Privacy – it’s a word we hear all the time in the news nowadays. Whether it’s the latest data breach or yet another round of new privacy settings on Facebook, we can’t get away from it. Our social media team recently came across this opinion piece in The New York Times, which asks the question: is using Facebook page likes to determine candidate quality an invasion of privacy? According to the piece, a new study suggests that an algorithm can predict your personality based on all your different Facebook likes. Personality traits and culture fit are important when it comes to hiring, but is this going too far? Here’s where we stand:
Andrew Rojahn, Senior Social Media Specialist
I say stay away – far away – from this approach. Until there’s a service that can compile this data appropriately, we wouldn’t want to find ourselves in hot water with this. I could see it rolling out of control with claims that an organization discriminated against a group that falls under a protected status.
Having said that, I am confident this data will eventually become a standard for recruiting. Thinking back to my job search days, I can’t remember how many different assessments I took. This will just be a new, automated assessment. Is it fool-proof? No. I like both “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” and volunteering – what does that mean to a company? So, as these tools are developed, take them all with a grain of salt – they won’t be perfect, but they may make your job easier as a recruiter.
Molly Perszyk, Senior Social Media Specialist
As we continue to see the face of our workforce change and as the millennial generation continues to grow, personality and personal interests are going to become a more prevalent part of the hiring process. The old adage “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know” will evolve to “it’s who you know and do they like you?” Having an enjoyable work life with coworkers you like is becoming more and more important in job satisfaction.
I don’t think there will ever be a time when the public is ok with companies or the government targeting them in any way based on their online activity, but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen. I think it will go both ways, though. Employers will use social media to gauge the personality of candidates and candidates will go to social media to look at the type of people they may be working with. Having candidates take an assessment test before getting hired has become a norm; I think using social media activity in the hiring decision will become just as common place.
Abby Thompson, Social Media Specialist
Does evaluating a candidate by their Facebook likes or a computerized personality assessment provide an accurate evaluation of their potential performance? I don’t believe so, simply because it makes the whole process very impersonal and reduces candidates to an evaluation of their online behavior. On one hand, I do think that looking for patterns and red flags while evaluating a candidate can provide helpful insight into their potential performance issues, but as we all know, who you are online isn’t always indicative of you will be in the workplace. Overall, I think this computerized assessment method toes the line of online privacy and raises some great points about how we are being pursued online during a job search, but it cannot be the end game for evaluating the fit for a candidate in the workplace.
Alan Herrera, Social Media Intern
In my opinion, social media sites such as Facebook do reflect one’s personality and interests. From your likes, shares, comments and tags, recruiters are able to evaluate your personality online. That said, I ask you to evaluate a scenario in which an individual is applying to work with children and is part of a vulgar Facebook fan page. Yes, individuality and privacy is important – however, would you, as a recruiter, want someone whose personal values go against the brand you represent?
We’re all in agreement that personality assessments based on a candidate’s online presence will become part of the recruitment process for many organizations. But for now, we recommend treading lightly in this area as the social landscape and policies regarding privacy are always continuously evolving.
Post contributed by Cielo’s Social Media team. Connect with Andrew @AndrewRojahn, Molly @MollyPerszyk and Abby @TheFrostedVegan.