Debate on Social Media Screening in Hiring Process

Global Debates

Table of Contents
“It is wrong for companies to analyse candidates' social media profiles when making a decision
to hire”.............................................................................................................................................1
Section 1: Introduction...........................................................................................................1
Section 2: Main Body.............................................................................................................1
Section 3: Conclusion.............................................................................................................4

“It is wrong for companies to analyse candidates' social media profiles when
making a decision to hire”
Section 1: Introduction
It is seen that a number of companies across the globe make social media screening of the
candidates while making a decision regarding hiring of a candidate. This is important so as to
identify the red flags or in other terms the lies that the candidate presented in their resume.
However, it is also argued that social media screening of a candidate at the time of hiring is
against the boundaries of ethics. The broad conclusion that is intended to be drawn in relation to
this topic is that social media screening of the candidates is regarded to be a favourable or
negative activity by companies as per their thinking. This topic is essential to be debated upon as
several authors within literature are also seen to be arguing about this subject. The below
mentioned report consists of the premises in favour and against social media screening of the
candidate while companies make a decision to hire them.
Section 2: Main Body
In a standard job application, an entity receives the resume, cover letter, references and portfolio
of the candidate along with the other essential requirements of the company. With the passage of
time, many companies have begun doing social media screening of candidates within the hiring
procedures. In this relation, social media screening can be identified as the practice adopted by a
company to go through the social media platforms of a candidate to gain knowledge of certain
details about them and to cross verify things that have been communicated to the company.
Argument in favour of the selected topic
Screening the social media profiles of the candidates can provide an entity with a lot of
information in relation to their religion, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, family, and so on. This
often tends to become problematic for the employers as the Equality Act 2010 has made it
completely unlawful to do discrimination against any of the potential job candidates in
accordance with their private details. Acas has warned that social media screening of candidates
during the hiring process of a company can result in facilitation of unconscious bias. For instance
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