EmployeeScreenIQ Blog

I was privileged to lead a panel discussion this morning for the Human Resources Management Association of Chicago entitled “Social Networking Issues: The Risks and Rewards Related to Facebook, LinkedIn & Twitter”.  The panel consisted of David Ritter, chairman of Neal, Gerber, Eisenberg’s labor and employment practice group, Alison O’ Hara, assistant general counsel at Follett Corporation, Courtney Hunt, founder and principal of Renaissance Strategic Solutions (RSS) and Mike Dwyer, senior consultant for Aon’s Organizational Performance and Implementation Group.

The panel focused on educating human resource professionals on the spectrum of social media platforms, how to build both a corporate and personal brand and of course, the pros and cons interacting with social media.  We didn’t get very far until the panel was asked what it thought of using social networking sites for background checks and employment screening.   I responded with the same thought many of you have heard me offer over the past several years.  As attorney’s, I was particularly interested in hearing both Alison and David’s thoughts.  David conceded that while there are certainly risks, he can understand why employers might be tempted to look.  And Alison mentioned, that there hasn’t been any remarkable litigation to date, but that all it takes is one example of an employer using it as part of an employee check in a discriminatory way to provoke strong reaction from the courts.  Both he and Alison agreed that you need to be extremely careful if you decide to engage in this practice.  They also said that if you were to find objectionable information, it all came down to a judgement call as far as a hiring decision was concerned.

Just some food for thought as you consider whether this practice is right for your organization.

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So, we’ve chronicled the issue of employers using the internet and social networking site to conduct background checks ad nauseum.  I’m all for beating dead horse (figuratively, of course), but I surmise we’ve done enough to highlight our opposition to this practice.  If you haven’t already done so, check out our free white paper, “Recruiting and Social Networking Sites: What You DO Know Can Hurt You.”

Instead of once again voicing our concerns, I found a great article written by Gary A. Olson, provost and vice president for academic affairs at Idaho State University.  Among the opinions Mr. Olson offers is that information found online cannot always be trusted.  See his comments below.

Too bad it is often so difficult to separate fact from fiction on the Web. Just because it’s been published doesn’t make it true, even in a newspaper article. Exercising genuine due diligence on a candidate’s background means thoroughly investigating information that seems disturbing or suspicious rather than simply trusting the source and assuming its validity. A thorough vetting may require numerous phone calls to parties in the know, but serious follow-through is essential to preserve the integrity of the search.

Most executive-search consultants are experts at the vetting process because their companies’ reputations are at stake. They will contact several people who are not listed as references on the candidate’s application—present and former supervisors, and even officials at previous institutions where the candidate once worked. They will also commission professional background investigations, which include verifying the candidate’s earned academic degrees as well as conducting a complete credit history and a criminal-background check.

Thanks Mr. Olson.  We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.  Check out the full article here.

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Great interview on the controversial practice of using social networking sites to conduct employment background checks.  Check it out.

HR and Facebook: It’s Complicated

2/7/2010 Star Tribune

Memo to human resources: Be careful what you look for on Facebook; it could come back to haunt.

Minnesota companies may be walking toward thin ice as they follow a national trend of using social media networks to screen potential employees.

A recent national study found that employers were impressed by personality, creativity and communications skills found via the Internet. But employers also rejected job candidates for inappropriate photos, content relating to drinking or drugs and misrepresentation of skills.

Unwittingly, these businesses could be violating — or close to violating — anti-discrimination laws that have protected workers for decades.

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 The following story isn’t anything new to our readers.  We’ve stated time and time again that employers should not use social networking sites as a way to investigate job candidates because the information you find may not be truthful in nature.  How do you know that the Facebook profile filled with bad language and borderline inappropriate photos you are looking at is your candidate’s creation and not the invention of a former friend, spouse or co-worker with an ax to grind?  Denying someone a job based on information found on a social networking site could be asking for trouble. 

