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Social media snooping on job applicants

Social media snooping on job applicants The purpose of this paper is to investigate how HR professionals use social networking website information to evaluate applicants’ propensity to engage in counterproductive work behaviors and suitability for hire.Design/methodology/approachUsing an experimental design, 354 HR professionals participated in a two-part study. In part 1, participants viewed a fictitious resume and rated the applicant’s likelihood to engage in counterproductive work behavior as well as likelihood of a hiring recommendation. In part 2, participants viewed a fictitious social networking website profile for the applicant and repeated the ratings from part 1. The authors analyzed their responses to determine the effect viewing a social network website (SNW) profile had on ratings of the applicant.FindingsUnprofessional SNW information negatively affected ratings of applicants regardless of applicants’ qualifications, while professional SNW profile information failed to improve evaluations regardless of qualifications.Originality/valueAnecdotal reports suggest that many employers use SNW information to eliminate job applicants from consideration despite an absence of empirical research that has examined how SNW content influences HR recruiters’ evaluation of job applicants. This study represents one of the first attempts to understand how HR professionals use such information in screening applicants. The findings suggest that unprofessional SNW profiles negatively influence recruiter evaluations while professional SNW profile content has little to no effect on evaluations. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Personnel Review Emerald Publishing

Social media snooping on job applicants

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Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
© Emerald Publishing Limited
ISSN
0048-3486
DOI
10.1108/pr-09-2017-0278
Publisher site
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Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how HR professionals use social networking website information to evaluate applicants’ propensity to engage in counterproductive work behaviors and suitability for hire.Design/methodology/approachUsing an experimental design, 354 HR professionals participated in a two-part study. In part 1, participants viewed a fictitious resume and rated the applicant’s likelihood to engage in counterproductive work behavior as well as likelihood of a hiring recommendation. In part 2, participants viewed a fictitious social networking website profile for the applicant and repeated the ratings from part 1. The authors analyzed their responses to determine the effect viewing a social network website (SNW) profile had on ratings of the applicant.FindingsUnprofessional SNW information negatively affected ratings of applicants regardless of applicants’ qualifications, while professional SNW profile information failed to improve evaluations regardless of qualifications.Originality/valueAnecdotal reports suggest that many employers use SNW information to eliminate job applicants from consideration despite an absence of empirical research that has examined how SNW content influences HR recruiters’ evaluation of job applicants. This study represents one of the first attempts to understand how HR professionals use such information in screening applicants. The findings suggest that unprofessional SNW profiles negatively influence recruiter evaluations while professional SNW profile content has little to no effect on evaluations.

Journal

Personnel Review – Emerald Publishing

Published: Jul 22, 2019

Keywords: Social media; Selection; Facebook; Recruiting; Counterproductive work behaviour; Social networking websites

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