by Natalie Beck

Should job applicants be worried about what their friends on MySpace, Facebook, or LinkedIn may say about them to potential employers? If they are applying to the company the gentleman referenced in this article works for, then maybe. But is it a good practice for this guy to be secretly contacting his candidates’ friends on these sites to get the dirt on them? Absolutely not! If you are an avid reader of our blog, you know the reasons why. But if you are new to our site or just want a refresher course on why using social networking sites to vett your potential employees is a bad idea, click here for our in depth coverage of this topic.

Applying For A Job? Clean Yourself Up On Facebook

Forget the resume. Background checks are going cyber. Chances are your potential employer is logging on to Facebook to check you out. And that means you may want to look carefully at who your friends are.

More and more companies and recruiters are using social networking sites like Facebook or Linked In to check out applicants and to talk to their list of contacts and friends.

Tiana Barci is looking for a job right now. She had no idea companies could be looking at her Facebook page and her messages to friends.

“I wouldn’t want someone I was trying to get a job with asking these random strangers things about me they might just make something up and then that looks bad on me and then I lose basically, ” says Barci.

Employers will often look at your top ten results on Google. And from Google, you can find people with a Facebook or a Linked In profile. That’s what Gabe Bodner does. He’s a mortgage broker for a South Bay company.

“I’ll typically just type in somebody’s name, a candidate’s name into Google and see if there’s anything that pops up,” says Bodner.

Bodner has never contacted an applicant’s friends on Facebook or Linked In, but he won’t rule out doing it.

More

by Jason Morris

If all reporters read the employeescreen University Blog ,stories like this would be more interesting and full of facts! We have written countless times about using social networking sites to conduct background checks. This story focuses more on the recruiter using it as a tool, still a bad practice but not a violation of the FCRA.

By Samantha Anderson

COLORADO SPRINGS - There’s a growing tend in the number of employers going above and beyond the resume to check on potential candidates.

More and more employers are using social networking sites, such as Myspace and Facebook, during the hiring process.

Management recruiter, Ken Cantin, uses these sites as tools to get know his recruits. “It’s a lot easier for an employer when they can see what someone looks like.”

Job Analyst, Steve Fehl, said employers “want to see if you are the kind of person who’s going to fit into our culture, our environment, and are you going to be able to interact?”

But what happens when there’s just a little too much information on your web site?

More

by Nick Fishman

If you’re sick of having to go to countless websites to keep up with all of your social networking, Spokeo is a great tool. It searches your friends’ blogs and photos across 40 social networks so you don’t have to visit hundreds of websites individually. Great concept for hiring professionals (or anyone) interested in keeping up with your friends.

When Good Concepts Go Wrong

Our inside sources (I’ve always wanted to say that) tell us that Spokeo is getting ready to market this service to employers so that they can aggregate data on their job applicants and employees as part of the background checking process. Good idea? Not if you’re interested in staying out of a court room!

Since many of you have read the cautionary advice we’ve provided about using Social Networking sites in your employment screening practices, I’ll spare you the lengthy diatribe. However, you need only read the Fair Credit Reporting Act, FACT Act and, or the myriad anti-discrimination laws to know that this is most definitely not a good hiring practice.

Spokeo may want to revisit their newest marketing strategy or provide indemnification to employers for any lawsuits that arise by employees and job candidates who were terminated or rejected based on the information they provided.

by Jason Morris

As an avid reader of The Drudge Report I came across this story….I’m insulted!! I can’t believe that Senator McCain and his Staff don’t read our blog! If the Senator from Arizona and Presidential hopeful did read our various posts, he would find that conducting background checks on sites such as Google is a big no no.

Ok, I am over-reacting, but our loyal readers know that using sites like Google is a bad idea when hiring an employee. We have written about it ad nauseum. I am positive that when Senator McCain looks to really vet his VP Candidate, he will go beyond this basic, unreliable, non-FCRA complaint tool! Maybe he will call employeescreenIQ???

McCain says using Google to vet VP candidates

RICHMOND, Virginia (Reuters) - It turns out choosing a vice president isn’t that complicated after all.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain joked on Monday that Google, the popular Internet search engine, had made investigating his list of potential candidates a little bit easier.

“You know, basically it’s a Google,” he said to laughter at a fund-raising luncheon when asked how the selection process was going. “What you can find out now on the Internet — it’s remarkable.”

Vice presidential candidates go through rigorous screening to determine whether they would help a White House aspirant in a general election — and to make sure there is nothing in their background that could be damaging down the road.

More

by Nick Fishman

We came across an article that we feel provides faulty information to the public. “On The Hunt for Information” comes to us from a Bowling Green University student newspaper, so we’ll give a slight pass to the publishers for not doing all their homework. However, it’s out there, so I’d like to deal with the insinuation that relying on Social Networking sites such as Facebook and My Space to aid the employment background screening process is a good practice. This is bad advice and those that use this type of information are begging for litigation.

We’ve opined on this issue extensively in the past, but thought it might be helpful to reiterate our thoughts. The practice of using Social Networking sites is a clear violation of a Consumers Rights under the FCRA and has the potential to raise the ire of the EEOC. There is no way to verify that the information found on such sites is in fact accurate, so if an employer makes an adverse decision based on erroneous information there is no way for the applicant to dispute. Secondly, how do employers make consistent hiring decisions based on the depth of information available on these sites?

Next are the potential opportunities for discrimination or at least the appearance of it. People post things such as religious beliefs, sexual orientation, political views, etc. Pictures obviously allow others to see skin color, and personal characteristics such as piercings, tattoos, and the like. Do employers want to defend themselves against such claims when they reject applicants after they’ve perused their Facebook profile?

SmartMoney magazine recently conducted an interview with employment attorney Jeanine DeBacker on this very topic. Her concerns with this practice include the following:

• Younger applicant’s (those that would be most affected) are unaware of the impact of posted questionable behavior and, or unaware of what is accepted in the professional world
• Hiring decisions can be influenced by personal judgment, including prohibited criteria (sexual orientation, for example)
• Is the information contained online a real predictor of future work behavior?

View the full article here. http://www.smartmoney.com/theproshop/index.cfm?story=20071213

What can we recommend to job applicants?

• Some employers are using Social Networking sites are part of their background screening procedures
• Job Applicants (especially younger ones) should be careful about what they post on Social Networking sites and keep a watchful eye on what others post about them

What can we recommend to employers?

• Do your homework on this issue and make sure you are aware of the myriad liabilities involved
• Careful of what you read out there. The article found in the Bowling Green newspaper does an adequate job of highlighting the issue, but does not tell the whole story

by Jason Morris

As long as you keep reading them, I will keep posting stories about why employers should not use social networking sites when hiring people. Do Employers Using Facebook for Background Checks Face Legal Risks? is a legal blog the following story was written by Carolyn Elefant. Look for more in depth articles to hit employeescreen University in the coming months!

Do Employers Using Facebook for Background Checks Face Legal Risks?

As employers increasingly turn to social networking sites like Facebook to conduct background checks on job applicants and employees, a potential face-off is brewing regarding the legality of this practice, according to reports from Financial Week and The New York Daily News. Long ago, most employers stopped requiring applicants to submit photographs or inquiring about marital status or age to avoid accusations that they rejected a candidate for discriminatory reasons. Now, social networking profiles make this once off-limits information readily available, thus reopening the potential for liability. And demographic data isn’t the only concern for employers. Facebook profiles may also include information about employees’ political activities, a factor that employers are prohibited from considering under most states’ laws.

More