Social Media and Hiring Concerns

Depending on the sensitive nature of the job opportunity, an employer might have dug deeper into an applicant's background; a criminal background and/or credit check could aid the employers in deciding whether the new employee at the till, supervising small children or inputting confidential medical data, was indeed trustworthy.

Today, however, employers have an additional source of information at their disposal thanks to the advent and prolific use of social media by prospective employees. (An estimated 1.35 billion users access Facebook on a monthly basis. As of December 2014, Instagram and Twitter boast 300 million and 284 million monthly users, respectively. See, John Constine, “Instagram Hits 300 Million Monthly Users to Surpass Twitter, Keeps It Real With Verified Badges,” TechCrunch, Dec. 10, 2014). Popular social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn, among others, can provide an employer with a unique and very clear peephole into the personal life of an applicant that might otherwise appear perfect “on paper.” Because a qualified job candidate may not have considered his future job prospects when he posted lewd Mardi Gras photos back in 2009, or took to Twitter to rail against President Obama in 2012, a quick check of social media by a recruitment manager could sink an otherwise certain offer of employment.