No Place to Play

When one is on the job one knows that employers have legitimate business interests in monitoring internet use in the workplace. By monitoring the way employees use their time on the internet they can make sure that they are being productive and avoid the loss of proprietary information. But how far should employers go to try to monitor employer's behavior outside the workplace, specially with candidates who are not even in their worforece. Where does one draw the privacy line?

According to a new study by Career Builder 1 in every 5 employers use social networking sites to screen prospective employees and 34% reported that they rejected candidates based on what they discovered during their online search.

This are reasons employers give for not hiring employees when revising their OSN:

• 41% - content posted about alcohol or drug use
• 40% - “inappropriate of provocative” pictures
• 29% - candidate appeared to have poor communications skills
• 28% - candidate bad-mouthed their previous company or fellow employee
• 27% - candidate lied about qualifications
• 22% - discriminatory comments related to race, gender, religion, etc.
• 22% - candidate’s screen name was unprofessional
• 21% - candidate was linked to criminal behavior
• 19% - candidate shared confidential information from previous employers

How worried should we be now that we are looking for jobs? And is this good practice for the current employer's employees. I believe that it is not totally wrong to check candidates as long as any behavior that seems to concern the employer is discussed with the candidate. We want to form part of an organization that makes the best hiring decision possible, 30 minutes interviews are sometimes not enough to get to know the candidate, so if this requires the use of OSN research we simply have to be careful how we portray ourselves.

Sources:

No Place to Play: Current Employee Privacy Rights in Social Networking Sites
Gina L. Genova
University of California, Santa Barbara

New Study Shows Increase in Online Applicant Screening
Posted by Molly DiBianca On September 18, 2008

http://www.delawareemploymentlawblog.com/2008/09/new_study_shows_increase_in_on.html