But what about offering someone a position with your company based on the favorable information found in their profile?  This section of the article peaked my interest:

“On the other hand, some candidates are doing a good job of presenting their professional side when posting online. Half of those who screened candidates via their social networking profiles said that they got a good feel for the person’s personality and fit within the organization. Other employers said that they found the profiles supported the candidates’ professional qualifications or that they discovered how creative the candidate was. Solid communication skills, evidence of well-roundedness, and other people’s good references (we assume this one came from LinkedIn) helped boost people’s credentials, too.”

With all of the press surrounding employers using sites like Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and Twitter to screen job applicants, it’s only a matter of time before applicants catch on and create fake profiles to make themselves look more qualified and professional than they really are (and maintain their real profiles under a pseudonym known only to the people they want to know).  And those references you see on LinkedIn – I could have a handful of glowing references on my profile by the end of the day just by sending a mass text to my old high school and college buddies.

Employers - Don’t believe the hype about how great social networking sites are to screen candidates.  Can you imagine having to explain to your boss: “Well, their facebook profile looked okay…” 

Click to read “Uncouth Facebook postings closing doors for job candidates”

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Just found this great interview with attorney Jacqueline Klosek from Goodwin Procter about the dangers of using social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace for employment screening purposes.  Among the topics discussed is troubling screening policy adopted and later rescinded by the city of Bozeman, MT.

Create Job Applicant Screening Policies Upfront- by Lora Bentley, IT Business Edge

Bentley: I’ve read about the public outcry that resulted from the City of Bozeman, Mont.’s decision to ask job applicants for their social networking site user names and passwords. Obviously, there are enough problems associated with that practice that the city discontinued it. Can you explain?

Klosek: It’s just, in my mind, fraught with legal dangers. For example, what you post on your own Web site, the writings and photos and such, you’re really using someone else’s service. And for the most part, if you provide your password to the sites in which you participate, you could be violating their terms of use, which could leave you as the user subject to potential claims, including termination of your account or worse.

Then, as an employer, say you ask someone for their user name and password and then give it to another employee to do the screening, you don’t know exactly what they’re going to do with that information. With the user name and password, they’re basically impersonating the person whose account it is. They can send e-mails that purport to be on that person’s behalf, they can review e-mails that were sent from other people… It could be mundane personal communications, but there could also be trade secrets being exchanged, or a host of other things behind these protected e-mails. It’s just a minefield of dangers, in my view.

Bentley: What if you are using the Internet to screen prospective employees without their user names and passwords? Aren’t there still risks in doing that?

Klosek: A great majority of potential employers do screen applicants using at least publicly available portions of the Internet. In some respects, there can be meaningful information on some of those sites, but you’re right to suggest there are risks in doing so. The biggest risk is that you may find too much information — information that, as a prospective employer, it may be dangerous for you to have.

For example, laws that we have in the States would prohibit inquiring or basing employment decisions on factors such as age, family status (whether or not you were looking to have children) …. Most employers are well-versed in avoiding those topics in the employment process, but they may access that information online.

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We recently sat down with Kevin Grossman, President of HRMarketer to discuss the landscape of today’s human resource marketplace.  Kevin always has an insightful take on the direction of the HR field and what’s on the minds of human resources professionals.  We also asked him to discuss the insatiable appetite those in the space seem to have for social networking tools.

Check it out!

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Have you ever played hooky from school and then inadvertently ran into one of your teachers later that same day?  Talk about an uncomfortable situation.  Same goes for your job – if you call off sick with a migraine stating that staring at a computer screen all day at work will make it worse, don’t get caught using Facebook at home.  One woman did and found herself out of the job.

I have to say, I sympathize with this woman.  If she truly was using her phone to access Facebook, that is markedly different that a 17 inch flatscreen monitor.  But it’s still a difficult argument to make.

Woman Fired For Using Facebook While Off Sick

City News Toronto – April 27, 2009

Social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter have changed the way many people communicate and have had an unexpected impact on the workplace. Some companies have instituted policies blocking the popular web destinations, because workers spend too much time chatting with friends and not enough on their jobs.

And many prospective employers now troll the sites to find out what possible hires are leaving out of their resumes and what their attitudes are really like, leading some to lose a shot at increasingly limited openings.

