Mediaboss Marketing

Using social media in the recruiting process can be risky in and of itself, but failing to implement a formal policy puts the organization on even shakier ground.

By MARK MCGRAW

A growing number of companies turning to social media for help in recruiting passive job candidates, according to a recent study from The Society for Human Resource Management.

Organizations that forego defining proper social media procedures do so at their own peril, said Peter Hughes, a Morristown, N.J.-based attorney with Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart.

"Employers should have policies if they are going to use social media in the recruitment process," he said. "There are legal risks in using social media to identify and screen candidates. These legal risks are growing as more states regulate the process, and as courts are called upon to review these processes."

For example, Utah recently joined California, Illinois, Maryland and Michigan on the list of states that have passed social media privacy legislation that prohibits employers from asking employees and job applicants to provide log-in information for their personal Internet accounts. In April, New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez signed a similar bill into law, although New Mexico's law only applies to job applicants, and does not mention current employees.

It's important to distinguish screening and recruiting candidates as "two distinct activities in the hiring process," says Alexander Alonso, vice president of research at SHRM.

Companies, he said, are using social networking sites to "identify passive applicants or people who might not actively apply to their open positions, or to build their employer brand," noting that fewer than 20 percent of employers indicated they engage in using social media to screen job candidates.

Indeed, respondents to SHRM's survey did voice misgivings about the potential legal snafus associated with using social media to screen candidates. About three-quarters of respondents whose organizations do not use social networking sites to screen candidates said they fear potential legal issues or discovering information about individuals' protected characteristics.

Donald Schroeder, a Boston-based attorney with Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, echoed those worries.

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Risky Recruiting Business