Employers Access Facebook Profiles to Make Assumptions. Effective or not?

You might have noticed that there is quite a lot of hullabaloo about a new screening practice some employers are using – getting a candidates Facebook username and password to assess suitability for hire. I suspect this is an uncommon practice that has just gotten an inordinate amount of media attention. Never the less I have seen quite a bit of conversation about the morality and legality of this process. No need for me to cover that here.

However, I did wonder: would accessing a potential candidates Facebook account aid employers in making better hiring decisions? I would imagine that potential employers would want to look at an employee to ensure that they are not engaging in activity that would be harmful to the company and to learn about the person’s personal preferences to see if those preferences are consistent with the company’s values. I think the approach has some positives and negatives that should be considered.

Helpful Assumptions

• Glass Half Full or Empty? There is some compelling research that points to a person’s outlook on life has a dramatic effect on job performance. The assumption is that if I expect to find a solution or get along with a difficult customer I am more likely to see opportunities to accomplish that result. Looking at someone’s Facebook posts for a trend toward optimism or pessimism, could point to some insight into an applicant’s outlook on life.
• How you do anything is how you do everything? How we choose to spend our time speaks volumes about who we are as a person and it is a reasonable assumption that someone who strives for getting things right and is intelligent in their discussions in their personal life will do so at work. Posts like “Another Habitat for Humanity project complete!” and “stayed up until 2 AM getting my bathroom tiling project just perfect” communicate about someone’s values. So does “Thank God it is Friday! I finally get a break from my awful job.” and “I have to stop going to work hung over.”

Deceptive Assumptions

• Likes can be misleading. One employee in our office is a very intelligent and hard working. She is very customer service focused and great with our corporate clients and candidates alike. She is also a huge Heavy Metal fan. Now, I am not afraid to admit it, I have some preconceived impressions of people who like that genre of music. Had I had known that this employee was into that before I hired her I could have made some assumptions about her that are not necessarily true.
• I haven’t been 18 for some time now. I will never forget walking down the street with a girlfriend when we bumped into someone I went to High School with. I stopped to catch up with my old friend and after we were done talking and went on our way my girlfriend turned to me and said “Who are you?” Apparently I had reverted to my thick New York accent without noticing it and seeing my old friend brought all of that back. Now a lot of my Facebook “friends” are people how I have not had any face time with in the last 20 years. To a certain extent my conversations with those people are stuck where we left off. I have learned a lot in the last 20 years and if someone were to judge me from comments my high school friends make about me they would be seriously misled.
• Don’t hire in your own image. This is some of the best hiring advice I have received. I shudder to think of what Wall Street Services would look like if everyone who worked here was exactly like me. The diversity of our thoughts, strengths and weaknesses make our team successful, entrepreneurial and adaptive. Yet if I saw that someone had political views that were violently opposed to mine, I can’t say it wouldn’t have an impact on my hiring decision. So just because someone supports the Tea Party or Occupy Wall Street does it mean that they will be an effective employee? No, it doesn’t but having the knowledge would impact hiring decisions.

So, when I take a look at this objectively I can see that there are some potential benefits to the practice – you can get some information about someone’s character. And character is important. However, there are other and easier ways to determine if someone is optimistic, honest, hard working, etc. Not to mention, ways that will not alienate and most likely drive away potential hires. Also, the cons mitigate any potential value. There is too much deceptive information or things we can see that muddy the waters of our decision making with things we might feel strongly about that have no relevance on hiring. When we look at someone’s most personal and irreverent communications there is bound to be strong reactions but they will not speak to performance.

What do you think?

Peter Laughter, CEO
Wall Street Services
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(Photo via InsideFacebook.com)