Which brings us to another cautionary tale about Facebook, and an employee who lost her job because of it – even though she wasn’t using it at work.

Last November, a woman in Zurich, Switzerland called her employer, an insurance company, and told them she was too ill to come into work that day. Part of her duties involved using a computer, but she claimed her cure involved lying in the dark and that she was unable to face the lighted screen.

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Will we be seeing you in Las Vegas at the SHRM Staffing Management Conference April 29-May 1, 2009?  employeescreenIQ will be exhibiting again this year and while our good looks might not draw you to the booth, we’re sure to have cool giveaways!  We might even have some helpful information and materials about background checks and employment screening.

We are also excited to announce that employeescreenIQ president and C.O.O., Jason B. Morris will be leading a educational session on the use of Social Networking Sites when conducting background checks on Wednesday April 29th at 7:00am.  (Don’t worry.  They’ll serve coffee.)

Please stop by and see us at booth #317 if you plan to be there.

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Labor and employment attorney, Jackie J. Ford of Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease LLP recently published an article on MarketWatch about the problems employers can face by using information found on social networking sites in the background check process.  We liked it so much, we asked her if we could publish it on employeescreen University and she graciously accepted our invitation.  See excerpt below.

Why Employers Should Reconsider Facebook Fishing

Various studies suggest that upwards of 40% of employers have trolled Facebook and other social networking sites for information on potential hires — and that when they find negative information on these sites, more than 80% of the employers factor that information into their hiring decisions.

Given how common the practice is, are employers well advised to use whatever information they can, from wherever they can? Not so fast.

While there is no specific prohibition on checking an applicant’s Facebook page, employers should carefully weigh the potential hazards before entering these waters. Here are four of the biggest traps for the unwary:

1. State and federal discrimination laws discourage “too much information.” Let’s say an applicant’s Facebook page includes heartfelt descriptions of his ongoing battle with cancer. Whether this is the sort of information you meant to find or not, you’ve now seen it — and when the applicant is turned down for the job and files his disability discrimination claim against your company, you’ll have to explain how and why the medical information did not figure into your decision-making. That’s the tough thing about Pandora — it’s nearly impossible to put her back in the box.
2. The jury is still out on whether a Facebook search may be subject to limits on background checks. If you use a third party service to conduct certain types of background checks, the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) requires that you give prior notice of the check to the individual being investigated. In the Facebook context, few employers want to do this because, among other things, they don’t want to give the applicant time to remove offensive material before the search begins. While it’s far from clear that the FCRA applies to Facebook fishing, most of us would rather avoid being the test case defendant in an FCRA lawsuit. In addition, some states are enacting their own “FCRA plus” laws which, like California’s, require consent from the applicant even if you don’t use a third party to do the search.
3. Some states prohibit denying a job to someone because of off-duty conduct that is not illegal. We’ve all heard the horror stories of Facebook postings that take on a life of their own — the photos of beer guzzling, the boasts about sexual escapades, or the just plain boorish stuff that seems funny to your college Facebook friends but decidedly unattractive to a prospective employer. In some states, that information is off-limits for hiring decisions — unless, of course, you can show a direct link to the responsibilities of the job itself. In West Virginia, for example, an employer can’t deny a job to someone purely because the person is an off-duty smoker; in New York, “consumption of legal products” is protected activity.
4. Shockingly, not everything on Facebook is true. It’s one thing to rely on information an applicant directly provides to you. It’s another thing to rely on information posted by the applicant or others on a website. A Facebook page, like every other public forum, can be the voice of puffery, trickery, and, yes, fakery. In short: browser beware.

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I have devoted today to preparing for my presentation in April at this years SHRM Staffing Management Conference.  In doing so I have come across a few interesting YouTube videos I found funny.  My presentation: “Social Networking Sites: Can You Always Trust What you See?” will dive head first into why employers are putting themselves at risk by using this as a background screening tool.

Enough with my shameless plug on why you should come to my presentation and on with the video’s:

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