How to prevent Discrimination When Utilizing Social Networking Tools inside your Candidate Selection Process

Are you and your company disobeying the law if you use social networks like LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, yet others to recruit for brand new candidates and/or screen job seekers? Federal anti-discrimination laws and regulations assert that companies can’t discriminate people who fall under the “protected classes” which include age, sex, religion, race, disabilities, yet others. Let us consider a handful of situations where discrimination while using the social networking tools within the candidate selection process could come up.

A business really wants to hire sales agents. They need aggressive talent which will search lower new accounts and shut business. The factors are a person with 3-five years sales experience and a maximum of two jobs within the last 6 years. The possibility candidate will need a diploma and experience selling directly within the client’s industry. The reasons can start when staff active in the candidate selection process use LinkedIn, Facebook, along with other social networks to consider potential candidates that meet their needs. They input the abilities criteria and start looking. Because they pull-up their email list of possible candidates which may be able to do the task according to experience and skills, they choose to remove anybody in the list that appears like they might be older. They instantly eliminate individuals candidates from consideration according to age-not according to their skills, experience, or capability to be effective.

Or, let’s say throughout a search it’s says an applicant includes a medical problem or a relative having a severe illness? Could they get rid of the candidate according to these bits of information since it may lead to potentially greater medical costs for the organization? Or what if it’s learned that an applicant is pregnant? Is it feasible the staff active in the candidate selection process either deliberately removes these candidates in the list, or form an unconscious bias against them, regardless of remarkable ability to complete the job? And if this sounds like the situation, how can you prove or disprove it?

Online discriminatory behavior is tough to trace and prove. Using social networking tools within the candidate selection process allow it to be simpler for individuals involved with decision-making to merely “not” provide possibilities to individuals who don’t meet their preconceived group of guidelines, be it legal or otherwise.

Louise Author