Technology and Society: Is It Ethical For Employers To Factor In Online Profiles in Hiring Decisions?
What happens when the pictures and content you post online for friends to see is also viewed by a potential employer?
The question has become of particular importance in recent years, where photos, profiles, and online commentary are being factored into who gets hired–and fired–in the workforce.
Close to 50% of companies report doing background checks on their candidates by searching through online content, and claim to have not hired candidates based on finding “provocative photographs,” “content about drinking or using drugs,” or even “poor communication skills” demonstrated on their online profiles. For recent college students joining the workplace, this is particularly a problem, because they often have this type of “unprofessional” content on their profiles from their time in school.
Finding this type of content online, says consultant Brad Karsh, makes employers question the applicants’ character:
“A lot of it makes me think, what kind of judgment does this person have? Why are you allowing this to be viewed publicly, effectively, or semipublicly?”
Many students may not even be aware that this content is being factored into their job application process. One student interviewed by The New York Times found that, unbeknownst to him, the info he had up on the web was alienating him from potential employers. After not hearing back from any of the jobs he applied to, he followed his friend’s suggestion to Google himself, and realized that a satirical essay he wrote years before called “Lying All The Way To The Top” appeared under his name, and was possibly keeping employers from returning his inquiries. After taking it down, he says, he started getting offers.
Interestingly, this student didn’t think employers would factor in something like an old essay he’d posted on the web into his eligibility as a job candidate:
“I never really considered that employers would do something like (search for me online)” he said. “I thought they would just look at your résumé and grades.”.
Professional networking site Ziggs.com CEO Tom Demello says that students may never know this information affected their eligibility — they just won’t get a call back. And for those who assume they’re safe as long as their profiles are set to private, think again, he says. “Whatever you post on the web…it’s public. There’s a reason it’s called the “world wide web”:
Employers often find ways to access the sites, either by creating a profile from the company, or by using other employees in the same university networks to look up applicants. Sometimes, depending on your privacy settings, images and content are available simply by Googling your name.
And what you share online remains a liability even after you’re hired for a job. The Wall Street Journal reported about a woman who vented on Facebook about her dissatisfaction with work life, posting in her status: “OMG I HATE MY JOB!” Her boss’s status response? “You also seem to have forgotten that you have 2 weeks left on your 6 month trial period. Don’t bother coming in tomorrow..and yes, I’m serious.”
Is it ethical for employers to evaluate potential or current employees based on the information they present online?
One student I interviewed disagreed that employers should be able to use this information in the job search:
“I don’t think it’s fair for employers to look at personal profiles to judge their applicants. The information on those profiles has no bearing on how the person will do in their job, and it’s a violation of that person’s privacy to factor in their personal lives into whether they can do the work. People put pictures up for their friends to see, not to reflect on how they will do their job.”
A contributor to Business Week’s “Debate Room” blog echoed some of these views:
Job seekers already have to contend with background screens, drug tests, credit checks, and verification of employment history, education, and income. Is adding an ideological litmus test of an online identity really necessary? What should companies care about more, the professional skills and merit of an employee or what her favorite beer is?
But others believe that information posted online is fair game to be considered. Another student I asked said,
“It clearly reflects on a person’s judgment and character if there are pictures of them drinking at parties, or saying inappropriate things on their profile. It would also reflect on that company as well to have an employee with that sort of information online. People should expect to be held responsible for their online presence because your profile reflects on who you are as a person and the types of decisions you make. And that’s fair game for an employer to know.”
To me, this issue brings up a broader question of what’s “private” and “public” in the age of the internet. It’s interesting that the first student said that people post their pictures “for their friends to see” but not to be viewed by someone like an employer. I wonder, can this distinction be made? Can one expect anything posted on the web to remain “private” in this way? Perhaps a shift in thinking in order — an acknowledgement that social networking sites are not only a social venue for people to connect and share interests, but also a public or semi-public forum where the information one shares is subject to be evaluated in a variety of capacities by those, including employers, who can access it online.
I think Tom Demello (interviewed in the video above) is right that the current generation of social networkers aren’t truly aware of how what we post online is going to impact us. Are we all too comfortable sharing, and only going to learn the hard way — by not getting a job, for example — to be more careful about what we post online? Will our approach to social networking shift as we get older, and the information we have posted trails us into our futures?
Questions:
Is it ethical for potential employers to factor in content from Facebook and Myspace profiles when hiring potential employees?
Do you think about your ‘digital footprint’, and how the information you are posting now might affect you in the future?
Leave your thoughts in the comments section below!
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Want some tips on how to keep your information private on Facebook? Check out this article.
Here’s another question: what if the person you are considering for a position has information on his or her Facebook profile that could put you in a position of a criminally negligent hire?
In a functioning job market all available information is being factored into who gets hired. The efficiency is contingent upon employers learning about people before they’re hired. If efficient markets are not ethical, I don’t know what is!
