With over 750 Million active users on Facebook, it is becoming a preferred platform for employers to look for potential candidates for job openings in their companies and it seems to be working in favour of them in finding one ,one of the companies being Oracle. In a recent post on computerweekly.com an article was posted regarding Oracle using social networking sites like Facebook and twitter to recruit 1,700 new employees for its European expansion. And Facebook is also supporting this cause after the success of LinkedIn by promoting employers to use Facebook as a recruitment tool.
At the same time employers have been looking into Facebook profiles before hiring a candidate to try and get some information that can be used to scrutinise the number of applicants a photo any comment’s or any fan page’s that they have liked. Even worse, an employer could unearth inaccurate information which might cost someone their career. And another scary thing is in recent news article on CBSNEWS it says that employers have learned how to access profiles which have privacy settings. What makes all of this even more interesting is, in an article posted on Forbs.com on 20th of June it said, that federal Trade Commission has given a stamp of approval to a background check company that screens job applicants based on their internet photos and postings. The FTC determined that Social Intelligence Corp. Was in compliance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act. This means search of what you’ve said or posted in social networking sites and the internet in general may become a standard part of background checks when you apply for job.
And all this leads us to one question- have employers gone too far by invading into people's private lives and attempting to either make or break their career based on the content found on social networking sites. Is the border between personal and work life been crossed by the employers? What should companies care about more, the professional skills and merit of an employee or what his/her favourite beer is and what they were up to during their university days?
I think employers have gone too far. There should be a border between personal and work life. Employers should use Linkedin for screening applicants instead. Employers should consider applicants qualification and not their facebook.
ReplyDeleteinteresting blog Leo.. by the is it you who told me the story of someone got fired as he took a medical leave from the office and actually went for a day trip and then employers some how read his FB status about his trip and got him out?
ReplyDeleteI don't really like the idea of employers being able to look at your personal life. My view is, if you are on weekend or holiday, what you do there is your business, provided you don'd damage the reputation of the place you work for. Other than that, I think employers should keep these things separate.
ReplyDeleteRoss
@Mary and Ross I agree with your views on this Mary and Ross, why use Facebook when there is a another social networking site only for recruitment purposes. even if Facebook has a much larger audience to target still I don't think its right to look into personal lifestyle and judge them. if they really want to target a larger audience they must make different arrangements with Facebook for this purposes....
ReplyDelete@Sherina it was Mazahir who talked about this incident in class Sherina
You are asking some excellent questions, Leo. I agree with you, I believe that employers are now going too far, using information that isn't directly relevant to assess potential employees. I expect that we'll see a few high-profile court cases soon which will swing the balance back in favour of the privacy of employees.
ReplyDeleteThanks wags. there are lot of Blogs and groups protesting against this move by employers and recruitment agency's. hopefully this should make the employers aware that what they are doing is wrong and should stop invading people's private lives and concentrate more on their skill sets
ReplyDeleteFunny you write about this.. a friend of mine got fired from her job because she wrote on her Facebook that she works at "Kebab B****!". Perhaps she shouldn't have written that, but her employers were very quick to respond to it. Then again, we wouldn't know EXACTLY where she works, would we?
ReplyDeleteHi Katie, i think in your friends case what she wrote on her Facebook wall is still her personal opinion, but the only mistake she made was accepting one of her employers friend request she should have thought about it before posting such comments. the employers would have feared the bad word of mouth would spread and damage the company's name among her friends and then to others. still the reaction of the employer was harsh they could have tried to find out the reason why she posted such comments and see what could be done to rectify that and make sure no one in the future would post such comments and let her of with a warning or something
ReplyDeleteLeo, there are always two sides to a coin. Employees may feel an invasion of privacy, or even a career risk because of what they may or may not have on their social profiles. On the other hand you have a business that wants to know who you are. Now think from a business point of view, your investing into someone who you can only judge by a resume. Getting more information on the person may lead to taking a more informed decision on who you are investing into. Now you can say that its obstructing privacy but I'm sure anyone who is serious about their lives wont have post random messages that may lead to anyone judging him/her the wrong way.
ReplyDelete