Are you or your company breaking the law when you use social networking sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and others to recruit new candidates and/or screen job applicants? Federal anti-discrimination laws say that companies cannot discriminate against people who belong to any of the “protected classes” which include age, sex, religion, race, disability, and others. Let’s look at a couple of situations where discrimination could come into play when using social media tools in the hiring process.

A company wants to hire sales people. They want aggressive talent looking for new accounts and closing deals. The criteria are a person with 3-5 years of sales experience and no more than two jobs in the last 6 years. The potential candidate must have a direct sales degree and experience in the client’s industry. The complexities can begin when staff involved in the hiring process use LinkedIn, Facebook, and other social networking sites to search for potential candidates who meet their requirements. They enter the skill criteria and start the search. As they draw up the list of potential candidates who may be able to do the job based on their skills and experience, they decide to eliminate anyone on the list who appears to be older. They instantly eliminate those candidates from consideration based on age, not based on their skills, experience, or ability to succeed.

Or, what if a search reveals that a candidate has a medical condition or a family member with a serious illness? Could they eliminate the candidate based on these findings because it could lead to potentially higher medical costs for the company? Or what happens if a candidate is found to be pregnant? Is it possible that the staff involved in the hiring process deliberately cross-listed these candidates or formed an unconscious bias against them, despite their ability to do the job? And if this is the case, how do you prove or disprove it?

Discriminatory behavior online is difficult to track and prove. The use of social media tools in the hiring process makes it easy for decision makers to simply “don’t” provide opportunities to those who don’t meet their preconceived set of guidelines, whether legal or otherwise.

Social media raises important questions when used as a source of candidates

So this raises some important questions that need to be asked in your organization if you use social networking sites in recruiting and recruiting candidates.

Does your company have a clear policy outlining what information may or may not be used from social networking sites in the recruitment process?

It is recommended that companies establish a well-defined policy against the use of social networks to discriminate in the search or selection process of new candidates for the position. You should also keep in mind that there is no way to verify whether the information found about applicants online is factual or accurate, whether it shows them in a positive or negative light.

Do you think your hiring staff’s ability to make good hiring decisions may be clouded by irrelevant information they see on social networking sites? If so, what can be done to determine it?

Training is essential for your company’s human resources staff, hiring managers, or any other employee involved in finding and selecting candidates for the position. Since there is always the possibility of finding and using information that falls into the protected class category, it is important that those involved in the hiring process understand that it is best to avoid searching for or collecting such information and instead focus on the information which may show a pattern for poor work habits, poor communication skills, illegal activities, etc.

How are you monitoring your staff’s use of social media in your company’s hiring practices?

Monitoring the use of social media tools for recruiting purposes and developing a procedure that dictates where, how, and what to look for when searching for information on these sites in the hiring process demonstrates consistency in your company’s recruiting activities and can help alleviate a lot of margin for error. It also helps you maintain control over what happens in the search process. An example might be creating a standard checklist of items to search with a set of guidelines to check for each case. It may also be convenient to document the information found as a security measure. Taking these precautionary steps shows consistency in your search procedures should an allegation arise in the future.

When it comes to using social media tools to search for candidates, the training and follow-up of those involved must be ongoing. The dangers are real and the costs are high if your company is ever suspected of using incorrect information against a candidate.

The ideal solution is to assign social media searches to a third party that is not involved in the hiring decision process, but acts more as a data collector. Also, if your company is using an executive recruiting firm, it’s a good idea to ask them if they have a social media policy and training for their teams regarding the use of social media tools to recruit and select candidates.