Many managers and recruiters admit to conducting subtle social media checks on potential employees. However, few companies have unbiased screening processes that programmatically reduce risk and better support employees.
Why social media check?
Social media checking can be a sensitive topic, as with all background checking. The core driver is risk reduction.
In an article by Hamraj Gualamali, the risks associated with employees' online presence are explored in depth. He highlights how companies struggle to distance themselves from the online behaviour of their executive and leadership teams. For instance, if an employee is revealed to have discriminatory beliefs, the public may assume the entire company shares these views, which can severely damage the company's reputation.
Companies are increasingly struggling - ironically thanks to the rise of social media - to disassociate themselves in the eyes of the public from their executive and leadership teams. If one of your employees is a closet racist and gets outed whilst on the job, it is highly likely that people will assume you’re all closet racists, which you’re not (hopefully).
Sensitive to candidate privacy, robust for company risk
The crossover of privacy and risk mitigation is something we are acutely aware of in the subject of social media checks. We spoke to candidates, to understand how they felt about the prospects of a social media check. The main concerns were people scrolling their social media, most understood how if negative posts existed with their own, or their colleagues then this should be flagged to an employer.
How does it work?
Flag content that might may impact your companies risk
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Identifying social media accounts
- Zinc utilises additional matching identifiers to secure a more accurate match on profiles including:
- Full name
- Country
- Date of birth
What if their account is private?
Private information or content not intended for public view is as expected, off limits. Zinc adheres to platform specific and profile privacy settings.
Adding social media checks to your packages
For new packages, simply toggle on social media checks on creation. To add to the check to existing packages navigate to the package page to customise checks.
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Alternatively, contact your account manager for more information and to get started.
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