By Dylan Marks
Experts suggest students keep a clean digital footprint as Canadian employers are increasingly screening job candidates’ social media profiles before hiring.
Assistant professor at Toronto Metropolitan University’s (TMU) Ted Rogers School of Management Jenna Jacobson said the social media screening process could be used by an organization to check a candidate’s qualifications, see how professionally someone is presenting themselves and if they would be a good fit for the organization.
“I think that it’s important to recognize that social media screening has become a dominant practice. Organizations will use social media to attract, recruit and screen qualified job applicants,” said Jacobson.
According to a survey from The Harris Poll, 65 per cent of Canadian companies said they use social media to screen job applicants. 41 per cent found social media content that led them to reject a candidate and 86 per cent said they would fire an employee based on an inappropriate social media post they’ve made online.
“The number of employers using social media and then potentially integrating that information into a hiring decision may just be higher than we even think,” said Darren Charters, a professor of accounting and finance at the University of Waterloo. “But just because they can access somebody’s private social media, does that mean they should?”
Third-year RTA media production student Carina Tomasso said she feels that “it makes sense for people in charge of hiring to screen a possible employee’s digital footprint.”
Tomasso also added she understands employers have a responsibility to ensure workplace safety and sees value in checking a candidate’s online presence to confirm whether they are a suitable hire.
With the rigorous process of social media screening, some experts feel there are ethical implications involving privacy and transparency during the act of not informing applicants that their digital footprints will be looked at and used towards the hiring decision.
Zubin Austin, a professor of pharmacology at the University of Toronto said, “When recruiters or companies are actually going to be doing something like this, it is ethically responsible for them to inform the candidate that this is going to be part of the search process.”
According to a report from the National Library of Medicine, social media screening is not something that should be considered procedurally fair as “it opens up far too many opportunities for inaccurate or job-irrelevant information, lack of transparency, discrimination, recruiter biases and privacy violations.”
Charters said the idea of social media screenings used during the hiring process is something that needs to be told upfront with consent for doing so being a possible avenue as well.
“You will see people recommend being upfront about it, let the participant know you’re doing it and or get their consent to review certain social media,” said Charters. “I think if employers do that, ethically they can argue they have interacted respectfully as an individual who has autonomy and is capable of making their own decisions.”
Zubin noted that many students may have misconceptions regarding what employers can and cannot look at and evaluate in terms of social media.
“Anything you put on social media is fair game. It’s likely going to be findable, and you need to exercise responsibility and caution in your social media presence,” said Zubin.
First-year professional music student Ryan Sykes said he understands employers “may want to get a sense of a candidate’s online presence. So it’s reasonable for them to look through a person’s social media.”
Sykes added that he is confident in the way he posts on social media and understands that anything he may put out to the public can and will be seen by other people. “I’ve thought about how what I post online could impact my career and I’m quite mindful of what I share publicly just for that reason,” he said.
However, concerns that may arise from potentially being screened should not deter students from maintaining their regular social media activity as well as keeping an active online presence. A study conducted by TMU’s Centre for Immigration and Settlement backed up this idea with a conclusion that Canadians who use social media are about 2.3 times more likely to find employment than those who don’t.
Jacobson said that, in her classes, she encourages students to Google themselves to see what information is available about them online as well as if it’s something they would want a potential employer to see.
She also said it raises the issue of online self-presentation and highlights the importance of digital literacy in understanding and managing one’s online presence.
“Perhaps what’s online is not the impression that you would like to leave,” Jacobson said. “Try to curate the identity that you want to have online. So take control of that to see how others may perceive you and clarify what information you want to share.”
Tomasso said she feels it is important for people to keep in mind that anything they publish can be seen by possible employers and when applying for a job it’s best to be mindful of what you have put out on social media.
“I think that the way I post online is always with the mindset that anyone could see it,” said Tomasso.
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