preview

Why Do Employees Need Social Media Discrimination?

Decent Essays

This made it illegal for employers to exclude pregnancy and childbirth from their sick leave and health benefits plans. But what policies are currently in place to protect a job seeker from social media discrimination by an inquisitive employer who using the findings in a damaging way. Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources at CareerBuilder, states, “Because social media is a dominant form of communication today, you can certainly learn a lot about a person by viewing their public, online personas…however, hiring managers and human resources departments have to make a careful, determined decision as to whether information found online is relevant to the candidates’ qualifications for the job.” Only a few years ago, employers reacted quickly (and perhaps hastily) to the development of social media and their employees’ use of social media. Initial policies were restrictive and negative basically not allowing the use of social media sites by employees at all possibly limiting the growth of the company. Recognizing employees’ increased use of social media as a business and networking tool, however, the typical employer’s reaction to employee use of social media shifted and tempered to some degree. Now, the typical social media policy provides employees with guidance on ‘‘best practices’’ for postings on the internet, whether such postings occur on a social media site, a blog, or any other public or private forum on the internet. Despite the problems created by the

Get Access