Although doing legal background investigations on job applicants is a routine step in the recruiting process, some businesses are now beginning to look up their applicants on social media in addition to conducting legal background checks. Reviewing a candidate’s social media might provide you with insightful information, but it can also present problems due to hiring prejudice. Before utilizing social media background checks on job seekers, it might be beneficial to have a basic understanding of how they work.

What are background checks on social media?

In order to determine if a candidate is a good match for a job, employers often do social media background checks on prospective hires. Some companies check a candidate’s public profiles on popular social media platforms quickly, while others look more closely at their blogs, comment sections, and other online footprints. Social media data may be used to verify application-related specifics and uncover brand-new information about a candidate’s behavior.

Why do companies do background checks on social media?

Employers utilize social media background checks to discover more about applicants personally, including their public persona and any remarks they may have made on their professional past. They may reveal a candidate’s personality and provide companies with a comprehensive picture of how they could fit into their working culture.

Background checks on social media are more important for certain occupations than others. The social media accounts of back-end professionals who do not link their names to their firm may not have the same effect as those of employees who deal directly with the public and represent the brand online.

Background checks on social media: benefits and drawbacks.

Social media background checks may have both favorable and unfavorable consequences on a business and its applicants, even while employers might acquire useful information by looking through job seekers’ online activities. Make sure you are aware of the potential benefits and hazards before deciding on a social media background check policy:

Advantages of looking through a candidate’s social media.

Hiring managers may learn about each applicant’s personality from the information they share on social media. Through a number of advantages, searching job candidates’ social media profiles may assist your recruiting team in making an educated choice:

Examining cultural fit: Some individuals use their social media pages to talk about their beliefs, ambitions, and personalities, giving you a feel of how they would fit within the workplace culture. Performing a social media background check on candidates may help guarantee that they support your company’s vision even when they are not working.

Finding red flags: Examining an applicant’s social media postings might help you spot unpredictable or worrisome conduct that could endanger the company’s reputation or irritate existing employees. Background checks on applicants’ social media accounts may show if they lied on their application or had any potentially negative material uploaded online.

Protecting the reputation of your business: If your business has a strong reputation, you may need to set high standards for your workers’ public personas, including their online public postings. It is possible to link an employee’s offensive or worrying social media postings to their company, which might result in negative press.

Negative impacts of background checks on social media.

Social media background checks raise several ethical and privacy issues since they reveal personal information about an applicant. Social media background checks done improperly might disseminate false information or negatively affect the employment process in the following ways:

False and duplicate information: Not all internet information may be trusted. You may not be able to identify which account belongs to the job seeker since so many individuals have the same name. Online personas may also be created, leading your hiring manager to incorrectly credit postings to a candidate.

Possibility of discrimination: Social media background checks must adhere to federal standards, much as criminal background checks. During a social network check, it’s possible to come across protected material that can improperly influence your hiring choices.

Negative effect on employer brand: Some individuals can consider social media checks to be an infringement on their privacy. Extensive social media monitoring might give the wrong impression about your organization as being extremely rigid or controlling.

Wasting time: Internal social media background checks might take a lot of time if you want to do them. Without being certain that each candidate even has a profile on each social media site, you may need to examine a number of them for each contender.

How iTechwares can help you?

iTechwares can run the social media background check for your future employee. We have experienced ethical hackers who can track and analyze your future employee’s social media activities to find out any possible threats. Contact us today for the best social media background check service.

Final thoughts

Think about social media monitoring and background checks as two more filters you might include in your entire screening process. We contend that some kind of social media screening is now required rather than just a good addition to your personnel screening process, particularly as younger generations who are among the most active social media users, like Gen Z, mature and join the workforce.