Those Friday night pictures from downtown can be set to “private” on Facebook, but it might not be enough to stop employers from finding them. A growing trend in Facebook-oriented job screenings has been on the mind of human resources professionals during recent weeks. And though the risk of someone having their online privacy invaded during a job interview in San Luis Obispo is fairly low, it may not stay that way.
Late last month, a national report detailed the expanding and legal practice of employers requesting social media passwords as part of their hiring practices. After the American Civil Liberties Union took a case in Maryland, a state agency there changed its policy on Facebook checking and became the example in a crusade against invasive hiring techniques.
There is no official policy for scanning prospective faculty’s Facebook pages on Cal Poly’s campus, but university officials say it is strongly discouraged. Graphic communication and interim journalism department chair Harvey Levenson said he would never look through an applicant’s online profile to gain more information about them.
“We could look at Facebook,” he said. “But background checks are done in person. Because social media could be distorted.”
Using Google or other search engines to find an applicant, however, seems to be more acceptable among employers. Though Levenson does not remember any specific instances of searching the Internet for a candidate, he said it is something he considers to be an OK practice.
Legislation is underway in California to enact a law that would outlaw some of the more invasive hiring practices regarding social media.
California Senate Bill 1349 would prohibit employers or colleges in the state from requesting usernames and passwords to social media sites from any potential applicants. Assemblyman Katcho Achadjian, who represents San Luis Obispo in Sacramento, wrote in an email that he does not believe any potential employee should be forced to submit their social media login details to a company.
“The personal information contained on social media sites has no bearing on a person’s ability to perform his or her job,” Achadjian wrote. “Therefore, access to this information should not be a requirement for employment.”
San Luis Personnel Services director Kim Murphy said she has never seen an instance of an employer asking for Facebook information before hiring a job candidate. Her company specializes in working with corporations by helping them with employee recruitment, hiring, screening and finding candidates.
But Murphy said she has seen companies interested in Facebook for several years.
“Any human relations professional will say they wouldn’t touch it with a 10-foot pole,” Murphy said of Facebook. “You’re dealing with the employee’s privacy. There’s a ton of info that is none of the employer’s business.”
Companies can also open themselves up to lawsuits after perusing a candidate’s Facebook profile, Murphy said. If an employer sees any information on Facebook that falls under one of California’s protected classes — race, religion and age, among others — they could be accused of involuntarily bias against a candidate.
Though there is no current case law on a hiring manager seeing this information on Facebook and then choosing to reject a candidate, Murphy said it is dangerous territory to tread in.
“You don’t want to know it because it’s illegal to use it to make a decision when you’re trying to hire out,” she said. “This is the kind of thing I tell people not to tell me.”
But if someone is confronted with the difficult decision to give private information, such as a Facebook password, or risk being denied a job offering, Murphy said she would never offer that information, even if it were the difference between being hired or passed over.
“If a company is going off asking for that information, then they are probably not very well-versed in hiring practices,” she said.
Though the San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce has not seen any history of this kind of behavior from employers, marketing director Lindsey Miller said as the national controversy heats up, it could become an issue in the city.
“We might be an education force and give presentations on the pros and cons of it if it becomes a big problem here in San Luis Obispo,” Miller said.
One of the notable fields using Facebook as part of their screening process throughout the country is law enforcement. An Associated Press report claimed the practice is more prevalent in the hiring of police officers and 911 dispatchers.
San Luis Obispo police do not have a stated policy for or against Facebook screening during their hiring process. But Sgt. Sean Gillham, a hiring director at the agency, said he does not believe Facebook is necessary to judge a person’s character.
“Could (Facebook help)? It could,” Gillham said. “But if there’s going to be something negative that comes out of it, you’re probably going to see it somewhere else. If you see someone had a DUI on their background check, you’re probably not going to hire them because they may have a problem with alcohol.”