According to a US survey by Careerbuilder.com (source, marketing charts) – 45% – so nearly half, of employers check up on potential staff on social networks.
Nearly half of employers look up job candidates on social networks…but your tweets are probably safe
http://www.socialmediatoday.com/SMC/122992
Mon Sep 14 2009 21:18:28 GMT+1000 (AUS Eastern Standard Time)
Welcome to the albatross. This blog has been a chronicle of ideas, some sound, some bad, some plain wrong, and others just simply plain. It’s hosted the controversial rebuttal to the Pear Analytics, a complete mundane ad for a seminar, and a ludicrious treaty on Ewoks in short succession. In that regard, it’s a good reflection of my life, my work and my odd habit of deeply analysing pop culture for eosteric outcomes.
But it’s not me. This is no more a case study in Stephen Dann than my facebook page, livejournal, twitter, e-mail, sock drawer or publications record is a true and accurate version of who I am, what I’d be like to have as an employee, and how I’d fit into your corporate environment. If you think it is, I’d suggest re-reading the HR coursework until you come across the criticisms of single item metrics, and the limited value of profiling based on personality tests to develop effective work place staff profiles.
I put things on this site at my discretion, and quite frequently, I’m not that discrete. The Trebuchet List stands as a proud testament to my own recognition that I have limits, weaknesses, and no earthly legitimate use for a trebuchet. The stories I tell about escaping from security are there to inform, entertain, and maybe pass on a trick or two to a new generation. What do I think they say about me to potential employers? It says that I have a risk taking profile, that I can think laterally, and that I probably shouldn’t be left unsupervised in the Classics Museum at night. That, or I’ve got the creative streak to talk my way out of trouble, and the controlled risk adherance that makes me a good researcher because I’ll try something new, unique, and within the bounds of my own limits.
And what don’t employers want to see on there? 53% of bosses that trawl through social media turned people down for posting “provocative or inappropriate photographs” (inappropriate according to who?) while 44% didn’t give someone a job because they were drinking or using drugs.
Nearly half of employers look up job candidates on social networks…but your tweets are probably safe
http://www.socialmediatoday.com/SMC/122992
Mostly though, what I think it says to potential employers is that they should be asking themselves why they’re running background checks in Google. If you wouldn’t pull a police profile or hire a private detective, then don’t do the amateur equivalent of snooping a Facebook profile, or camping a blog, twitter stream or other social media site. If you’re going to sack someone for having too much of a good time at a party on the weekend, stop and ask whether you had paid them overtime to behave in your chosen manner after work finished. If you didn’t, then you don’t own that time. It’s a job that extends from the start of the shift to the end of the shift, and if you’re not paying, you’re not in control of the employee’s afterwork and extra curricular activity. You want that control? Buy it.
As we get more data into our permanent records on the internet, there’s also going to be a shift in how we view the debris of our youth, and the detritus of our social activity. Sure, my Facebook page clearly shows that I play Bejewelled during office hours. It also shows that my office hours for research have stretched well beyond the mandated 40 hour working week we expect to perform for the pay cheque. Do we hear stories of the bosses who promoted the employee because they updated Facebook to say “Working back late with the team to get this project out on time”, or Twittered “Can’t make the booze up. Deadlines take priority”.
No?
Why not? If we’re going to sack because of social media, we have to be prepared to promote and praise on the face value of the same messages we’d use for dismissing someone. (And my advice for young players is to post work-positive related tweets, status updates and corporate function photos when you’re applying for work. If they’re going to be sneaky and google you, be sneakier and lay out the best social media PR traps)
Now if anyone needs me, it’s late evening on a weeknight and I’m going to do some awesome project work for this killer excellent employer of mine.