Digital footprints are vast and comprise a really interesting record of life in our times. The scores of email messages and text messages that flow between important decision-makers will be a ripe resource for future historical scholarship.
Anybody know anything about the extent to which saved (and user-deleted) data can be used against a person in the court of law?
It is ethical and important for companies to factor in social networking when looking to hire an individual. If a potential candidate for a job is reckless, that could put a company in danger. By screening potential employees, a company is taking actions to ensure that it does not make a catastrophic mistake.
As technology becomes more and more important in our lives, digital footprints will become to. The internet is a very dangerous place. Thousands of identities are stolen daily. Therefore, it can be assumed that the digital footprint should not only be monitored, but scrutinized by the individual leaving them. For example, if I wanted to buy something from a person on a forum, I’m not gonna leave my credit card number and billing address in plain sight. As for the future, the amount of digital transactions is increasing annually. However, we must be careful as our current encryption technology is good at best. Caution and scrutiny must be taken in order to prevent digital footprints causing trouble in the future.
Society has become a lot more transit say since the days of “Mad Men” to use the popular Television show as an example. Where before your ‘background’ check was simply the fact you grew up in the same area you were getting a job, and your family name and the church you went to said enough to garner you a job, or gave you a hard time to where you had to ‘make a name for yourself’ to stand out from what ever your family’s reputations (say the drunk uncle syndrome) stood in the way of you becoming more successful. Fact is, there used to be more, social ways that while not really spoken out loud, were used as a daily known thing, called gossip. Did your mother have you just a bit too soon after the wedding? Is your skin a little too dark to be white? I think they buy just a little too much at the local bar.? Was that your old man talking to the pretty miss smith down the road? For a refresher course, watch “Mad Men” shudder… Racism and all that shows how background checks were done back then.
While we have, thanks to technology and social shifts moved on, gossip, well that still goes on (only its called background checks now) and it simply went high tech. No one ever really “took a man at his word,” because usually the man (or woman) was already known by their reputation. So things like My Space, and Facebook is basically your way of saying, “This is my reputation”. If you want to be known as a Party Animal and your various mischievous exploits, I am sure they will garner invites to all sorts of things. Problem is, do you want your Mom’s Boss to know? If you think along those lines, even if you never work for anywhere near where you grew up, that can be a good guideline. If you don’t care if your Mom knows, would you care if her Boss knows and she had to face questions about her straying off spring? Yes, they DO ask. (grumble). So what is a party animal to do?
Make sure your Facebook, MySpace, or any other social network that is for you and your party group stays strictly private. Easier said that done and yes that cuts down the fun… Put up another more public social network of all the things that make you look good. Showing the various volunteer activities you and your friends do (drinking all the time really is lame you know), show yourself giving Your loving Nona a kiss on her birthday, stuff like that. Express ideas along the line of your major that you can defend if asked about and not just mouthing off. In other words, give them something worth talking about and discovering about you. Then the partying won’t be so glaring if it is found. Everyone lets their hair down now and then (me, its Science Fiction Conventions, now THAT something employers can raise eyebrows about and yes mine already know). But if you show yourself to be well rounded, balanced , etc. I find most employees will ‘look the other way’ IF your partying does not show excessive or illegal activities.
Yes, I am a Mom, can you tell? As for weather its ethical or not, no its not. That does not mean it does not happen. People have the right to protect themselves, yes, but I also believe that people have the right not to be judge before the have a chance to shake your hand.
Nancy Louise
As Scott McNealy at Sun said, “Privacy on the Web? Get over it!”
In “A Slice of Life,” Rheingold talks about freedom online for our future. He says the future of virtual communities is connected to the future of everything else, starting with the most precious thing people have to gain or lose — political freedom. Rheingold is right on with his comment. I think the virtual public has to come in the middle with this argument of too much or too little freedom. Obviously, the public has enjoyed virtual communities like facebook and myspace, but when users lose control of who can look at their information, a line is crossed. Granted, users take that chance, but are we fully aware that what we put up on our pages were going to be looked at by our future employers? I don not think that was the purpose of facebook, and users should have the priviledge of negating view from the public.
Regarding the question of whether employers have the ethical right to view our pages, I think they absolutely do not. Would anyone like one to come in to your house and snoop to see what you’re like? No, one would think that is an invasion of privacy. I know web is a different playing field, but I still think the employee needs to give consent for public viewing.
Is it ethical for potential employers to factor in content from Facebook and Myspace profiles when hiring potential employees? I don’t believe that it is ethical for potential employers to factor in content you may have on your Facebook or Myspace, and use it against the potential hiring of you. Just because a person may have pictures of themselves drinking at a party, does not make them any worse of an employee. Some of the smartest people I know, are also some of the heaviest drinkers I know. What a person chooses to do outside of work, should have no bearing on how they will perform on the job. It’s simple: people have their work life and they have their social life. Now, if it appears that their social lives may be negatively affecting their job performance, then there may be cause to look into their “outside life.” However, even though I am promoting that employers not take into consideration people’s personal profiles, I am not saying that people should post whatever they want. Discretion should always be used when posting information on the internet, because you don’t know who it may effect.
