UK employers should be wary of adopting a legally risky US trend that is seeing bosses ask interviewees for social media passwords in order to scrutinise their personal profiles.
Although not illegal in the US, the practice is already causing so much concern that two senators have asked the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Department of Justice to launch investigations.
But according to Jane Craven, managing director of HR outsourcing services provider, Sagegreen, if UK employers follow suit, the trend, which is also dubbed ‘shoulder surfing’, could open them up to the threat of discrimination lawsuits.
She said that, while scrutinising candidate’s online profiles on social networking sites such as Facebook during an interview might just seem like an additional way to check the suitability of candidates, by prying into their personal information, interviewers could inadvertently “intrude into an applicant’s private life”.
The fact that they could potentially read details of their sexual orientation, disability, religion or other sensitive data “could lead to a claim for discrimination if the applicant is turned down”, Craven explained.
Another concern was simply discounting otherwise talented candidates because “their private persona does not fit the perceived wisdom as to the standard person for the role,” she said.
2 Responses
HR
Requesting candidate’s social networking profile passwords does raise concerns and rightly so. Facebook profiles contains personal information that candidates may not necessarily want their future employers to know about or use against them. This begs the question whether information on these profiles is actually relevant to employers and why they would want to use this information as a basis for making their decision.
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is it a strength not to reveal passwords?
I have already seen it suggested that employers may reject a candidate who reveals his Facebook password. If he gives away that information so easily to a stranger, how can he be trusted with the company’s confidential information.
Perhaps candidates can turn a refusal to a strength. showing that they cannot be induced to reveal confidential information.