HR Girl 4'11" Blog

Set Up Your Internal Guidelines for Using Social Networking Sites - Qualify Candidates

So you've narrowed down your choices of job candidates, and you are ready to bring them in for an interview. Perhaps you have already started the verification process, starting with Google. Now this is a powerful tool that crawls for information across many many websites. So if you're not ready to use it with discretion, then don't do this! Step away from the internet!

Before you set out on this Googling adventure, you must first figure out what it is that you are looking for. What's your purpose? Do you want to disqualify or qualify these candidates for this position?

If you don't know the answer to these questions, then it's time for you to set up your own guidelines. Why? Because there is a strong possibility that you will spend a bunch of unwarranted time surfing without knowing where the brake is.

Ok so here we go:

1.Determine what you are looking for, such as to verifying education, experience, work history. Wondering around aimlessly and finding information that may not belong to them, could cause you to disqualify them for the wrong reason. So have a plan.

2. Decide which information is going to be considered relevant. Understand that you will view both their personal and professional histories, you can choose to give them an opportunity to list the sites that they currently use professionally in order to gather information that's relevant to the applied position.

3. Based on the information found, what will happen to that data? Will it be recorded including the source? You may beg to differ and say that you don't want to create a paper trail. But contrarily, you will need to get a paper trail started in the event that your company falls under an investigation for unfair hiring practices. And if you are one of the employers who offer feedback to the candidates who weren't selected, you would want to have legitimate information available for them.

4. If the candidate has several profiles, does the information match? If they listed a GED on their resume, but a PhD posted on their profile, then there may be a problem. A simple education verification will straighten this issue out. Just remember, you are  generally searching for accurate information on their profiles.

5. Will their personal profile outweigh their professional (more relevant) profile? If you knew this candidate used to live in Louisiana and you saw that their picture was tagged amongst a crowd of people at Mardi Gras (non flashing, with a Pepsi can in hand), would this be a negative impact on their ability to do their job? Instead of using pictures as ammunition, remember there may be more to the story than what the picture has shown.

6. Will there be a scoring system for the number of groups, profiles, blogs, and network strength? You could set up a simple sheet that rates their profile content, participation, and quality. Many candidates will have skills and knowledge well above the allowance of their previous positions. Therefore this candidate may be a great asset for your company.

7. What will be considered recent activities? For both negative and positive findings, you have to determine if 1 month or up to 10 years of history will be considered as applicable to the job in which they are applying.

8. How many resources and medias will be used in all to complete the checking process? Will you use the favorite 3 (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook), or will you search newspapers, magazines, and many other social sites? This will be an easy answer if the candidate has already provided their site addresses.

9. How much time are you going to dedicate per candidate? We know that the internet has an interesting way of making time disappear. Set your timer, after time has expired, move on to the next candidate.

Use these questions to establish your guidelines in writing and make sure that you follow them. Because you never know when you will be required to show proof of your screening processes and the basis of your hiring decisions.We never know if the law will make a shift in the near future to exclude the use of personal websites to make hiring and termination decisions. So it's important to cover your assets.

Any comments?

Using Social Media to Qualify Instead of Disqualify Candidates

As mentioned in an earlier post, Social Media sites should be used in the character reference portion of the background checking phase once you have narrowed down your top 10 or 3 candidates for the position. Avoid using these sites as the only verifying source for your candidate's skills, education and abilities. This would be a smart choice.

Don't Do This Yet

If you are still a little uncertain about using social media, then give yourself a little time to adjust, because at the present moment, you may not be ready. Keep in mind, checking out your candidates' social networking pages may not be for you if:

1. If you want to control what your employees do in their personal time outside the workplace.
2. If you have an excessive need to check their pages for updates and conversations. And seek out to follow their friends and their conversations.
3. If they are a fan of a particular group that you don't agree with. Particularly racial, sexual, political, theoretical, or religious groups.
4. If you are prone to discriminate based on marital status, sexual orientation, race, and religion etc.
5. If you quiver at the fact that you get a chance to see the candidate prior to the interview.

Once you overcome these 5 obstacles, you are well on your way to forming a more open minded approach to screening and qualifying candidates without the threat of being discriminative or judgmental.

Qualify Your Candidates

Should you find a candidate who has a social presence, understand that this is a great benefit that adds on to their overall portfolio. However, you may have other strong candidates who do not have on online presence. In this case you will have to use professional judgment in order to determine who will be the best fit for your organization. 

Here are some qualifying factors for your candidates who use social media:

1. They are knowledgeable enough about technology.
2. They are willing to learn new things and adapt to the current economy in order to survive.
3. They are competitive and realize what it takes to be recognized.
4. They are fearless enough to interact with other professionals.
5. They are outgoing enough to build their network and join groups.

All of these things listed are indeed character based reasons. Therefore, and I state my case, that social networking sites should be used for character referencing purposes. Not as the one and only reason to disqualify candidate. I will discuss later how to Set Up Your Internal Guidelines for Using Social Networking Sites-Qualify Candidates.

Any thoughts?

5 Days to Social Media Presence for HR - With 30 Minutes a Day

There's no need to fight it anymore, social media is here to stay. It's not a fad, and should never be used as a weapon against your employees. So in light of this inevitable ecosystem, it's important to have a presence for various reasons such as building long term relationships, expanding your career / industrial knowledge, business building, and branding opportunities.

I've put together a quick step-by-step guide for you in order to get yourself going with social media sites. I know it's quick, but it will also be easier than you think. Here goes:

Day 1: Scout out sites that welcome the presence of your business or organization. These sites, as you will notice, will offer networking opportunities, information & resources. Your popular choices are Ning, Facebook, LinkedIn, Monster, Jigsaw, and Twitter. Make a concrete decision. Note: There are other sites which can be used to foster interaction not only between employees, but also potential candidates.

Day 2: Develop the verbiage for your pages and any other words and recognitions that you would like to include in order to build your brand. You would want to include the basics such as:

• Name of Business, Number of Employees
• Years in Business, Location
• Your Motto, Culture, Objective, Goals
• Recognitions from community initiatives
• Why your company may be a place of Choice for Employment

Day 3: Register, copy and paste your verbiage. Upload your picture. If there is enough time left, check out of the groups and networks of interest and save them for the next day's activity. Note: Check for spelling and grammatical errors. Many platforms have auto correct features for you.

Day 4: Connect to at least 20 people, especially those whom you already know, i.e. existing clients, potential vendors and employees. Their information should already be stored within your email contact list. So it should be easy to just click on the Find button in order to do a quick search for individuals and companies who are already have an existing profile on that site. Join up to 5 groups. Note: Do not freak out when people send you an invitation, this is a growth opportunity.

Day 5: Build your rapport by interacting within your new groups and networks selected. You may initiate discussions or answer questions related to your industry. Be careful not to be a spy or pest. You will be in control of your image, so make it a professional one. Note: Don't post goofy stuff like "How does this thing work, I'm brand new"!

You made it!! The reason why you should only spend 30 minutes on these tasks is because you have already made the decision to do this. Therefore, there is no need to ponder and second guess what is going on. Just do it!

Keep in mind, this is only the beginning, you will have plenty of time to build and grow more relationships in the weeks to come. Enjoy!