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November 15, 2007
Is It Wrong to Google Prospective Employees?
So asks Kris Dunn at the HR Capitalist:
Talking to a VP of HR I know and respect last week. Topic of googling candidates to find out more about them came up. Guess what? My friend told me that he has instructed his recruiters not to google candidates as he feels it's an intrusion of privacy and a potential legal risk.
Guess what my response was?
Right - "You are C.R.A.Z.Y.! Have you lost your mind?"
After diving a layer deeper in the conversation, it turns out my friend had attended a conference where someone talking about legal risks of making rejection decisions based on what you find online.
Kris suggests:
f you aren't googling, get in the game, skippy. Jump over to Secrets of the Job Hunt for the latest stats on googling candidates.
Your thoughts?
PS
November 15, 2007 in Labor and Employment News | Permalink
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Comments
Isn't the concern that, when you google someone and use that in making hiring decisions, (depending on what you find) you may open yourself to a discrimination claim?
Posted by: David | Nov 15, 2007 12:51:35 PM
it would matter what you find and rely on wouldn't it, and not the act of searching itself. what if you find they have been active in organizing campaigns in the past, or in a religious organization, or a gay and lesbian organization. You couldn't refuse to hire the people based on what you find, but in practice, it would be extremely difficult to prove this sort of thing, I'd think. maybe if ers start doing this, we'll see more slander actions targeting people who make comments that get posted on the web.
Posted by: david Doorey | Nov 16, 2007 8:17:37 AM
Invasion of privacy? How "private" is private today? For a fee you can find out just about anything about anyone online. This is just a new wrinkle in information gathering.
When one applies for a position one gives their Social Security number to enable the prospective employer to run a credit and criminal check. Why is Googling any different. It's just another layer for employers to protect the workplace.
Jim DeSantis
Posted by: Jim DeSantis | Nov 17, 2007 12:06:44 AM
