Why we won’t be offering social media screening… yet

CVCheck is committed to helping employers make better hiring decisions. We do this by providing clear candidate insights through a wide range of pre-employment and background screening services. Currently, however, social media screening isn’t one of them.

After thoroughly researching the product, and discussing it with leading recruitment experts, we’ve decided that in its current form, the limitation of social media screening outweigh its strengths.

We acknowledge the need for formalised social media screening

We’re a fast-developing company in the HR tech space, offering smart candidate information verification solutions, and see a formalised social media screening product as part of that.

Social media screening in the hiring process is already common-place and we understand its usefulness in protecting employer brand and business reputation. But we’re also aware of its hidden dangers, potential biases, and legal traps.

World governments also have differing stances on the practice. Some, like the U.S., are already using social media screening to veto foreigners applying for US work or study visas. Others, such as the EU, are strongly advising its businesses to refrain from using social media screening in their hiring processes.

Our concerns with the existing social media screening services

In recent conversations with recruitment experts, we uncovered reasons why many are cautious about adopting social media screening. These include:

  • Personal biases that may influence opinions when browsing through a candidate’s various profiles.
  • Unintentionally leaning candidate information relating to protected attributes and hiring no-go zones (like race, sexual orientation, pregnancy status, political opinions and so on).
  • The inability for checks to consider that people – and their social media profiles – change over time. This leads to red flags being raised due to years-old posts when in reality, the candidate has grown and matured over the years.

After reviewing the currently available technology for conducting social media checks, CVCheck has decided it is not convinced the results provided will accurately and reliably reflect the character of a candidate, or lead to better hiring outcomes. Likewise, we are concerned the checks may not always align with Australian employment law.

We keep discovering and influencing the space

We will continue to watch this space, and revisit our decision if a service emerges that meets our strict standards. For now, however, we suggest clients rely on verified, secure and unbiased candidate information to support their hiring decisions.

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