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Social Media Passwords: Where Should Draw The Line

Since the first articles were recently published on the questionable practice used by some recruiters and employers demanding Facebook sign-in credentials from job-seekers, or asking to be added as a “friend”, similar reports have surfaced from Canada and the UK. This all started when job-seeking candidates in the US complained that they were asked during interviews to provide login details for their Facebook account or log into their Facebook accounts on a company computer, so recruiters can comb through their accounts later.

As more people have stepped forward and shared their experiences, it is becoming clear that these incidents are not limited to a particular geography or industry. It does, however, point out that those few who have ventured into such unethical and arguably illegal hiring practices, are totally clueless and living in a different universe, when it comes to dealing with the paradigm shift that is caused by social media.

The truth is that recruiting and hiring practices have gone through unprecedented changes over the last few years, largely due to shifting economic trends and the proliferation of social media, which is fast evolving into the most dominant way for businesses to communicate with stakeholders. The above mentioned behavior of some recruiters or employers highlights their ignorance and a general lack of understanding of the social networking paradigm. In addition to being unethical and illegal, this practice is a “band-aid” solution to somehow cover social media in an otherwise old-fashioned and ineffective recruiting process.

For progressive companies, social media is already playing a big role in recruitment. These organizations understand that there is a smarter way to engage candidates via the proper use of social media practices. It is a fact that more talented people are likely to be found on social media platforms (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.) than anywhere else. Old-fashioned job-boards and expensive traditional practices are simply not able to bring in the right candidates to fill open positions.

In order to take proper advantage of social media, organizations need the ability to create ongoing engagement with their talent communities. By sharing jobs with their networks in a targeted way and using the power of social media to source qualified referrals, organizations can cut the time it takes to find great candidates, do it more efficiently and optimize on the cost per hire.

Simplicant’s recruiting platform is the cloud-based solution that provides the needed functionality to leverage social media in recruiting. It is the top choice for many growing companies for social recruiting, referral-based hiring, applicant tracking, hiring collaboration, targeted publishing to job-boards and many powerful features.

Simplicant’s cloud-based recruiting platform easily integrates into your hiring processes. Request a demo today and see for yourself.

Photo by Solen Feyissa on Unsplash