The advent of social media has enabled people to share with the world more information about their lives. Depending on the type of site, information can range from professional to personal. The most preferred site for employers seeking information on potential candidates is Linkedin. Linkedin often provides a chronology of the applicant's employment history, experience, endorsements from colleagues, as well as a listing of professional interests. Facebook is another common social media platform for many employees. It provides a view of the individual's leisure time activities including their social life (Headworth, 2016).
The foremost goal of an employer seeking to hire an employee is to find a candidate who is not only qualified academically but also one who is of recommendable character and personality. Interviews, pre-employment screening and psychometric and aptitude tests are some of the methods used to gain information about a potential employee. However, all these modes of evaluation may not give one an accurate picture of one’s true character, thus making it difficult for a potential employer to identify the right candidate for the job. Furthermore, to avoid wastage of time and finances due to high employee turn-overs, employers can therefore use social media to help provide more information about their potential employee (Landers & Schmidt, 2016).
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Though there are numerous ways in which social media can be of great benefit to any potential employee, it can also affect negatively on one’s job and professionalism. For instance, when an employee is considered the brand of an organization and yet posts negative remarks or images in their private or professional social networks. This is more likely to damage the reputation of the company since the employee is highly associated with the company, and many people are more likely to buy into whatever is aired by the employee regarding the company. Furthermore, an employee can strain their professional relationship with their supervisors when they tend to posts negative remarks about their bosses on their social platforms. Another example include that of an employee taking a sick off only later to post materials on social media that seem contrary to their claims ( Bryden & Salter, 2015).
Although the use of social media assists recruiters in identifying the right candidate, it tends to infringe on the candidate's personal space. Moreover, the information on social media is not always reliable since many people tend to share false information. Employers should therefore be more careful when using social media to retrieve more information about their potential candidates.
References
Bryden, C., & Salter, M. (2015). Social media in the workplace: A handbook . Bristol: Jordans Publishing.
Headworth, A. (2016). Social media recruitment: How to successfully integrate social media into recruitment strategy . Place of publication not identified: Kogan Page Stylus.
Landers, R. N., & In Schmidt, G. J. (2016). Social media in employee selection and recruitment: Theory, practice, and current challenges .
