Social Networking Sites and Employers

Elmo

Just a quick poll on your views of employers look at your online social network.

Is your Online Social Network relevant to your future/current employer?

1. No, it is private and of no relevance to them
2. Yes, it shows who you are as a "3 dimensional person"
3. No, but I would check out an applicants online social network
4. Yes, but I would not check out an applicants online social network

shoegirl

Interesting question, it can expose things that otherwise might be well concealed in the professional world, about the persons attitude and level of seriousness.

For example I know one total tool who more or less advertised that he was in bed asleep while supposedly "working from home." This showed that he clearly had a very erm, disfunctional attitude to work and colleagues to whom he was linked (one of whom reported him).

Another personal I know "friends" not only virtually everybody she has ever met, but everybody they are linked to also. As she is extraordinarily flamboyant (to say the least), this has caused, shall we say, a little distress to some acquaintances whose friends were asking "what the hell was that 70 year old woman in a bright pink pennys dress who is your FB friend asking me to be her friend for? I've never even met her".

Obviously such blatant displays of lunacy are probably not obvious, but very extreme profiles such as ones displaying obvious stupidity (eg the student in CIT who started a "page" on FB suggesting people harass Donal Og Cusack from the stands being a good example of somebody who most employers just wouldn't want to employ) might highlight areas of concern.

I have to say that sometimes to me it does show just how crazy some people are, but sometimes the way people portray themselves is very positive. I have to say I've friends I've come to respect a lot more since linking to them on networking sites as sometimes you see sides of them you never knew existed. For example one does loads of work for children with disability (I didn't know that) and another does a lot of volunteering for artistic stuff.

Berty

My LinkeIn page is of full relevance to my employer, however, my Facebook is my own business and all my line managers and above(if on Facebook) have been blocked from even finding me on a search.

One is business and one is personal. That's the way I see it. There are lots of people in work who have facebook pages but I would never ever add them.

Ash.J.Williams

We had a situation where a new employee was hired, and when we the staff found the name we did a google search which showed us all that this person was trouble.....we were right.

.DarDarBinks

Looking from an employers view it is of relevance, I sure wouldnt want to hire someone who couldnt care about a job, is constantly faking being sick, an alcholic or possibly a serious drug user.

A brief search should be done on all potential employees, it could even give the the employer more reason to hire you if they see a quality they like in you.

seamus

I'd say it would be completely relevant. Anything else aside, it can give you an insight into the attitude and certain intelligences of the person you're looking to hire.

That is, if their page is littered with "Likes" of pages like, "Get the Poles out of Ireland" or, "I fucnking hate my boss!" and their status updates are illiterate, abusive or downright moronic, then you can get a better sense of the kind of person that you're hiring.

It's all well and good to say, "As long as they do the job, what does it matter?", but unless they're going to be locked in a room working alone, then it doesn't matter how good they are. Most employers will choose a friendly, personable, likeable but medicore employee over a sociopathic genius any day.

It also says a lot about a person if they're stupid enough to;

a. Put up information on facebook that will cast them in a bad light
b. Make this information publically available

Elmo

Berty wrote: »

My LinkeIn page is of full relevance to my employer, however, my Facebook is my own business and all my line managers and above(if on Facebook) have been blocked from even finding me on a search.

One is business and one is personal. That's the way I see it. There are lots of people in work who have facebook pages but I would never ever add them.

I agree, LinkedIn is a great business network online. I was just trying to avoid using FaceBook as THE social network.

I raise the question due to a discussion about FB on BBC2's NewsNight last night 21/07/2010.

Welease

If you want to keep parts of your life private... then I would suggest putting them on a publically accessible web page is not the right action to take..

If it's there and it's public, an employer has every right to go look at it.

SeaFields

It has been highlighted in my job on several occasions that various employees have made disparaging remarks online about fellow employees, management or the company and that such remarks have come to the attention of management. It really does show somebody up to be a bit dim if they do something like this.

Elmo

SeaFields wrote: »

It has been highlighted in my job on several occasions that various employees have made disparaging remarks online about fellow employees, management or the company and that such remarks have come to the attention of management. It really does show somebody up to be a bit dim if they do something like this.

How do they feel about employees making disparaging remarks in the pub or in the office?

In one of the jobs I was working in a group of employees began making disparaging remarks in private IMs, unfortunately one idiot sent an IM to the person they were making disparaging remarks about. The manager asked for a print out of the last 6 months of IMs from each person involved. I personally thought this was wrong. Of course the idiots were also wrong. But does this give cause for employers to look at employees outside their work? Again if an employee happened to be calling one of their managers a ****ing **** in a pub and they happen to be there, should their be consequences? It is just unfortunate that the manager was in the pub.

Nody

I treat anything that contains my full name as something handed to my boss and HR department (current, previous or future) inc. FB page. Same reason I don't bother blogging or post the latest "here's me out being pissed on vacation" picture. They are uploaded but they are on alternative names I don't use at work and only shared with close friends and family; not the wider circle of people I know.

