Question:
What do you advise regarding screening social media accounts during the hiring process?
Answer from Emily, PHR:
We strongly recommend against reviewing a candidate’s social media accounts during the interview process. By doing so, you could be exposed to information about the protected classes to which your candidate belongs. For instance, if you went to their Facebook page, you might discover their race, age, or religion. If your ultimate hiring decision was challenged, you would need to prove that those characteristics were not a factor in your decision.
We recommend basing hiring decisions only on the information you obtain through the application, resume, interviews, and reference checks. The goal of the application and interview process is to find the most qualified candidate for the position you’re trying to fill. You shouldn’t need to get into the private lives of candidates to make that determination, and the risk of doing so makes it inadvisable in any case.
Emily, PHR
Emily joins the team with over six years of experience in HR, primarily in the healthcare and hospitality industries. She also spent a year running a non-profit. She graduated college with degrees in Music and Entrepreneurial Business, and her passion for helping and working alongside people led her to the field of HR. In her free time, Emily enjoys traveling and home brewing with her husband.
