Is it ethical to recruit using social media?

Popular networking sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter are fantastic resources for accessing a vast pool of people, at a low cost, in a short space of time. What’s not to love?

However, there have been some concerns that using social media sites as a resourcing tool is discriminatory and an invasion of privacy.

Concerns with discrimination

Understandably, some people feel that recruiting through social media is detrimental to equal rights employment.

This is because the demographics of social media site users does not represent those of the general public.

For instance, a study conducted in the USA looked at 19 social media sites. The results showed that 25% of users were aged between 35 and 44, while only 10% were aged between 55 and 64. Just 9% aged between 18 and 24.

Evidently, recruiting through social media can give rise to discrimination. That’s without considering other factors, such as income, race and gender.

Is it an invasion of privacy?

It’s a well-known and controversial fact that employers sometimes use social media profiles to screen candidates.

This is bad practice, considering that personal profiles on sites such as Facebook and Twitter created for personal use. They are inaccurate representations of people’s professional personas.

Many people feel that employers looking their Facebook and Twitter profiles are invading their privacy, and would no longer wish to work for a company who has done this.

On the other hand, there are some instances where it is appropriate to contact candidates online.

LinkedIn is generally accepted as an appropriate way of contacting candidates. Profiles generally contain employment-relevant details, which people publish voluntarily.

Where do you draw line?

Boycotting the use of social media in recruitment would be unwise.

It becomes more difficult to keep up with past employees you might like to re-employ. It also becomes harder to target your sourcing profile – using social media sites you can actually search for people by their skills or the company they work for.

Removing your company’s social media presence altogether will severely reduce the number of people you reach. Nobody wants that.

Surely there is no harm in advertising jobs on your organisation’s Facebook page or Twitter feed. If people are interested, they can contact you. You aren’t approaching anybody – simply giving them the chance to approach you.

How else do you tap into the passive market?

A major benefit of social media is that it is a great way of contacting people who aren’t actively looking for work.

While you can advertise vacancies on job sites, there’s a good chance that talented people who aren’t looking for work won’t be looking on these sites, or be subscribed to an emailing list.

You’d be mad not to use they tools available to you, but it’s always a good idea to be mindful of the limitations.

By Natasha Sabin from Tirebuck Recruitment