Human Resource Management Social Networking and Selection

Group Assignment

SUBJECT NAME:                HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
SUBJECT NO.:                21555
LECTURER:                        MARJORIE O’NEILL
TUTORIAL:                        TUESDAY 13:30
STUDENT NAMES:                JOHANNA BEARDER, 11520222

                                MARK FOLAN, 12132914

                                MINGTI LI, 11872177

                                MARIAM SOSAH, 11689460

                                ROSIE WILLSON, 11848025

                                MYAT NOE WIN, 10986709                

Overall word count:

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

6.3 SOCIAL NETWORKING AND SELECTION
- a question of ethics

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Recent surveys have showed that social networking sites (SNS) have become increasingly popular as a tool to screen and hire employees. . Employers argue that it gives them a more detailed understanding of the candidates as well as a way of avoiding the cost that arises when hiring the wrong person. However, potential employees question the ethics involved around using SNS to screen applicants due to invasion of privacy. This illustrates that an unfavourable profile, in the eyes of an employer, could lead to loss of employment. This report will discuss if recruiters have the right to view potential candidate’s SNS profiles and if it is the individual’s responsibility to make sure that their SNS accounts appears in a favourable and employable manner.

Question 1- Is it ok for recruiters to actively search candidate’s profiles on SNS?

In modern society, technology plays a critical role in the day-to-day lives of individuals, including employers.  According to Boyd and Ellison (2007), a social networking site is an online service which allows individuals to build a public or semi-public profile on a restricted system, such as Facebook and Myspace. Due to the open and online nature of SNS, it has made it relatively easy for employers to search and gather information about potential employees. Schoeing and Kleisinger (2010) state that some employers see the public nature of SNS as a given ‘right’ to access potential employees profiles before making their hiring decision. Recruiter’s argue that SNSs can be used as a tool to avoid costly mistakes by hiring the wrong candidate. Using SNS give recruiters a much more detailed perception of potential employees, compared with traditional screening methods, such as resumes and reference checks (Brown & Vaughn 2011). Furthermore, Smith and Kidder (2010) suggest that recruiters may look on SNS in order to find out information about potential candidates as a way of starting conversation about a particular topic they are interested in. A sample question for an interview could potentially be; “I see you love animals. Have you ever done any volunteer work with animals?”  

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