Many companies are using social media as part of their recruiting, candidate selection process, and everyday business operations. Many recruiters and managers can gather a great deal of information with a search across the social media. The search should not influence their decision to interview or hire a potential employee, but it just could. If someone "likes" a cancer research association, does that mean the candidate may have cancer? Once that seed is planted, it is hard to remove it from the process.
That type of unintended influence is where the potential risk for social media discrimination could set in. Many employment law attorneys advise their clients to avoid using social media channels as part of their hiring practice so that they can minimize the risk altogether. However, this is not the answer as 36.6 million job seekers used social media as part of their job search strategy. Some suggestions would be:
- Have candidates sign a disclosure document
- Treat informal social media checks as Formal
- Use a third party to conduct a separate check
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