Personnel and
Social Media
Is it Legal?
Many employers cross the line when they perform their due
diligence on prospective employers. Although it is hard to check on the
employers hiring methods, the question of the legality of the proposed
possibility that an employer can be looking at criteria other than just
personality and intelligence to fit the right job to the right person. Federal
Equal Employment Laws prohibit employment discrimination against qualified individuals
with disabilities, and prohibit bias based race, color, religion, sex or
national origins, age, as well as other considerations. (Greenstein 2010)
The purpose of social media in hiring practices should be
limited to an effort to improve hiring decisions. The good trained HR person
can consistently and accurately assess important organizational characteristics
such as personality, intelligence, and performance when utilizing social
networking web sites. (Kluemper and Rosen 2009)However, it is easy to find
out other information that they normally would not be able to ask in an
interview due to breaking of equal opportunity laws.
An article in the NY Times detailed an event whereas an
employer used Facebook to review information about a recent graduate of the
University of Illinois. The employer found on his page a description of his
interests: “smokin’ blunts, shooting people and obsessive sex, all described in
vivid slang. (Finder 2006) “A lot of it makes me think,
what kind of judgment does this person have?” said the company’s president,
Brad Karsh. “Why are you allowing this to be viewed publicly, effectively, or
semipublicly?”
Employers may make it a common practice to utilize social
networking, however those employers continue to inadvertently learn about
matters such as candidates age, marital status and other topics typically that
are off limits.(Kluemper and Rosen 2009)
References
