Social Media Due Diligence in the Hiring Process
For a company building its brand and working hard to scale its business, its biggest asset, as well as potential weakness, is those that it hires. While the majority of companies conduct a background check prior to hiring a new employee, many companies fail to conduct further due diligence, such as on social media. A look at a candidate’s social media and online presence could protect a company from insider threat or brand degradation. Proactively ensuring you hire individuals that are the right fit for your business and are trustworthy can save you money and time in the long run.
Du-Zel Consulting conducts pre-hire online profile reviews which take a look at a candidate’s public social media activity and online presence with an emphasis on potential red flags, such as: badmouthing customers or former employers, inconsistencies in the candidate’s resume, making derogatory comments, disclosing sensitive work information, inciting or celebrating violence, and participating in illegal behaviors.
Additionally, in competitive industries such as emerging tech, insider threat poses a great risk to a company’s proprietary information. According to the Ponemon Institute’s 2022 Cost of Insider Threats Global Report, in 2022 26% of insider threat incidents were from criminal or malicious insiders. The pre-hire online profile review can provide valuable insight into a candidate’s allegiances.
Not only is this information helpful to the employer, it can also help the candidate. Many people do not remember what they posted on a social media site several years ago, which could adversely affect the candidate and their employer today. Looking at the online presence as part of the hiring process allows the candidate to see what information they may want to remove or make private.
Waiting until an incident occurs to conduct social media monitoring can cause a major loss for companies based on brand degradation, loss of sales, and a loss in needing to hire and replace for a position. In 2022 for example, an executive of a healthcare organization was fired after she posted racist comments on Facebook regarding the Black Lives Matter movement. The company needed to follow up the remarks with a public relations campaign to counter the individual’s comments, fire the individual, pay legal fees related to the firing and subsequent lawsuit, as well as find a replacement for the individual and rebuild knowledge in the position. All of which could have been avoided with proper online due diligence in the hiring process.
So what are the benefits of social media and online presence due diligence in the hiring process?
Save time and money by not hiring the wrong individuals.
Protect your company from potential brand degradation, particularly when hiring individuals for high-profile positions.
Protect your company from insider threats which are also extremely costly. (The average cost of an incident due to a criminal & malicious insider was $614,192 in 2022 according to the same Ponemon Institute study.)
Reaffirm a candidate is the right fit for a position and find out positive information on a candidate.
Note: Employers are responsible for following all applicable state and federal laws related to hiring when including due diligence in the hiring process.