Lots of folks have had lots to say about a Workforce article where lawyers discussed the legal pitfalls (gasp!) of recruiting through social networks. Their points are valid: a good recruiter is not sourcing just from social media networks. A good recruiter knows where his/her audience is and goes to find them. Social networks are another tool in your tool belt, not the entire belt.
I agree. Really, I do. There’s a ‘but’ coming though, you knew that, right? Okay, I agree, but, with the
increase of HR pros, recruiters and hiring managers checking out the social media profiles of candidates, the potential for discrimination also increases. I believe that the advances in social media and our ability to connect with more and more people could be causing a retreat to a more discriminatory time.
I’m not talking about the deliberate and conscious act of discrimination. And yes, it still happens today. And yes, we all know it’s illegal. I’m talking about the subconscious discrimination that could occur. You know, our gut level reaction to folks based on the color of their skin, accent, disability, status. Carol Miaskoff, Assistant Legal Counsel with the U.S. EEOC, talked about this in her recent presentation at the ERE Fall Expo. You can check out her presentation here.
Think about it. There’s blog post after blog post advising candidates to connect, share, build their brand, show their personality. Be authentically you. But how much is too much? Could a candidate’s minority status or interests cause others to gain a false perception of them? How do we know that profile pictures, tweets, or status updates are not manifesting any preconceived notions of a particular culture? There’s not a lot of talk about these issues, and it’s much harder to prove, but let’s not think for a minute that it could not happen. Carol Miaskoff says in her presentation, and I agree with her, “Discrimination is, despite our progress, a real concern and a reality today.”
From an HR/Recruiting perspective, we have to be mindful of what could happen with the enormous amounts of information available to us on these candidates. What are we doing to make sure we get past any chance of subconscious discrimination within our organizations? Do we have mechanisms in place to get past those gut level reactions? Are we doing our jobs and presenting the best qualified candidates, regardless of race/ethnicity? Have we developed the trust needed with our leaders/hiring managers, and do they know that we would not present a candidate if they were not qualified? Do we have enough of a voice within our companies that enables us to push back, and bring a little fire to the situation when we feel that something is just not right? Like the hiring manager who uses the “I can’t put my finger on it” or “They’re just not a good fit” reasons. Do you have enough fire power to push back, probe and get specifics?
I’m sure you’re saying that this doesn’t happen in your organization. Really? How do you know? What are you doing to ensure that, with the increase in social media usage, good candidates are not being passed over based on any discriminatory issue?
The end result should be that we place the very best candidate, right? So let’s be real about this issue and not shove it under a rug. Let’s take the steps to make sure that it’s not happening on our watch.
Editor’s Note: Crystal Peterson is the Chief People Officer & Senior Vice President of HR at Doe-Anderson, one of the Midwest’s most recognized advertising agencies – and count her as a driving force for making Doe a great place to work. In her spare time… well, she doesn’t have spare time. But when she can find a minute to breathe outside of the world of Doe, Crystal is a stage mom mom and wife, and lives the dream in Louisville, Kentucky. Crystal can also be found blogging at CrissCrossed.
Crystal, great post. I love the emphasis on solid HR processes, clear and relevant information, and solid data in the hiring process. There is no other way to do HR, these days.
@Laurie – thanks! I agree…with solid HR processes, I think we can avoid some of the fear-factor issues around social media and recruiting.
Thanks for the post Crystal. It can be easy to delude ourselves into thinking that the decisions we make are free from bias. This is especially true when we talk about how well a candidate “fits” into an organization, as opposed to whether or not he/she has the required skills for the position.
Check out this study that was done regarding bias in the resume screening process: https://www.chicagobooth.edu/capideas/spring03/racialbias.html
I just have one simple question. Instead of worrying about discrimination, why aren’t we (HR Pro’s) advocating for more diversity in the social media space?
Isn’t there the potential for discrimination every step of the way? What about a phone screen where you don’t care for the southern twang or pitch of the voice or dropping of “g” endins.
How about the resume – you don’t like the college, it was a competitor of yours and that person must be stupid to have gone there.
