Report: Only 5% of employers fully utilitizing social media background checks

October 26, 2017

NAPBS and HR.com recently released a report on their latest national survey of human resources professionals.

One statistic that stood out to us:

Only 23% of employers perform social media background checks and only 5% perform them for all candidates.

It’s surprising that the continued rise of social media use does not correlate with the rise of social media screening.

social media background checks“Tools such as Facebook and Twitter enable employers to get a glimpse of who candidates are outside the confines of a resume or cover letter,” said Rosemary Haefner, chief human resources officer of CareerBuilder following a 2016 report on social media background checks. In that 2016 CareerBuilder report, social media screening by employers was touted at 60%. This would suggest that it’s on a downward trend. Again, a surprising data point to note. While there are still some legal gray areas as to how to implement this type of screening, it’s hard to imagine that would lead to a steep decrease in usage.

In fact, just last year, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) released guidance on how to use an applicant’s publicly available social media information during the background investigation process. A significant indicator that such checks were becoming more mainstream.

Social media background checks have been a hot topic of discussion in recent years, given that it can be incredibly difficult to avoid accessing personal information which cannot legally be used to deny employment.

While usage may increase some years and in some areas, reports like this from NAPBS suggest that it’s still far from being considered a “go-to” check during the pre-employment process.

That may be due to the risks involved. It’s vital to stay within legal guidelines, a small slip and an employer may find themselves in hot water. If you have any questions about how to stay on the right side of the law, our team is happy to help. Get in touch here.

View the full NAPBS report here.

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