Regardless of how polished and perfect a potential employee seems, corporations need to know that they can count on all of their employees upholding company values even when no one is watching. When they don’t, the entire company could end up caught in the crosshairs of a social media scandal. Google’s recent gender pay discrimination and employee “manifesto” are prime examples. So how does a human resource department scrutinize a prospect’s personal life without becoming too invasive?

Compliance

The Equal Opportunity Commission and the Fair Credit Reporting Act prevent employers and potential employers from making biased hiring decisions. Human resources departments must remain in compliance in order to protect the rights of candidates and employees. Choosing automated, data-backed software to sift through applications while remaining in compliance with those protections serves to alleviate stress in already over-worked HR departments.

Social media screening software that complies with regulatory standards will take the pressure off human screeners who may inadvertently show bias against or toward certain candidates. In the process, hiring becomes more fair and equitable.

Set Your Values

Despite regulations and compliance, private companies have great flexibility in choosing employees whose values match those of the organization deciding whether or not to hire them. Social media screening can help fill in behavioral gaps that were formerly invisible. This is especially true for younger demographics who have lived the majority of their lives under the digital microscope. When developing a social media screening strategy be aware of the values your organization seeks in potential employees. Be as detailed as possible. Perhaps alcohol use isn’t a major factor, but hate speech is a huge red flag.

Think about your company’s image and whether or not the individual will uphold that image. In some cases, image might matter more than talent. Develop your priorities and choose metrics that hold the most value to your organization.

Keep Up Checks

Just because an employee has passed muster, been hired and moved up the ranks, doesn’t mean that their social media presence isn’t important. In fact, the older a person the more likely that their social media image holds more weight. These are individuals who should know better than to post questionable photos or explosive political content. So while a millennial posting drunk photos from college is a bit more forgivable, a sixty-year-old senior manager posting pictures of debauchery is a cause for concern. It’s a question of judgment, and a more experienced employee who shows poor judgment on social media is a higher risk to company image.

As mentioned earlier, human resource departments are busy places. Staffers simply lack the time needed to comb through social media platforms. This is why software tools that are backed by data and artificial intelligence help maintain a clean social media reputation without over-tasking human resource managers.

Companies like Fama specialize in maintaining compliance regulations while leveraging artificial intelligence to identify red flags. Once identified these flags are analyzed, ensuring that employees and candidates are given a fair chance. The analysis also provides executive level management with patterns of employee behavior that can indicate their corporation’s overall cultural environment.