According to the St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce, the City of St. Petersburg has a workforce of more than 1.2 million people. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate in St. Petersburg is 10.5 percent. Many residents in the area most likely have Facebook and other social media accounts they check and post to regularly. But when staff at companies that deal with human resources in St. Petersburg are looking to hire new talent, how much checking and clicking on the Web is too much?
With so much information being constantly posted on social media sites, this gives you many ways to elevate your level of background checking. However, this has also increased concerns over both legality and privacy issues. Human resource experts say sites such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook play an important role in today’s hiring process. Those experts also say you should be careful about what information you choose to use to influence your decisions and how you handle those media background checks.
According to a recent survey sponsored by Microsoft Corp., seven out of 10 hiring managers in the United States reject candidates based on information they have posted online. In addition, the study revealed that 90 percent of hiring managers are “somewhat” to “very” concerned that the information they find can be both inaccurate and unreliable.
Human resource experts say if employers find inappropriate photos of potential candidates on the Internet, it could impact their decision as to whether or not they would fit into their company. They also say companies also look at social media sites to see if the candidates are connected to other colleagues in their same field.
HR experts remind us no matter what tools you use to research a job candidate, the most important thing about hiring a new employee is if they can get the job done.
Modern Business Associates is an HR company that focuses on payroll and HR outsourcing. We routinely work with clients on human resources in St. Petersburg. As a Professional Payroll and HR outsource organization, our clients rely on us to help them effectively deal with these kinds of topics.