Social Network Recruiting: What Are the Implications of This New Hiring Model?

• Author: Mary Beth Currie
• Pages: 75-93



SocialNetworkRecruiting

WHATARETHE I M P L ICAT IO N S

OF T H I S N EWHIRING M O DE L

MaryBethCurrie*

Theuseof socialmedia inthe recruiti ngprocessis anewtoolTodate

thereis adearth ofcas elawinO ntarioconsideri ngthe extenttowhic h

anemployermaysafelyutilizesoc ialmediaintherecruitme ntprocess

Howeverthe same legal frameworkth atapplies to bricksandmortar

recruiting wi ll continue to applyto th is new tool Sowh ile employ-

ersmayutil ize social media in t he recruiting process to draw from a

broaderpoolandtodeterminewhichcandidatesbestttherolemore

accuratelytheyalsoneedtobeawaret hattheyfaceagreaterriskofhu-

manrights challenges particularly ifthey screen outcandidatesbas ed

onthedigitalndingsearlyintheproce ss

The statistics reported below make it clear that t here is an explo-

sivegrowthinsocialmediabackgroundche ckingofpublicinformation

aboutcandidatesduringtherecruitmentproces sThoseemployerswho

areengaged in sucha review needto implementand consistently fol-

lowaprocessthat iscaref ullydesigned tocomplywith applicablepri-

vacyhumanrightsandotherstatutesthatgovernthecollectionanduse

ofthedigitalinformation

* MaryBethCurr ieispartnera ndcoheadofEmploymentSer viceswithBen ne

JonesLLPShealsowritesacolumnforTheO ccupationalHealthandSafetyCom pli

anceReport

MBC

AWH AT I S S O C I A L M E D I A

ThereseemstobenoonedenitionAlistofthirtydenitionsprovided

by a variety of social media marketi ng and PR professionals can be

found at this link hpheidicohencomsocialmediadenitionO ne

denitionincludedisthefollowing

Social mediai sa collection ofon line platformsa ndtools that people

use to share content proles opinion s insights experiences per-

spectivesand mediaitse lffacilitati ngconversations andinteract ions

onlinebetwe engroupsofpeople

• SocialMediaist heplatformtools

• Social Networking is theac tof connect ing onsoc ialmed iaplat-

forms

• SocialMediaMarketingishowbusinessesjointheconversationin

anauthenticandtran sparentwaytobuildrelationships

TheOce oft hePrivacy Commissioner ofCa nadadenes Social Net-

workingSites SNSsuch as FacebookLin kedIn and MySpacein this

way

ASNSisawebbase dservicet hatprovidesawayforus erstointeract

withanon lineco mmunit yornetworkofpe oplewithacom moninter-

estegfriendsfamilyrecreationa linterestsetcSNSallowi ndividual

usersto construct aper sonalprole withi nthe websitespecif ya list

ofother userswith whomthey haveaco nnection andview their list

ofcontacts inaddit iontot hecontact sof otheruser son thesite Indi-

vidualsonSNScaninteractwithoneanotherusingemailinstantmes-

sagingservicesorle sharing

B HO W I S S OC I A L M E DI AUSE D I N T H E

RECRUITMENTPROCESS

Overthepastfewyearsma nyrecruitershavestarted toleveragesocial

networkingsites tosourc etalent and buildrelation shipswith individ-

ualswh omayonedaybeca ndidate sOt hersus eittover ify info rmati on

providedbythecandidateduringtherecruitmentprocess Whatseems

clearis that use of social media byemployersin recr uitmenteorts is

explod ing 

 DenitionbyDoreenMora ndigitalandso cialmarketi ngstrategist

 Onlinewwwprivgccaresourcefsdsneasp