Looking at candidates’ social media profiles as a recruiter: Think twice!

By Jovina Ang

SMU Office of Research & Tech Transfer– At least 7 out of 10 recruiters routinely conduct social media checks because it is perceived that a person’s social media profile provides unfiltered, honest and raw depiction of a person’s character. Thus, it is a good gauge for assessing organisational fit and avoiding a bad hire.

That finding is part of the results of a survey by employment website CareerBuilder, which also shows that 57 percent of recruiters would not interview a candidate if he or she does not have an online presence. And 54 percent of recruiters would reject a candidate based on what they see on the candidate’s social media profiles.

“Despite the popularity of social media checks, there exists little empirical evidence about its effectiveness,” Professor Filip Lievens told the Office of Research and Tech Transfer.He continued: “Given little is known about the effectiveness of social media checks, we wanted to delve deeper into the issue.

“And we were able to show that social media checks are not a good idea in a research paper that was recently published in the prestigious Journal of Applied Psychology,” Professor Lievens added. “Unlike most background checks, social media checks do not verify job-related information. Social media checks also cannot predict future job performance or employee retention. Instead, these checks are typically used to reject candidates based on a subjective recruiter reaction and/or bias.”

The research

The team of researchers who conducted this insightful research included researchers from the top universities in the United States and Australia, and Professor Lievens, SMU’s Lee Kong Chian Professor of Human Resources. The team conducted three studies which examined the Facebook data of two sample groups. The first sample included 266 job seekers in the United States, and the second sample comprised 140 graduating university students.

The research was designed to address three specific research questions:

1. What type of personal information is disclosed on social media?
2. Is there a relationship between social media assessment and recruiter evaluation of the job seekers’ hireability?
3. And can social media assessments predict job performance and retention levels?

The results

Of the social media profiles examined in the first study, it was found that demographic information such as age, marital status, religion, sexual orientation was often disclosed. Additionally, other information including information that might lead the recruiter to pre-judge or dismiss the candidate was posted. For example, information on substance use was found in 26 percent and 55 percent of the profiles of the job seekers and university students respectively. Negatively perceived information such as sexually related behaviour, gambling and profanity was also readily found on the social media profiles.

The second study, which examined data from the university students, showed the presence of recruiters’ hireability bias even when they were informed of the job seekers’ suitability for the job. For example, recruiters rated women higher than men. Those who were in a relationship were rated higher than singles. Older job seekers were favoured compared to younger candidates. And those who did not disclose their religious affiliations were rated higher than those who did.

The third study showed that the recruiter bias was detrimental to the recruitment process. When the supervisors of the 81 university students who subsequently found jobs were surveyed twelve months later, no link (correlation) was found between the recruiters’ social media assessments and the employees’ future job performance.

Advice to recruiters

With this in mind, Professor Lievens’ advice to recruiters is: “Be aware of looking at candidates’ social media profiles. So, think twice before doing this. This research shows that social media checks do not verify nor do they predict job-related performance or retention levels.”

He also cautioned about “the inherent risks of social media checks as they would inadvertently reveal ‘out-of-bounds’ information including about age, marital status, religion, sexual orientation.”

He added: “Gaining access to this personal and private data could potentially put your company in a legal and an ethical crossfire, and expose your company to a potential breach of privacy laws or affirmative action and discrimination acts that exist in many countries.

“Thus, social media checks are a ‘lose-lose’ thing to do. You may lose a qualified candidate who could do the job because of a bias or subjective reaction to what you see.”

However, Professor Lievens has this to say about the trend of social media checks: “It is unlikely that the practice of social media checks would decrease. Rather, it is likely this practice would increase especially when more recruiters are turning to social media rather than job boards to find candidates.”

Advice to job seekers

In light of this, his advice to job seekers is: “If you are looking for a job, make sure you maintain a professional brand presence. And don’t forget to set your settings to private, to keep your private affairs from the prying eyes of potential recruiters.

“However, if you do not wish to make your profiles private, please remember to do the periodic spring-cleaning as you don’t want your excessive selfies, your views on controversial matters, or bad writing draw the attention of recruiters as these are some of the reasons why recruiters pre-judge or dismiss your candidacy.”

Back to Research@SMU Aug 2021 Issue