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Social Media Usage to Screen Potential Employees Essays

Decent Essays

In 2007, seven employees of the Farm Boy grocery store chain were fired when found partaking in derogatory discussion concerning the Canadian based company and its customers. The discussions were held on the immensely popular social networking website, Facebook, within a group titled “I got Farm Boy’d.” Not only did the group page contain the slanderous comments, but it also featured a picture of the Farm Boy logo surrounded by a red circle with a slash through the center (“Ottawa Citizen”). It’s unfortunate that this company was so poorly represented by these employees. However, studies suggest this type of behavior can be predicted and thusly avoided via pre-screening of potential employees’ social media profiles. It is better for both …show more content…

The latter qualities are quite attractive and show the character of a great employee. However, these attractive characteristics may be harder to come by than the unattractive ones. The sharing of photos picturing wild, late-night college parties, alcohol consumption, and new tattoos or piercings is becoming commonplace in social media. Though they may vary in degree, none are the particularly “good” traits that one would expect to find in a good employee. Practices such as these should stand out as “red flags” that are not typically desired by employers. Other, more subtle, red flags include: obvious mood swings, overly emotional postings, and overly personal content. All of these, potentially detrimental, characteristics can be detected, and avoided, easily with a quick review of a candidate’s social media profile(s). Social media gives employers the opportunity to see the true image of how candidates behave in a variety of real social situations, rather than the glimpse provided by the typical 20-30 minute, staged interview, in which the candidate will most likely behave differently anyways due to nervousness or stress. This can give great insight to what it will be like to work alongside a candidate. Employers invest a great amount of trust and resources when hiring employees. Social media should be used in order to distinguish

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