Should Employers Use Social Media to Screen Job Applicants?

How do you feel about future employers seeing your social media?

Do you think you should change your social media. Are there some things you don’t want anyone to see?

A study revealed that 70 percent of employers now use social media sites to research applicants during job interviewing.

The Benefits of Using Social Media to check Applicants

The information is free and easy to access on public profiles. One obvious benefit is that the person’s details are often public and freely available. A person’s social network can reveal a lot about a job seeker.

It can give you a glimpse into what other people say about the applicant. Sites like LinkedIn give people the opportunity to recommend others. Testimonials on a person’s page can help you to know what a person may bring to the job.

Also, it can weed out the bad apples. Some people have social profiles showing their bad behavior and bad attitudes.  So an employer can know about this before they invite them in for an interview.

The Risks of Using Social Media to Screen Applicants

An employer could become biased by what they see. The job seeker looks like a good person on social media. He loves sports, has a dog. Oh, he also mentions that he’s a member of a certain religion. Now, you may or may not like this person because you have different religious beliefs. Or maybe a female job seeker posted that she is going to have a baby. You know you can’t discriminate because of this, but you may still have a thought, “oh, she will go on leave within the year if I hire her.” 

Social media viewings could leave you open to allegations of discrimination. A person could say you saw his or her race, religious affiliation, or other protected information and used that information in your decision making.

Try to guess the meaning of the words in bold and match them with their closest meaning from the choices in the right. Some of the answers are very close and have similar meaning. The meaning of these words is how they are used in the reading. Some of these words have different meanings in the dictionary depending on how they are used.

 The answers are below the table.

A=8, B=1, C=3, D=2, E=7, F=4, G=5, H=6

Some example sentences using the new words or phrases from the meaning of how they are used in the reading to help you understand better.

1. It is obvious that it will rain because the clouds are very dark.

2. Samsung revealed its new phone.

3. The technology in this phone gives us a glimpse of what the future will be.

4. The president of the high school gave me an excellent testimonial for my university application.

5. Some boys here are doing bad things. We are going to weed out the bad apples.

6. I feel your grading is biased. You are giving the best scores to students you like.

7. It is wrong to discriminate someone because of what their political thinking is.

8. The politician is alleged to have stolen the money.

Some questions using the new words/phrases. Try to use the words/phrases in your answer.

1. Was it obvious to you before that you must be careful what you post on social media?

2. What does your social media reveal about you?

3. If you wanted to go on a date with someone, would you glimpse on their social media to learn about them?

4. If someone wrote a testimonial about you for a job then what would you want it to say?

5. How can we weed out bad apples amongst politicians/other bad leaders?

6. Do you agree that we can all be biased? How can we not discriminate if we are an employer?

7. Do you believe allegations about famous people in the media? Why or why not?