Articles - Business / Client Dev & Marketing

Individuals tend to be very open, honest and passionate about their online activities and interactions. As a result, most of the time an individual’s social media profile is a valuable reflection of his/her character. Severe candidate behavior issues can often be recognized through a social media background check.

These negative characteristics, traits and habits are red flags to watch for in predicting potentially damaging candidate behaviors.

A key step in utilizing a social media search in the pre-employment process is to identify a set of job relevant screening criteria to watch for in your search. It is important to think through the type of traits an individual might display that would prohibit him/her from being a good fit.

Following is a list of some basic job related red flags to take into consideration:

• Corporate disparagement- Everyone has bad days at work, but you may want to think twice about individuals who make a point of deliberately and publically bad mouthing a current or past employer, co-worker or manager online.
   
• Violent tendencies- Pay close attention to candidates who talk aggressively about weapons and violence (especially against people), or even worse who display images of themselves in violent or antagonistic acts as they may indicate a safety risk for your organization.
   
• Drug use- Steer clear of any candidate who exposes or showcases his/her use of illegal drugs.
   
• Poor judgment- Watch for candidates who are belligerent in expressing hatred, disgust or extremely harsh opinions in their posts. This ranting and raving could be an indication of a less than desirable temper and judgment.
   
• Racist or anti-social behavior- Be leery of candidates who blatantly publish aggressive “hate” language or make racist comments as this suggests intolerance in working with diverse groups of individuals.
   
• Inappropriate sexual behavior- Candidates who cross the line and display or discuss taking part in non-consensual sexual acts (e.g. child pornography) should be taken very seriously and considered a potential threat to the vulnerable individuals that your organization may serve.  
   
• Dishonest behavior- Take note of candidates who have conversations or brag about cheating, stealing, or taking advantage of someone or something as this demonstrates questionable character traits.
   
• Other- Depending on your industry or specific position, there may be other attributes, weaknesses or characteristics that you may want to screen for such as poor communication skills, etc. It is important that you work with a qualified attorney and your background screening vendor to identify and document other company or position specific criteria that you may want to use in the hiring and screening process.

Similar to a reference check, a social media search can help you understand potentially negative characteristics or behaviors that may be detrimental in the workplace. However, the information found in a social media search can be more objective, straightforward, thorough  and readily available than a typical reference check. 

Click Here for the White Paper

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Biography

Jerry Thurber is President of Tandem Select, a background screening company located in Colorado. At Tandem, Jerry is responsible for driving the company’s innovation and growth initiatives. He has over 25 years of experience in the field of product development, technical innovation and executive management for human resource solutions.

His experience spans from large scale Fortune 1000 firms to small scale business start ups. Jerry joins Tandem Select from Fetch Inc. a California based artificial intelligence web data harvesting company. Prior to Fetch, Jerry was with ADP, Inc where he was the Division Vice President and General Manager for Applicant Management Services.

Contact Jerry at jthurber@tandemselect.com.

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