Social Media Background Checks

Social Media Background Checks Social Media Background Checks Many employers use search engines and social media to discover information about prospective and current employees. In some cases, that information, especially social media information from sites like Facebook and Twitter, has been used to not hire candidates for a job or to fire employees. However, there are potentially discrimination issues involved. Its also time-consuming for hiring managers to research employees themselves. Social Intelligence Corporation (SIC) addresses both issues by providing in-depth background checks for employers that include online research from social media and other internet sites and complies with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and anti-discrimination laws. The company has created a process for checking that makes its easy for employers to quickly and simply discover information about applicants and employees. Social Intelligence Corporation (SIC) Social Intelligence Corporation (SIC) provides an online service that employers can use to conduct background checks on the internet presence and history of job applicants or to monitor current employees online behavior. SIC provides both background checks for prospective employees and ongoing screening of current employees. Social Intelligence Corporation Background Checks and Screening In addition to popular social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.) screening, SIC searches the deep web - web pages incapable of being discovered by searching through a conventional search engine like Google or Bing. This includes some university, academic, government, and private databases unavailable to the general public. Information gathered from these sources isnt as readily available as information that shows up in standard searches. Information Shared With Employers What makes SIC different is that it doesnt provide all the information found to employers. The company is compliant with the Federal Credit Reporting Act and although SIC has access to this large amount of information, not all of it is shared with employers. Reports only provide information requested by the employers pre-defined criteria, so extra information that may illegally and negatively impact an employers perception of a potential or current employee never enters the hiring or monitoring process. Information that is not reported includes any protected class characteristics that federal anti-discrimination laws deem unusable in the hiring process (race, religion, natural origin, age, sex, familial status, sexual orientation, disability status, etc.) How the Service Works Social Intelligence Corporations automated collection technology allows SIC to provide reports within 24 to 48 hours while still having social media activity about every job applicant manually reviewed. When the information is reviewed, protected information is filtered out of the report. Reporting includes information on objectionable material, such as racist remarks or behavior, explicit photos and video, and illegal activity as defined by the employer. Employers are benefitted by being alerted if their potential or current employees violate the companys standards for online behavior without the risk of discrimination charges that comes with standard search engine screening. Job Seeker and Employee Advice Its important to note that this service makes it even easier for employers to find out information that can be held against you when youre job searching or on the job. Its really important to be careful what you post on social media, blogs, and other internet sites. The chances of someone finding information that could be damaging to your career are high. Your best bet is to be careful about what you post and to presume that what you post is public, despite any privacy settings you may have.