And the face to face interview? She had on the same pendent diamond heart necklace you gave your girl and she cheated on you with your best friend. This candidate sucks…
We need to recognize our biases and stop being babies. We the people in order to form a more perfect Union try to sanitize and mechanize a human process.. Look, I’m 100% in favor equality but all we can do is work toward it, we are not perfect, we are human. I see it time and time again, don’t be shy, admit what goes on behind closed doors and some of the cockamamie reasons the hiring manager disqualifies a candidate. It’s up to HR / Recruiter to sanitize it, converse, coach, counsel and be the voice of reason. If you’re honest you’ll agree I’m right. My 2 cents and I’m hot about it.
BTW, aren’t we being dishonest and asinine trying to pretend we don’t “look” with all the tools available to do so? Even when we didn’t have SN we had a phone, references that used to vomit all the good stuff and any recruiter with their salt had connections at every company to super sleuth weight, height, hair color, bad breath, “stories” whatever.
Why are we pretending SN has brought us something new? It’s just in a new upfront format instead of the Sherlock Holmes platform…
There aren’t many issues that I have mixed feelings on but this is definitely one of them.
In most ways, I completely agree with Crystal and I applaud her for having the courage to bring this up in front of those in social media whose motto is “all social media – all the time.”
The example that I always use is the pregnancy one. You interview a great applicant. You pass them along to the hiring manager who loves them. You start working on your offer letter. Then you get a call from the hiring manager.
Hiring Department Manager: Have you made that offer yet to the applicant from yesterday?
Staffing Manager: Which applicant? You mean the one you interviewed yesterday and said would be perfect? I’m working on her offer letter right now.
Hiring Department Manager: Phew! Cancel the letter. I don’t want to hire her anymore.
Staffing Manager: What?! How come?
Hiring Department Manager: I was reading through her tweets and found out that she’s pregnant! We are too busy around here. We don’t have time for a maternity leave. Can you find me someone else?
Staffing Manager: Whaaaatttt?
Hiring Department Manager: I know. Aren’t we lucky I saw that before the offer went out?
Staffing Manager: (banging head on desk) Argghhh
But then on the other hand, as a recruiter for many, many years in my early career, I understand the need, want, desire to know as much as possible about the applicant. The idea is to be able to draw a picture of who the employee is – what is the nature of their character, etc. This help you make the best matches.
My motto was always it’s fine to know protected class items about an applicant as long as you don’t use that knowledge to discriminate. (Though, check your state laws on that because some are stricter than others about even knowing.) In a perfect world, we should be able to find out that the applicant is pregnant and not think twice about continuing on with the offer letter. In reality, we have our non-HR hiring managers who are human (and some are better humans than others) and don’t always want to act in accordance with the laws.
This puts HR into a real bind as the Risk Manager when it comes to hiring.
My gut is that HR people should be able to view the social media of applicants and use that information correctly without discriminating. (Though it is a risky proposition.) I’m less inclined to have that information available for non-HR managers who may have a more difficult time using that information appropriately.
@Victorio – yes, ‘fit’ can be a tricky word in our world. And thanks for the link to the study. It does happen, we know it happens, now let’s take steps to correct it.
@John – We should be advocating for more diversity in the social media space, but will that decrease the bias that could occur? I don’t think so. I’m not ‘worrying’ about discrimination, I’m just accepting the fact that it happens, and trying to provide steps to avoid it.
@Karla – Yes, there’s potential for discrimination in every step of the recruiting process, starting with reviewing the name on the resume (see the link @Victorio provided above). I am by no means saying that it only happens in social media. This just happened to be the focus of this post. I think some folks can be quick to dismiss some of the negatives of social media because it is the new shiny toy, but like you said, it’s up to us (HR pros) to coach, counsel and be the voice of reason.
@Beth – this is a tough one. I understand the need to want to know as much about the candidate as possible, as long as it’s used correctly. My fear is that some of the discriminatory practices still occur because the HR person does not feel like they have the authority to push back. And that’s a bad position to be in. I hope that we continue to have more conversations around this area so that we can give folks the tools they need to flush the problem out.