To remind people to google yourselves and manage your online image!!

[MoanaMum]

I am currently recruiting for two high profile posts in our company. I've had some great CVs and applications through, but if candidates think we won't google people and check social media they are a bit naive, and unfortunately it can really change the impression a potential employer is left with. So if you are looking for jobs, take a moment to go through what your FB page looks like from an outsider, your twitter, etc and do google your name!! Just come across one which, well, just wow!!

I have the same name as someone very famous, so you'd have to scroll through hundreds of pages about them before you found anything about me!

It was lively to see all the other people out there with my exact name (not a usual one). One even went to the same university as me.

lovely ...

If someone demanded my social media passwords for a job interview here I'd be asking them to show me their clean police record first (and their computer history/storage) to make sure they're not into kiddie porn or anything else that makes them a risk towards my family. Then I'd walk out because an employer who is ok with that level of personal invasion is going to be toxic to work for.

And anyone who says that's stupid to risk a job - well, we've walked from our only source of income before because the boss was into this sort of stuff (actually invented a fake team-building day complete with a friend posing as a psychiatrist to get personal info about staff, which was then used to harass bully and blackmail them. Unsurprisingly there were also dodgy practices to do with money, to which our lawyer responded "don't put your name on anything and get out as soon as possible." And both of us were in a workplace prior to that where an inappropriate level of personal info was asked in interview stages - naively we gave it only to have it leveraged abusively against ourselves and others. There's no way in hell I'd be letting myself in for that again, it's taken years and decent counseling to be able to trust others again.

I actually think it's really shoddy of employers to do this to people, an invasion of privacy that is unacceptable because of the power imbalance involved in job interviews. Almost like the new casting couch.

I don't even tell my works service desk my password. Even after I've phoned them. One dipstick asked for it and I just went 'you do realise I work in security? That's not happening'. You never give your password to anyone.

I don't use my real name on any social media. I use a "mild alias" consisting of a shortened form of my first name plus my married name, which is recognisable by friends, but not actually my name.

I have a job with a public facing element and this has been enough to keep my internet profile 100% professional.

How would you deal with one that did ? No easy matter getting a tribunal hearing in the UK these days. Much less a court hearing.

An employer asking for passwords isn't an employer any sensible person wants to work for.

if candidates think we won't google people and check social media they are a bit naive, and unfortunately it can really change the impression a potential employer is left with.

OP I haven't read the whole thread, but it's you who needs to be careful.

What you're admitting to here is you are purposefully compromising your own ability to make a fair unbiased assessment of a candidate based on their CV, their qualifications and their performance at interview.

Bragging that this is a premeditated strategy in your selection process doesn't cut the mustard, I'm afraid. I agree people should take care of how they post on line, but two wrongs don't make a right. You are in a position of power as a recruiter, and you should play by the rules, not come on here justifying why you snoop on people.

Not a good look as an employer.

Here you are OP, you could soon be caught breaking the law under GDPR, and have a lot of explaining to do if it formed part of a Tribunal Claim. Imagine having to defend the shattered reputation of your organisation (yes, you personally):

www.personneltoday.com/hr/facebook-snooping-candidates-gdpr-put-stop/

Rather worryingly there is a summary of a court case by an ex employee against a company and there is an allegation that another employee with the same name as me made homophobic comments and was violent. I suppose that if I was looking for a job (which I'm not) a recruiter would at least check my cv and see that I had never worked for that company.

So blackAmericano 's example is exactly why snooping on an applicant's social media should be stigmatised and not have a place in U.K society. It's because an employer could erroneously and unjustifiably associate people with similar or same names with acts and characteristics not their own.

It only takes an incompetent recruiter to make such errors and then biase and prejudice sets in. If this becomes endemic and accepted as custom and practice, the core tenets in UK of fairness and absence of discrimination are compromised.

The prospect of an organisation’s reputation being “shattered” by googling people is laughable.

