Social media screening for employment analyzes a candidate’s online behaviour to identify red flags that aren’t found using traditional background checks. Many employers use social media background checks to build healthy work cultures by weeding out potentially toxic individuals.

Employers also use social media background checks for current employees to ensure they’re compliant with company social media policies and aren’t posting private, company-related information.

Here’s what you need to know.

Social Media Screening for New Hires

In a recent survey, 65% of Canadian employers said they use a social media background check for employment screening. Of this number, 41% said they’ve disqualified candidates due to social media content.

Red flags can include:

  • Explicit photos/videos showing inappropriate/illegal behaviour
  • Discriminatory posts
  • Derogatory statements regarding a previous employer

If a candidate is posting offensive content to social media, there’s a strong chance they’ll behave similarly on the job. You can’t afford to have a toxic individual on the team who’s going to negatively impact morale and potentially drive away your top performers to your competitors.

Social Media Screening for Current Employees

Interestingly, 61% of job seekers believe that social media content shouldn’t influence an employer’s decision to hire a candidate. Whereas 88% agree that a company should be allowed to fire someone based on an inappropriate post once someone is hired.

In the same survey as above, 86% of Canadian employers said they would fire an employee for inappropriate posts, which can include:

  • Damaging a company’s reputation
  • Private information about the company
  • Violating company social media policy
  • Illegal drug use
  • And more

With regard to social media policies, most companies discourage the use of social media during working hours and prohibit posting company-relevant material. However, only 18% of Canadian companies have a formal social media policy for their employees.

A social media background check is a key piece of enforcing a social media policy. Are your employees on Instagram when they should be working? Are they tweeting about your company, clients, or co-workers? You can’t know unless you check.

How to Leverage Social Media Screening for Employment

Triton offers comprehensive social media background checks with industry-leading turnaround times that are compliant with all government regulations. We help companies build stronger workplace cultures.

Want to take our solution for a test drive? 1-855-643-9194 or visit our website to request a free demo.