example, Adams is only one of many job candidates in recent years on whom she has taken a pass because of the reputational damage caused by the online behavior of friends-damage that could have been prevented if they had been more careful with their privacy settings. And there is a question of fairness as well. Adams was prudent enough to select appropriate privacy settings on his own Facebook page, but it was his friend who let the cat out of the misbehavior bag. The photos seemed to provide evidence of wild behavior, but what if the friend's posts were exaggerated and misleading? Adams will never know that this was the reason that he was passed over for the job, so he won't have an opportunity to explain. Such are the drawbacks to using social media in the hiring process.
What are the major advantages and disadvantages for employers that choose to use social media to screen job candidates? What are the major benefits and drawbacks for job candidates who are evaluated in this way?
What are the most important ethical questions that should be addressed if a small company should decide to use social media tools in its assessment of prospective employees? Can all of these questions be addressed to your satisfaction? Why or why not?
The use of social media in employee recruitment and evaluation is rapidly increasing over time. Since there is no question that these tools are going to be even more widely used in the future, what guidelines would you recommend to any small business that chooses to take this path?