The Role of Social Media in the Hiring Process: Balancing Transparency and Privacy

In our world today, which's driven by the advent of technology and its innovation across all spheres of life, we've come to see different occasions where different mediums are scrutinized to vet their potential employees and already existing staff, and one way they do that is via such individuals social media accounts, information, and interactions. This has raised eyebrows as to whether such is ideal or not and if it should be curbed or given more green light going forward, and today I'll love to share my take on the subject matter.

In truth, the need for privacy can never be downplayed, and neither should anyone be intruding on our private lives or information. However, when it comes to accessing our social media, such as information we already put up on our social media accounts and the interactions we had online, many people are of the opinion that such shouldn't be a yardstick or criteria to judge an individual when it comes to employing or not.   And personally, I feel like there's no big deal in organizations having access to explore the information we already made known to the general public online. The good thing about this for organizations is that they get to know you for who you truly are when no one is vetting you. Through the years, we've come to see many people exhibit different characters depending on where they find themselves, like a different personality when they're online that's totally different from their actual personality in person.   And what's the best way to know who you're bringing into your team than to find out what they're doing online, the kind of conversation they hold, and how they react to things they're not on the same terms with? You can imagine an organization where we created an opening to recruit new staff, and one of those who applied for the job is someone who has relentlessly criticized their products on several occasions online, and now the same person is trying to join the team. Such a situation could go both ways.

but I believe regardless of whether they manage to convince the individual to use the same social media space to sing their praise, the audience would still have a second thought, like the fact that the person is only saying that because he now works for them.   So, in a nutshell, I believe organizations can get more background insights about an individual and help them know the person better. An organization can also use the social media profile of an individual to verify the information they provide, such as their age, academics, and job history, and this can also expose loopholes for lies. Additional profiles and ways the person interacts online can give companies a heads-up on whether the individual will fit in well and also expose the behavioral red flags of their potential employees.    On the other hand, I believe some of the drawbacks of these are that it's an invasion of someone's privacy without their consent; it can also lead to biased judgment and unfair judgment; using the social media profile to judge can also lead to misinterpretations of some information and interactions that might totally differ from what the individual actually meant.

Generally, I really don't see a big deal in organizations using social media profiles to vet their employees, but such should be done moderately without any form of misinterpretation or biased judgement, as well as respecting their privacy as much as possible. So, in a nutshell, it's best if an organization seeks consent before delving into such, and I believe the continuous requirements of this would make individuals more polite, portray themselves well, and curate their profile in the best way possible.

That's about all of my take on the subject matter. Have a wonderful day ahead, and stay blessed.

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