As a hiring manager, reviewing a candidate’s social profiles is inevitable. Depending on your recruiting process, hiring managers may search a candidate’s social profile before a phone interview, before a person-to-person interview, or even before there’s an offer. Social networks like Facebook have been around for over a decade and according to a recent survey, the “Number of Employers Using Social Media to Screen Candidates Has Increased 500 Percent over the Last Decade.”
That’s a pretty significant statistic but not surprising when you consider the number of users social networks have access to such as Facebook (1 Billion+) users, Tumblr (500+M) and Instagram (400+M).
Of the 2000 employers surveyed in the report, “Sixty percent of employers use social networking sites to research job candidates.” With that, there were some surprising findings:
– Most employers review candidate social profiles are “looking for information that supports their qualifications for the job.”
– Additionally, employers suggested they are less likely to be interested in a candidate if they can’t find anything at all online about them.
– Forty-nine percent of hiring managers who screen candidates via social networks said they’ve found information that caused them not to hire a candidate. Social profiles featuring the following were deal-breakers:
Provocative or inappropriate photographs, videos or information – 46 percent
Information about candidate drinking or using drugs – 43 percent
Discriminatory comments related to race, religion, gender, etc. – 33 percent
Candidate bad-mouthed previous company or fellow employee – 31 percent
Poor communication skills – 29 percent
Conversely, more than a third of employers admitted to hiring candidates based attributes that they found were positive such as “background information supported job qualifications, social profile conveyed a professional image, good fit with company culture, well-rounded, showed a wide range of interests and they had great communication skills.” Additionally in the report there was information on how some employers are even conducting active searches on their current employees.
Social Profile Cleaning
For those that are currently searching for a job, you may want to focus on cleaning up any of the items mentioned above. And also, enhance your profile based on some of the deciding factors listed. Take a look at the Groups and Friends you belong to or follow. You may want to clean up that area as well. Hey, being social today is a necessity, but it shouldn’t rule how you conduct everyday business. Be smart about what you post and if you’re tagged in an inappropriate photo, contact the person who posted it and ask them to remove it. Get smart about your future. There’s never been a better time start cleaning up your social profile.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR, Ingrid Moore
Ingrid Moore is the Founder and CEO of Corporate Resources of Illinois, an employment & staffing agency with over 20+years’ experience located in Schaumburg, IL. Ingrid and her team assist employers with finding the right hire for their business. For more info, follow us on our LinkedIn Company Page, or follow us Corporate Resources of Illinois‘s Google+ page.
