How Social Media Can Affect The Hiring Process

The increase in social media in the last couple decades has taken a great deal of privacy out of our everyday lives. We can now get updates and see pictures of what other people are doing nearly every second of every day.

While this certainly has some positive effects, it certainly has some unintended consequences as well. Social media can help you stay connected to your peers and colleagues, but it also opens your life to an increased level of scrutiny.

When it comes to getting hired for a new job, you should be aware that your potential employer will most likely conduct a thorough background search in addition to searching your name in Google’s search engine and investigating your activity on various social media platforms.

For individuals, this means you must be a bit more guarded to maintain an acceptable appearance on social media. For human resources hiring departments, social media sites give them access to much more candidate information than they previously would’ve had at their fingertips.

Social media can be both advantageous and a disadvantage for both employers and potential employees as well. Here we have listed a few advantages and disadvantages in terms of how social media affects the hiring process:

Advantages

Traditionally, employers have mostly been limited to the information that candidates provide on their paper resumes. With the advent of social media, employers now have access to much more candidate information than before, including information regarding personal interests, social interactions, and even previous work samples.

From a job seekers standpoint, social media has made the task of finding a job much easier. It helps to streamline the job search process by allowing people to search jobs across hundreds of sites to find opportunities that meet their specific abilities.

The Internet and social media allows employers that are located in more remote areas or are looking for a niche skill set to greatly increase their access to potential employees. In the past, these businesses have traditionally relied upon advertising to find new candidates, but social media has all but wiped out the need to advertise positions through more traditional means.

Disadvantages

Employers must be careful with what types of information they are accessing through social media, as accessing the wrong type of information can actually lead to discrimination cases. In addition, a social media profile doesn’t always give the best overview of a potential employee, and you might make a decision without trying to get a glimpse at the candidate’s “bigger picture.”

For an employer that is trying to make comparisons between potential candidates in order to narrow things down enough to make a final decision, sorting through social media to make these comparisons can be extremely time consuming. If your company doesn’t have enough manpower this search process can quickly become exhaustive.

Because there is a great deal of information available out there on the Internet, it can be difficult for employers to refine their search enough to receive accurate results. If the job requires a specific skill set, it’s not always easier to use social networks to find the best fit for your company’s opening.

If you’ve found this list of advantages and disadvantages of integrating social media into the hiring process, you should read more key factors by following this link today! 

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