THE LEGALITY OF SOCIAL MEDIA SCREENING: AN OVERVIEW

According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), the cost of making a bad hire can be as much as $240,000 when including indirect costs such as lowered productivity, lost time to recruiting and training, and impacts on employee morale. As a result, more employers are looking to social media and creating policies around the use or restriction of social media for a variety of workplace decisions. While many standard background checks examine the negative, highlighting the fact that someone is not a felon, social media checks examine the positive and help uncover who this person “is.” As an employer, you need to use all the data available to you, especially when making difficult employment decisions. But as the scope of accessible information expands, so does your potential for liability. Many employers who are considering using social media for pre-employment background checks have asked us:

• “What information is okay to use in a social media background check?”
• “Where should I be looking?”
• “How can I ensure the information is accurate?”

To help answer these questions, Fama met with Pam Devata, one of the leading employment attorneys in the U.S., to talk about the impact of social media on background checks and how employers can mitigate liability in this rapidly changing area of employment law. Pam says social media can be an effective tool in employment background screening when used “correctly, efficiently and legally.” To avoid mishaps in the screening process, employers need to follow best practices under employment law, choose vendors that understand FCRA compliance, and understand how to use the information they find on social media.