WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU THOUGHT ABOUT SOMEONE FROM YOUR PAST? DID YOU LOOK THEM UP ON THE INTERNET TO SEE WHAT THEY ARE DOING? HOW EASY IS IT TO RECONNECT WITH FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES FROM THE PAST, AND THEN LOOK AT THEIR NETWORK TO SEE WHO YOU KNOW?
THE INTERNET CAN BE YOUR BEST FRIEND OR YOUR WORST ENEMY WHEN IT COMES TO MANAGING YOUR CAREER.
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By Angelica Wytch
he fact is, employers have jobs they cannot fill because workers do not have the skills required. For the last two decades there have been skill shortages throughout the United States in engineering, technology, and some medical professions. Traditionally these shortages were filled by sponsoring HB-1 visas to fill the gap or outsource work to a country where the talent pool is larger. Since the collapse of the economy and difficulties obtaining work visas, staffing professionals face this new challenge of finding qualified candidates by turning to social media. Staffing professionals are identifying very specific business needs, targeting niche markets with industry groups and bulletin boards and looking for key skill sets to identify viable candidates through social media data searches such as Signal, an application for searching content within LinkedIn. They want to connect with people that are positive, show leadership qualities, demonstrate an ability to communicate and above all are approachable. www.Reppler.com provides some basic guidelines on what recruiters look for: Candidates Pursued: • provides positive impression of personality and organizational fit • profile content supported qualifications in resume • demonstrates creativity • demonstrates good communication skills • candidate appears well rounded • candidate has good recommendations posted by others • candidate received awards and accolades Candidates Eliminated: • lying about qualifications • inappropriate photographs • inappropriate comments • demonstrates poor communication skills • comments excessive drinking/drug use • talking negatively about former employer • discussing former employers confidential information • discriminating comments
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I ran a personal background check through www. Reppler.com, limiting the content to just Facebook. Over the past several weeks, Zynga games had various guests surrounding alcohol. Because accomplishments and requests for items to complete game quests appeared on my profile, the algorithm identified me using excessive alcohol highlighting the post updates where I was “looking for a green beer,” “looking for nails to complete Kelly’s Tavern,” and giving away Bourdon turkeys. When I added other social media sites to the search criteria, my overall rating increased and it suddenly reconfigured not detecting my virtual alcohol problem. My test run of social media background checks lead me to believe that the more solid content you have, the less likely you are to raise a red flag. There is already a lot of buzz surrounding the automated process for gathering information and whether or not the law should intervene in determining if the information flagged was taken out of context unfairly labeling the individual. I am reaching out to readers to run a free background check and share with us the accuracies and inaccuracies you find at info@digthisreal.com.
CONTROVERSY ON SOCIAL MEDIA BACKGROUND CHECKS
In the recent news, there was a big outcry about employers demanding social media passwords from employees. Despite multiple warnings from both human resource professional organizations and the legal community, employees and job applicants refusing to provide the information suffered adverse action. New York Senator Charles Schumer (D) and Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal (D) asked the Department of Justice to investigate the legality of this practice. The House passed Bill 433 and is currently under Senate Review. Individual States did not want to wait for the Federal ruling and began drafting their own legislation. The State of Maryland is the first to pass a law prohibiting employers from demanding access to private information with several other States following suit. If passed, the bill is designed to protect employees from having to produce any password to give an employer access
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to password-protected digital content while protecting employers giving them a shield against lawsuits. The second controversy in the news is the very nature of social media background checks. Third party companies are emerging that run algorithms to identify key words that are considered at risk. In one report, a man was labeled as a domestic terrorist, “shooter waiting to happen,” because he joined a social media group, “Press 1 for English,” and espoused discontent with automated call centers. The background check identified the individual as intolerant of other languages and cultures. Think about what happens if a woman excitedly reports to her network, “I’m pregnant!” If she applied for a job, the employer could easily think, “mandatory time off coming soon,” and disqualify the candidate. Although reports assure that third party social media companies go to great strides to block out any identifying characteristics that might conflict with EEOC laws, there are no guidelines in place and employers run the risk of making decisions based on these facts.
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