An employee screening company has warned career hungry employees to stay away from social networking sites.
BackgroundChecking.com’s managing director, Steve Bailey said: “Users of these networking sites don’t seem to be giving sufficient consideration to the fact that messages written in jest, criticism of current or previous employers, images of their weekend activities and their personal interests are in the public domain and can be easily accessed at the touch of a button, throwing their career prospects into turmoil.”
Bailey warned that employees need to protect themselves from defamatory comments on these sites in reference to a current or old employer.
“What is said may seem clever today, but not in the years to come when a candidate loses an exciting career prospect because of it. Bear in mind that there is nowhere to hide from an embarrassing or detrimental internet history – you cannot relocate or emigrate, it is the World Wide Web!”
The findings concur with an HR Zone report in June which revealed that employers are increasingly turning to social networking sites including MySpace and Facebook to filter out unsuitable candidates.
The report, by the Recruitment Employment Confederation, found that leaving an internet footprint could damage recruitment chances and encourage employers to discriminate on the grounds of race, sexual orientation or religion.
