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Employers should reconsider social media boundaries

As social media is becoming a more integral part of everyday life, employers are increasingly targeting these sites to screen job candidates, and some have recently been under fire when they asked prospective employees for their social media passwords.

By Amanda McGrory-Dixon | Updated on April 27, 2012

As social media is becoming a more integral part of everyday life, employers are increasingly targeting these sites to screen job candidates, and some have recently been under fire when they asked prospective employees for their social media passwords. While these employers may have good intentions and just want to verify information given to them by job applicants, there could be negative repercussions, says Duncan Ferguson, managing director of leadership development at BPI Group, a global management and human resources consulting firm.

“Most employers are looking at character issues and thinking about whether that individual would be good fit into the organization,” Ferguson says. “Employers are trying to see what they can find out about job seekers and if there’s anything that could potentially cause them some embarrassment. They want to double check what their job candidates have said about themselves and find out if all the information is truthful.”

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