That is simply based on how easy it is to google up someone and the knowledge of what I've seen sitting as the employer having seen some, aah, interesting updates of the candidate.

Eoin

Elmo wrote: »

How do they feel about employees making disparaging remarks in the pub or in the office?

In one of the jobs I was working in a group of employees began making disparaging remarks in private IMs, unfortunately one idiot sent an IM to the person they were making disparaging remarks about. The manager asked for a print out of the last 6 months of IMs from each person involved. I personally thought this was wrong. Of course the idiots were also wrong. But does this give cause for employers to look at employees outside their work? Again if an employee happened to be calling one of their managers a ****ing **** in a pub and they happen to be there, should their be consequences? It is just unfortunate that the manager was in the pub.

If the manager was able to get a print out of the IMs, then they must have been sent using company servers one way or the other? I wouldn't consider that wrong in that case.

Good question about the pub. If it's a work night out, then yes, there should be consequences.

If it wasn't a work night, and you think there shouldn't be any consequences - how about if you were having a pint and your boss happened to be there. He or she came over to you and bollocked you out of it for some reason. Should you have the right to complain about it when you go back into work?

When it comes to someone new being hired, then I think an employer would be foolish not to look up the candidate. If they have their info out in the open, then it's fair game. What importance an employer attaches to that info is up to them.

SeaFields

Elmo wrote: »

How do they feel about employees making disparaging remarks in the pub or in the office?

You have to distinguish what's in the public domain and what is not. Everyone likes to have a good bitch about work or certain colleagues after a few pints.

Problems arise however when you put them into a public domain i.e. you update your facebook status with a remark likely to cause offence to someone and it is there plain for all your friends to see. Most of us also have many work colleagues as friends on our various social networking profiles. That's just asking for trouble and a print out of the remarks could have bad consequences for anyone stupid enough to put it out there.

Welease

Another perspective, which we have had an actual case of recently..

An employee who blogs (and mentions they work for our company) made remarks about another companies product. Those remarks were widely picked up and reported in certain media as coming from our company. The negative attention by both the media and the reaction of the other company was unpleasant, unnecessary, and could have been easily been avoided.

Only certain trained PR staff (for lots of companies) are allowed to make comments relating to the company, and many companies nowadays will want to understand the online persona's of staff in order to ensure their public face and message is kept as defined.

A comment in the pub is quickly lost... a comment on the web can go global in minutes.

ergonomics

I had an interview for a position recently that would include social networking. I'm on a lot of social networking sites but they're completely private. The interviewers told me they did a google search of my name and found all my profiles and the fact that they were all private showed I really understand social networking. Never thought having my profiles on private would be beneficial!

gandalf

I have a linkedin profile which is publically accessible that anyone can see with recommendations etc. My facebook profile is private and only for people I consider as friends or family. The only way that an employer would gain access is if I considered them a friend.

Berty

gandalf wrote: »

I have a linkedin profile which is publically accessible that anyone can see with recommendations etc. My facebook profile is private and only for people I consider as friends or family. The only way that an employer would gain access is if I considered them a friend.

+ 1 except some family members are on limited access.

I.e Aunt, Uncles, Mother, Brother and Sister cannot see anything I post - only my pictures.

Elmo

ergonomics wrote: »

I had an interview for a position recently that would include social networking. I'm on a lot of social networking sites but they're completely private. The interviewers told me they did a google search of my name and found all my profiles and the fact that they were all private showed I really understand social networking. Never thought having my profiles on private would be beneficial!

I would have thought they couldn't find you on Google if your profile is completely private.

ergonomics

Elmo wrote: »

I would have thought they couldn't find you on Google if your profile is completely private.

Well if you google me my actual Facebook doesn't come up but my old work blog, Twitter account come up and some article about/by me come up. My Twitter account is private so if you click on it it just tells you that my Tweets are protected. If you actually search for me on Facebook you'll find my profile as there's only two profiles with my name. All you can see if my picture though.

_Kaiser_

Berty wrote: »

+ 1 except some family members are on limited access.

I.e Aunt, Uncles, Mother, Brother and Sister cannot see anything I post - only my pictures.

Except that FB insists on publically posting your activities (who you add, what you like etc) to the rolling News Feed page for everyone to see :mad:

If theres a way to get it to stop telling the world this info then I haven't found it - despite tweaking their "privacy" settings over and over... what's wrong with a simple "Disable News Feed Updates" option??

Berty

Just Googled my name.

2nd result = LinkedIn. = That's ok. That's all formal and presentable.

All the other results(incl result #1) are for a Cork GAA man which is fine by me because he immediately dilutes the results for the other 26 pages until I show up again on a boards.ie result.

Elmo

Berty wrote: »

Just Googled my name.

2nd result = LinkedIn. = That's ok. That's all formal and presentable.

All the other results(incl result #1) are for a Cork GAA man which is fine by me because he immediately dilutes the results for the other 26 pages until I show up again on a boards.ie result.

That's brilliant. PR people are going to become more and more redundant.