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Social Media as a Personnel Selection and Hiring Resource: Reservations and Recommendations

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Book cover Social Media in Employee Selection and Recruitment

Abstract

Employers are often using Internet searches, social networking websites, and social media to examine detailed public information about job candidates, and sometimes private information about these job candidates as well. Such social media prescreening and human resource (HR) selection practices may have the potential to offer value-added information above and beyond that which is assessed using more traditional HR selection methods. However, details concerning the legality and the appropriateness or inappropriateness of these social media screening methods are only now emerging. Here we examine the legality, standardization, reliability, and job-relevance (i.e., validity) of job candidate data obtained via social media, along with reservations regarding this practice. We also provide recommendations for HR practitioners in using social media for selection purposes, should they choose to do so and hopefully with an awareness of the caveats that we provide. Suggestions for future research on social media HR selection practices are also discussed.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    One of the authors has heard that some college fraternities encourage their graduating seniors entering the job market to delete their current Facebook profile, if showing certain parties and events over the years, and then creating a new, sanitized Facebook account that would be highly unlikely to offend any potential employer.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Management, Fogelman College of Business & Economics, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, 38152, USA

    H. Kristl Davison Ph.D.

  2. Department of Management, School of Business Administration, University of Mississippi, 233 Holman Hall, 1848, University, MS, 38677, USA

    Mark N. Bing Ph.D.

  3. Department of Managerial Studies, University of Illinois—Chicago, 601 S. Morgan St. 2204 UH, Chicago, IL, 60607-9308, USA

    Donald H. Kluemper Ph.D.

  4. Department of Management, College of Business, Clemson University, Clemson, SC, 29634-1305, USA

    Philip L. Roth Ph.D.

Authors
  1. H. Kristl Davison Ph.D.
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  2. Mark N. Bing Ph.D.
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  3. Donald H. Kluemper Ph.D.
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  4. Philip L. Roth Ph.D.
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mark N. Bing Ph.D. .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept of Psychology, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia, USA

    Richard N Landers

  2. Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA

    Gordon B Schmidt

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Davison, H.K., Bing, M.N., Kluemper, D.H., Roth, P.L. (2016). Social Media as a Personnel Selection and Hiring Resource: Reservations and Recommendations. In: Landers, R., Schmidt, G. (eds) Social Media in Employee Selection and Recruitment. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-29989-1_2

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