Employer Social Media Checks – Monitoring or Snooping?

It is becoming increasingly common practice in the US for employers to monitor or audit the social media platforms of potential hires.  In the US, a number of states have recently been passing laws to prohibit employers from obtaining the passwords of social media accounts of a job applicant.  This has yet to become common practice in Australia.

Employers may argue that it is vital to manage certain risks.  However, the decision to monitor can carry its own risks as it could potentially pose discrimination issues.  Possible litigation could ensue if the job applicant discovers that their application has been unsuccessfully on the grounds of age, religion or sexual orientation.  A social media platform such as LinkedIn, for example allows the user to see who has accessed their profile so it would be straightforward for the job applicant to realise that their potential employer has looked at their profile.

Employers maintain that if this information is publically available then they are not really doing anything wrong other than gathering information for a background check.

4 Things to Consider:

1. Notify candidates of the company’s practice of searching social media: companies need to notify the candidate of their searches and confirm the identity of the candidate with their social media profiles to makes sure the content is authentic.
2. To minimise the risks a non-decision maker could perform the background check: they could then report back to the decision maker only information that is permissible for consideration.
3. Search only public content about the candidate: include a review of social media content that is in the public domain.  Always respect the candidate’s privacy settings that cover their online content.
4. Search public content in an identical manner: have procedures in place to ensure that searches are done consistently for all candidates, including the same websites visited so alleged biases can be minimised.

More importantly the best thing to do is for employers to speak with their legal counsel about their practices to ensure that they are legal and reduce exposure to liability.

Employers should remember that there is a very fine line between gathering information for a background check and snooping and monitoring a job applicant’s social media platforms.  Employers need to tread very carefully to avoid being exposed to risks which could potentially damage their company.

Thanks for reading!

Feel free to ‘tweet’ or ‘repost’ this article or leave your comments….

Tags: Social Media & Your Career • Social Media Checks • Social Media Privacy • Social Media Risks