November 21, 2009
What's Inside:
More employers looking at social networking sites
Potential employees urged to clean up profiles
Potential employees urged to clean up profiles
If you’re looking for a job, you may want to do more than brush up your resume.
You may also want to re-examine your Facebook page.
More and more, employers are prowling social network sites — such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter — to check on potential new hires.
“It can be a legitimate way to see if someone is a good fit for your company culture,” said Carol Barnett, a labor attorney with Polsinelli Shugart in St. Joseph.
Companies find the searches especially helpful for positions such as sales representatives where an employee will be representing the firm.
“It’s certainly less expensive, but it may not be the most reliable source for you,” Ms. Barnett said while speaking about labor issues at an event at the Small Business Development Center in St. Joseph.
She cited a survey by the Society for Human Resource Management that found 20 percent of respondents had researched a candidate on a social network and of those, about 20 percent had disqualified a candidate.
In addition, some employers have fired workers over information that was posted on their Facebook profiles or personal blogs. Although employees have sued, claiming discrimination or violation of free speech, Ms. Barnett said most court rulings favor employers.
“If it’s inappropriate behavior that’s being exhibited, it’s a legitimate basis,” she said.
Although a user may think they have privacy settings in place to keep their boss from seeing their page, Ms. Barnett said another friend or co-worker who does have access to the page may pass along the information.
When hiring, employers will want to make sure they avoid using social networks to determine if someone is a member of a minority group or physically disabled, she advised.
Ms. Barnett also advises against sending friend requests to potential hires or new bosses.
But for job seekers, social networks are becoming essential tools, as half of all adults have either a Facebook or MySpace account. An article in this week’s Time magazine examines how laid-off workers are sending out status updates and “tweets” to search for jobs. Several found that the most unexpected connections resulted in work.
Susan Mires can be reached
at susanm@npgco.com.
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I do have a Facebook account but only send friend request to fellow Bilderbergers. My Illuminati pals seem to prefer My Space. We all love twitter!
As a person that has held managerial positions, and have been involved in conversations as to hiring practices, facebook and other web sites is just an excuse to NOT hire someone. I once sat in a human resource manager's office that was thrilled about an applicant until a supervisor pointed out to the HR person that the applicant participates in horse shows. The HR person told the supervisor, tell her thanks for applying, we will contact if our company has an opening. Yes the HR person was ready to hire the applicant. Credit ratings, web sites, etc.. is just a reason NOT to hire someone. More often than not the person that gets hired will have a connection to someone within the company, or worked at an impressive company. So often managers hire people that they are sure will NOT rock their boat, work cheap, focus on the job and company, and do not have family life that is stable. Want to get hired, apply in person, dress for success or for the job, and if they like you, you will get hired.
Why is this news? We've all known for about 4 years now that sites like Facebook and Myspace can disclude you from jobs or even get you kicked off sports teams in college. Might as well write an article saying "Microwaves heat your food."
The few people that have yet to hear about social networking sites may find this story very interesting, and the bonus info about what microwaves do will make this a banner news day for them.
It truly is pathetic the lengths employers will go nowadays to discredit employees! Not hiring someone because they participate in horse shows? If an employer does not like you, they will find ANYTHING to fire you on, except if you work for the City of St. Joseph. You could commit murder while at work for the city and be seen holding the smoking gun and at most you might get a written reprimand.
On the other hand, I have personally seen public Facebook pages of teachers from the St. Joseph School District that show them drinking and participating in a myriad of other compromising activities and nothing happens with them.
It all depends on who the employer is and how bad they want to rock the boat. Most will turn a blind eye, just so they don't get a black eye for knowing one of their employees have participated in these actions and they did nothing about it.
Soooooooo....if my MySpace page features microwavable tasty nutritious treats I can get ANY job?
I believe the school district only prohibits drinking while at school or at school events. I doubt that teachers are required to abstain completely.