The demand for the generation of high-quality, scalable, and affordable candidate social media check reports has grown exponentially in organizations performing pre-employment screening checks before hiring for a position.
The Neotas Employee Screening Platforms have been developed to provide social media screening capabilities for its global clients and channel partners to effectively perform social media screening processes. Some of the reasons for the considerable take up of outsourced services are outlined in this article on Social Media Checks.
Internal Social Media Screening by HR teams comes with inherent risks as accessing a candidate’s social media accounts reveals protected characteristics (such as race, sexuality, and political stance). This information is used by internal staff to make hiring decisions and can leave organizations and their HR teams exposed to accusations of unconscious or discriminatory bias.
Whether intentional or not, it’s both illegal and unethical to make hiring decisions based on these characteristics, and allegations of discriminatory bias can be extremely difficult and expensive to refute.
In addition, internal staff are less likely to be trained in data handling and may be less aware of the stringent data protection practices that are mandated across multinational jurisdictions. There are alternatives to avoid the potential exposure of commercial, legal, and reputational damage as a consequence of screening activities.
Using a third-party background screening provider is a well-established approach to avoid these risks provided they are externally audited, regulated by industry standards, and have the required external certification to process sensitive data. The adoption of SaaS Screening Platforms by third-party screening providers and internal screening departments enhances this process and at the same time increases productivity, accuracy, and quality of reports whilst reducing discriminatory risk. This approach is very successful where the challenges of changing methodology and process are recognized and overcome.
Organizations that have adopted the SaaS Screening Platforms quickly identify relevant, role-related risks and produce candidate reports that can be used to make safe hiring decisions. The information contained is unbiased, and comprehensive and demonstrates whether the individual meets the levels of honesty and integrity required.
Tags: Social Media Checks, Social Media Screening, Pre-Employment Screening, Online Screening