I believe that it is not ethical for potential employers to factor in content from Facebook and Myspace profiles when hiring potential employees because it is like an invasion of the employees’ personal life. It is true that since people post their information online, then their privacy is going to be somewhat invaded. But, I think that people have their profiles in private mode for a reason, which reason is because they do not want other people to read and view their information, with the exception of their friends. Now, if the boss searches through the employees’ myspace or facebook then he or she is making a bad turn. This means that the boss does not trust the the employee will do a good job or would not be a good candidate; if the boss have doubts then might as well not higher the potential employ rather than looking over their profile before hiring him or her. This comes along with some stereotypes. Ive seen many cases where minorities have applied for a job and attained it. Later they(some of my minority friends) tell me, “After a long time working for my company, my boss confessed to me that before he or she hired me, my boss checked my background information, especially my myspace and facebook.” This means that just because the employers saw the employ that was a minority, then he or she felt the need to check the employees’ myspace or facebook. I feel that we and especially employers should not view others’ peoples’ privacy because it is going against their privacy; also, this is why we have interviews so that the employers can have an idea of what they are up against when making the decision to whether or not hire the potential employee.
The question of whether it is ethical for employers to factor online profiles in hiring decisions dates back to the old age arguments of control and privacy. In the arena of the World Wide Web, one is in control of very little although he may be led to believe that he is in control of most things. With the recent surfacing and increased use of social networking sites, users latched on to these new innovations as no one was able to foretell the consequences these sites may have on the individual and society as a whole. I hope that people will always have the option of keeping their social life private from their work life. Employers using social networking sites as a means of a type of background check is targeted at younger interviewees. Though older persons are becoming more acquainted with social networking sites, the people who are most actively using them and most expected to use them are younger adults. If a 40-year-old walks into an interview, is it likely that the employer went to see what was posted on their Facebok if they even have one? Most likely not. If a young adult straight out of college walks into an interview, most likely the employer will be more inclined to search the person on Facebook. I do not think that searching future employees on social networking sites is purely for the benefit of the company. I almost feel like they are hoping to find something that will give them reasons to question the person’s character. If a profile is set to private, the person clearly wants to keep the content on their site between him and his friends. There are older people applying for jobs who may like to enjoy a drink or two or three every night but this may be completely concealed during an interview and not found on a social networking site because they do not have one. If a picture with a young adult is seen with alcohol, the perception of him may be changed. Since every one interviewing for a job does not have a social networking site, I do not think it is fair game for employees to search future employees on these sites. I also think it is a violation of privacy. Someone’s private life does not determine how they will perform at their job so I think traditional methods should be used for now when evaluating a future employee.
I think companies looking at a person’s Facebook as part of a background check is ethical. If I am an employer looking into two different candidates with similar skills and credentials, my next move is to look a little deeper into their character. How do I do this? Background checks. Social networking sites like Facebook are excellent ways to find out more about a person; what are they like? What do they do when they are not working? Does it look like this person is responsible? All of these are valid questions that companies should consider before hiring anyone.
I know that there is a lot of controversy surrounding this topic and many people my age are outraged that they are being judged on their Facebook profiles by future employers. The fact is that it is our responsibility as future employees to make ourselves as marketable as possible to companies looking to hire us in the future. Put pictures on your Facebook page that do not have you drinking at a party and don’t post anything that could be held against you in the future (political party, religion, etc.).
It is also important to remember that once companies hire a person, that person now represents the company. So when hiring someone, employers want someone who is a positive reflection on the company. If you go the bar with a couple of co-workers on a Friday night, the company wants you to be a good representation of their business. Employers can find out a lot of this information about you from your Facebook profile.
The important thing to remember, regardless if you agree with companies using Facebook as a background check, is to make your Facebook profile clean and presentable to future employers because they will look at it, whether you want them to or not.
I strongly believe that it is unethical for potential employers to factor in content from Facebook and Myspace profiles when hiring potential employees. I think that people’s content on social networks do not reflect how they act in a professional setting. One of the reasons people are part of the virtual world is to act in a way that they cannot in “real life.” Most of the content posted on Facebook or Myspace is set to “private” for that same reason. People realize that inappropriate behavior (posting photos of alcohol use or vulgar comments) is not appealing therefore this information is private or viewable to friends only. Furthermore, I think that most users are not aware of the fact that companies factor in content from their profiles. A great number of users are too young to think of the possible unfavorable outcomes that might result from posting this content. I know that the only reason I now think twice about posting inappropriate content is because of my technology courses in college.