In this modern day, the regular person has a substantial social media presence. That is because social media sites like YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat offer an abundance of valuable information regarding the applicant’s potential behaviors and attitude.
Hence, one can learn a lot about their applicant via social media activity and profiles. It has become a common practice among employers to review their prospective applicants and assess them based on their social media footprints.
It is fair to say that social media checks are becoming a popular tool in jobs and businesses as they effectively alleviate the risks of evolving culture and working practices. However, one cannot confidently know whether these reviews are even being done compliantly and fairly.
Therefore,we have come up with this blog, tobreak down why social media screenings are essential.
Why are social media checks beneficial?
Companies have started outsourcing and creating thorough social media screenings. These tests are beneficial to reduce any potential risks to the company’s reputation, brand, data security and confidentiality breach.
Social media background checks are critical to identifying a candidate’s online presence. It looks for evidence of any questionable behavior a potential employee might have.
For most companies, questionable behavior ranges from bullying, radical sexism, nudity, racism and effective use of unrestrained profanities. In addition to all of this, companies also make sure the candidate does not seem a threat to the brand’s reputation, or their employees.
Social media checks are tailored to complement multiple checks. Primarily it includes web searching, CV screening and references but can also look up the applicant’s criminal record checks and ID. These checks are vital as they provide the employer with a complete picture of the applicant’s persona.
Is social media screening necessary to the company’s security?
Since businesses and corporate companies encounter a series of challenges, conducting a security clearance background check on every prospective employee is more than necessary.
Fortunately, social media screening proves to be helpful when employers need to conduct security clearance. By looking at the active social media accounts of the applicants, one can have a clear glimpse of their lifestyle. Therefore, this helps them understand whether there is a risk that the individual would expose the company to issues such as corruption, bribery and fraud.
Types of social media screening
Social media screening is divided into fundamentally two types, i.e. in-house social media screening and outsource social media checking. Both kinds of screening prove advantageous to the company. However, the perks of outsourcing social media screening certainly outnumber the in house social media checks.
Outsourcing removes unconscious bias
Every employer makes a conscious effort to hire the best people. However, employers can also become unnecessarily partial or impartial candidates without realising it.This is called unconscious bias, and usually, it occurs when people favour some candidates over others based on their shared values, nationality or life experience.
Being a human, when an employer interviews people, they experience a halo effect. Consequently, irrespective of the candidate exhibiting any positive trait, the employer perceives them as a suitable individual.
This is where outsourcing social media screening comes to the rescue. Fortunately, there are organisations out there that can offer quality background screening. They would help you to balance the risk of breaching compliance, losing competent employees and unfair bias.
Choosing the best company for you
We would highly recommend ourselves at The Background Checker as your number one option for Social Media Checks. We are known for conducting unbiased background screening to help you make the best decisions for your company.