Do you use social media for hiring or screening?

The hiring process now includes address verification, criminal record verification, court record checks, identity check, and substance abuse testing, among others. A pre-employment background check can help an employer ensure that the person they are hiring is :-

• actually the one he/she claims to be
• doesn’t have a criminal record that would disqualify him/her from being hired
• doesn’t have his name on an international list as a known terrorist, and has a work history with which you’re comfortable.

A bad hire could cost a firm anywhere from 20 per cent to 200 per cent (in annual compensation) apart from eating into a lot of invaluable management time. Are the above mentioned checks sufficient? Aren’t we missing out on something?

Yes we are, in today’s times when people are spending half their lives, literally on social networks. Not doing a social media scan, is an unwise decision.
Social networks offer a window into how people live their lives. But should employers be looking into that window? Yes and recruiters are also actively accessing social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to check the candidates past behaviour.

According to a recent survey, nearly two in five companies (37 percent) use social networking sites to research on candidates. Of the employers who do not research candidates on social media, 15 percent said their company prohibits the practice. Eleven percent report they do not currently use social media to screen, but plan to start.

Smart recruiters use their informal network to know more about the person. Social media plays an important role in checking candidates past behavior. Twitter and Facebook is being used by HR managers and recruiters over traditional medium for reference check and which helps them to know about the social life and behavior of the individual candidate.

You may consider your posts on Facebook or Twitter to be small doses of fun—titbits of information for your friends and followers. However, there are people who keep a close eye on the trail of your online interactions and their observations could make or break your career.

A social media background checker covers the whole gamut of sites—social networking, business networking, blogging, micro-blogging, photograph/video-sharing or other Web resources—to flag any potentially unflattering information about candidates. According to a survey 68% of employers in the country rejected potential candidates based on scans of their social media posts. Also as many as 43% of employers use social media to research prospective job candidates. The survey was based on the responses of 1,200 companies.

Therefore a social media scan is essential in today’s day and age.

At JantaKhoj we provide a comprehensive social media check. This service at JantaKhoj employs automated and manual review techniques to scan more than thirty different social media and associated sites to look for any adverse references.

We typically cover various social media and business networking sites, blog sites, micro blogging sites, photo/video sharing sites, and other web resources to flag any potentially negative information. Some of the potential negative information would cover (but not limited to) badmouthing current/earlier employers, lying about qualifications / certificates / job history, obvious drug use, other slurs and offensive language, obvious links to criminal / destructive / disruptive behaviour, posting confidential / classified information from current / earlier employers.