LEGAL AND MANAGERIAL SIDE OF SOCIAL MEDIA

You may have read recently about companies that request applicant’s password to Facebook.  Let me advise all business owners large and small against this practice.  Sure it is important to check references and background.  However, the use of social media opens new challenges in the employment area.

A person’s Facebook account could have all types of information including age, heath status, relationship status, and many other things that have no bearing on job suitability.  I am sure no one would knowingly eliminate a candidate for illegal reasons.  But here is the problem.  Even if you don’t make a hiring decision or other employment decision based in this type of personal information you could still cause a legal problem for you or your company.

For example, if you legitimately discipline or terminate the employee for cause at a later date the employee could claim that you did it because you knew that he was ill something similar that was posted on the employee’s Facebook page.  Companies that use Facebook or other social media check have set up a firewall by employing a third party to check for certain information that is relevant to the job.  The hiring manager gets that information only but never sees anything else.

Now let’s turn to the business owner or manager on Facebook or other social media.  First of all, you should not friend your employees.  Second, be very careful what you put on your Facebook page.  Highly controversial and opinionated posts can come back to haunt you.  In fact this is great advice to all business owners, even those with no employees.  You may have a personal and business page but we all know that nothing is private on the Internet.  Your behavior on the Internet affects your reputation and your brand.

And as an employer you must lead by example.