And GDPR does not automatically outlaw such searching anyway.

It is incredible that people put out information to the whole world and then demand that it’s treated as private.

To be honest, I would think that not googling or at least doing background checks would open you up to accusations of not doing due diligence if you went on to recruit someone who turns out to destroy the company’s reputation.

I have the same name as someone very famous so you have to dig quite far.

I haven't looked for myself on google for a few years. Only found a photo of me on my brothers wedding page and a mention of me getting a pb at parkrun. However I now know that on TOWIE there is someone with my first name and someone else with my surname. The majority of the results where about them. I'm happy, it makes me more difficult to find.

An employer asking for passwords isn't an employer any sensible person wants to work for.

The problem is - as we should all know - there are people who are desperate enough for a job that they would accede to unreasonable demands. Just read through some of the shocking posts about employers with regards to other situations (the recent thread about an employer that required an employee to arrange sick cover themselves, or face the sack springs to mind). So for all the billy-big-bollocks talk here, I suspect if it came to a crunch, a lot of people would meekly hand over their details.

It hasn't happened yet - well not as far as I know in employment. But one reason to have a social media profile, is to own it yourself. One day, someone is going to go for a job, and because someone has faked a social media profile in their name, they won't get it. In a world where cats can have their own Facebook page, it's clear the checks and balances are a bit iffy to say they least.

All of which feeds into the move to require ID to create and operate social media accounts - thinking of the children, of course.

Hold on DGRossetti- you are the one who said employers in the US were routinely asking for social media passwords?

dasiyc, I don't thin it would hard to say it was necessary or relevant to look someone up on line eg if their live sex cam web shows might bring your christian values employer ethos into disrepute.

I don’t exist online. If I google my name I come across Lits of people that aren’t me and if I scroll halfway down the first page it appears I died in January 2017.

I share a name with someone famous also so there are lot of pictures of her.
The only thing that comes up of me is my JustGiving page for when I did a half marathon in memory of my father.

Xenia no doubt every company could come out with excuses as to why they use people's social media feeds - they can self justify, but using the data in a way that was never intended, and for which the owner's permission was not granted, is unethical (imo). There are always extreme examples of people being active members of neo -nazi groups, falling out of night clubs and posting weird videos of hamsters in odd positions, but your average person on the street deserves to be treated fairly, and to know their application for a job is assessed on a level playing field.

I totally agree with the upthread question - should people who may have made stupid ill-considered decisions in their past be blocked from paid employment in the future? Especially as social media is relatively new in society and people are still learning how to use it appropriately.

Why don’t these people just delete their posts and/or accounts? If a company wants to go searching the waybackmachine etc then they’re not likely to care very much about the law or ethics (and hardly any would ever do that anyway).

How much covering up and how many excuses do you expect?

Do I just type my email into Google to find out what it's associated with? Or do you use a specific site?

glintandglide

Hold on DGRossetti- you are the one who said employers in the US were routinely asking for social media passwords?

No quite sure what you mean ?

Why don’t these people just delete their posts and/or accounts? If a company wants to go searching the waybackmachine etc

You don't need waybackmachine. Google is just fine. As "DebbyDoesDallas" of this manor discovered to their cost. (And all MN posters need to be aware that just because MN deletes a thread doesn't mean it's disappeared ....

DGRossetti @12.07

“I don't understand why people don't put their Facebook settings to private ...

Because some companies (more US based, but remember what happens there, comes here) take that as a no-no in itself. Remember nothing to hide if you've nothing to fear.

And, again, in the US, having a private profile is no good if a recruiter demands your password(s) to check it out anyway.”

“DGRossetti @12.23

So they want to see private messages and what you post for friends??? Do any employers or recruiters actually ask this?

As a matter of course in the US. (Technically it's against Facebook/Hotmail/Gmails T&Cs, which would be my objection in the UK).

The problem is, if it becomes normalised, a refusal is just losing the job. Principles are great to have, if they cost you nothing.”