Johnny Taylor Jr. is the President and CEO of RushmoreDrive.com. He was recently featured on Human Resources iQ in an interview regarding Social Media in Human Resources. The full interview can be found here. Taylor explains that “more and more recruiters are using these sites to obtain a better understanding of the personality and lifestyle of potential job candidates that could positively or negatively influence their position in the organization”.
One of the first questions asks whether an “employer’s use of social media…as a recruiting strategy” is a violation of privacy. I completely agree with Taylor in his position on this, which is that people create their own accounts and post their own content freely. If someone chooses to make information available online to the public, this public includes potential employers. This is why social media users should be conscious of what they are posting online and why online presence has become an issue for discussion.
Taylor describes what human resource professionals are looking for on social media sites. “Employers are trying to increase our chances of finding the right ‘fit’ in our organization (fitness meaning technical credentials and cultural/values fit)”. While there are definitely aspects of one’s life that should not be used as criteria for employment, employers and recruiters can sometimes form opinions of a potential employee depending on what they choose to post online.
The interviewer also asked Taylor, “How much of an influence do these social networking sites have on an employer’s decision to hire job candidates?” Taylor states that although “human resources departments aren’t surfing social networks as a common part of their recruitment process”, they “are increasingly turning to them (especially for new college graduates)”. He does explain that “it’s not at all uncommon for applicants and employers to conduct a quick Google search on someone in advance of an interview”. He also explains that information found by recruiters on social networks is not the only information used in the hiring process.
Taylor finishes off the interview by advising applicants to “assume your parents access your social network every day – so no lies, compromising pictures, etc.” This seems like sound advice to me; however, my entire family- including my in-laws are on facebook, so I am already practicing this.
