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| Online image and how your portray yourself is becoming very important for your career path. |
Social media is the new major internet craze ever since the dot-com bubble, whilst the latter ended with large number of companies going from boom to bust in the space of three years, the social media phenomenon has seen social networks with original concepts and ingenious ideas going from strength to strength. Social media is here to stay, but with its strong influence and stature, inevitably it will cause major changes in how businesses see and do things. How social media is affecting people's employability and job security will be the subject we will touching on today.
Social Media Monitoring Can Be Used Against You
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| Having unseemly pictures of yourself on social networks will not warm you towards recruiters. |
When we talk about social media monitoring it means to monitor and measure the social activity of a company or an organisation, but in this case we will be looking at how companies and recruitment agencies use social media to review their employees' conduct, and how they are using job candidates' social activity to vet them through the recruitment process.
Social Media Monitoring Recruitment Process
In the past, when we talk about an individual's employability we will be looking at their knowledge, skills and abilities, but social media has become a tool to assessing a candidate's suitability for a given role. Instead of simply evaluating the curriculum vitae and cover letter for applicants, more and more recruiters are using Facebook to do a thorough research on individuals.
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| The infographic by Jobvite highlights recruiters' sentiments to a candidate's profile. |
In the US there are worries from privacy advocates with employers demanding access to candidates' Facebook logins. There will always be a limitation of how far social media vetting can go, but without a doubt your social activity will be definitely scrutinised, so it is vital that individuals be careful of the negative social media footprints they leave behind.
Although privacy concerns remain on the top of many people's agenda, there are positives to it. Personal social media profiles can be used as an additional selling point to land a job, by giving a positive and social self, candidates can warm themselves to the recruiter and win some brownie points to land that important interview.
Social Media Monitoring Your Employees' Conduct
Not only are job prospects finding themselves under scrutiny, but current employees are being monitored as well. In May, a civil servant was sacked for using Facebook during office hours and in another incident aftermisuse of social media led to council staff being warned of future misconduct that would lead to severe penalties.
In most circumstances, employers do not intrude into the lives of their employees. However, if an employee commits an act that would damage the employer/company's reputation it would lead to the employee's position in the company untenable. Let's see some of the things we should best avoid.
- Ranting about the company/superior/colleague/customers/partners/affiliates
- Disclosing classified/confidential information of a third party
- Racial Slurs/Profanity
- Sexual/Violent Imagery
- Party/Alcoholic Imagery
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| A wrong move can take you down the path of despair...being fired. |
All employers and companies expect from their staff is to conduct themselves accordingly as expected of a professional. Even though people are out of the work place after working hours and should be allowed to do whatever they desire, they have to remember they remain a representative of their company. So long as they are under the payroll of the flagship, they belong as a part of that entity. There will be many questioning whether the line between work and personal life are becoming blurred, but in actuality the line has never really existed.
What do you think?
Do you believe recruiters should evaluate candidates base on their social media footprints? Is there still a blurred line between work and personal life?
