04/16/12 - Avoiding Discrimination When Recruiting With Social Media Tools
Avoiding Discrimination When Recruiting With Social Media Tools
Monday, April 16, 2012 from 1:00 - 2:30 PM Eastern
Social media is a great tool for attracting and recruiting top talent to your organization. Using social media for recruiting can have a very high return on investment, lead to improved communication responsiveness and reduced vacancy days, and help to identify “hidden” candidates.
Like any tool, there are some risks if not used properly. There is a wealth of personal information available in a social media profile. Much of this information is the same kind of information that would be requested on a traditional job application. But social media profiles often contain information about protected class status; gender, race and age may be inferred from photographs, dates of birth may be displayed, and information about family members, relationship status and religious beliefs may be present. Having access to this kind of information can create the potential for intentional discrimination.
Additionally, relying exclusively on social media for recruiting may lead to unintentional discrimination. There are significant differences in the demographic characteristics of the typical social media user and the typical individual in the civilian labor force. These demographic differences can lead to certain groups being excluded from the recruiting process, thereby creating unintentional discrimination.
In this presentation, we discuss how to avoid these kinds of pitfalls and ease the fears associated with recruiting via social media.
