The New Age of Background Checks

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Ivy League graduate. Great résumé and references. Interview went well and has a 4.0 GPA to boot.

But in the new age of background checks, a smooth veneer is not always enough. Although the rumors of it have been flying around college campuses for quite some time, a recent New York Times article exposed the new tool for performing background checks on your employees: their MySpace, Facebook, Xanga, Friendster, and personal websites and blogs.

The article talks about a graduate similar to the one above that was not offered a position because he listed his interests on Facebook.com as “smokin’ blunts”, shooting people, and obscene sex. The job he applied for informed him that he did not meet the ideals of the company and refused to hire him despite the rest of his qualifications.

"A lot of it makes me think, what kind of judgment does this person have?" said the company's president, Brad Karsh. "Why are you allowing this to be viewed publicly, effectively, or semipublicly?"

Although Facebook is a site mostly reserved for high school and college students (you need a valid school address to sign up), employers and Human Resources departments have been finding ways around it. Some ask interns to conduct searches. Some use their college alumni e-mail address to gain access. And now Facebook, for the right price, will grant an employer unbridled access to their system.

MySpace.com and personal websites and blogs are even easier to access as the only necessity is an internet connection and a computer.

According to a study released recently by Spherion Corporation and published online by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), 93% of those companies surveyed said they used some sort of screening tool before hiring. This number is a huge increase from 48% only five years ago. The new age of technology and online communities has helped to spur this movement along.

According to the Times article, at New York University, recruiters from about 30 companies told career counselors that they were looking at the sites, said Trudy G. Steinfeld, Executive Director of the Center for Career Development. "The term they've used over and over is red flags," Steinfeld said. "Is there something about their lifestyle that we might find questionable or that we might find goes against the core values of our corporation?"

Fortunately for employers this type of background check is not covered by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). According to a recent alert from the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a non-profit consumer information and advocacy organization, “the protections offered by the FCRA only apply if an employer uses a third-party screening company to conduct the background check. In the case of Internet searches, the employer is the one doing the screening. Because the FCRA does not apply, the employer does not have a legal obligation to tell the applicant that the Internet search led to their disqualification.”

This also means that, unlike a credit search which requires consent from the applicant, these searches can be done without having to gain the potential (or current) employee’s consent.

Another scenario which is listed on “Knock ‘em Dead: The Ultimate Blog for Job Search and Career Management from Martin Yate”, says:

“After an offer was extended, a…background check revealed that the associate's degree she had on her résumé had never been completed 20 years ago. She apparently thought it had. Although the degree was not a requirement of the job - the company rescinded the offer anyway.”

The question was then posed: “Who has the final say? The hiring Manager (who wants her) or the HR Dept?”

In the end, it’s up to Human Resources to enforce the organization’s policy and ideals in their hiring choices. And they have many tools at their fingertips in this day and age. A favorite of some Human Resource professionals is to do a simple Google or Yahoo! search on the candidate. Others use sites that will check all of the information of one’s online persona, such as Stalkerati, Zoominfo, and Zabasearch.

But how much weight should be put on the online persona? A user known as “glasshalfempty” on the user-powered message board site Digg, commented: “I think that is a terrible method to use for background checks. Many people on MySpace are simply keeping in touch with their friends and they should not have to worry about their bosses judging their every word.”

Glasshalfempty’s posting speaks some truth. Using these methods for background checks can be flawed in a lot of ways. A lot of people are trying to keep in touch with friends and family, some are using it for dating purposes, and, as the New York Times article said, “posturing” occurs, which means that many profiles are exaggerated on these sites to make the user seem cool and attractive to those who see their profile. And anyone can post on the internet so you can never truly trust the information you are getting as the truth.

“Given the choice between a stellar resume and interview and a sketchy online persona, I would have to err on the side of caution and include online information in the hiring decision,” suggested Jennifer C. Loftus, National Director with Astron Solutions. “As long as the information used in the hiring decision would not be viewed as discriminatory, such as race, religion, color, gender, national origin, disability, or veterans status, one must consider the impact of negligent hiring claims that could be brought from hiring the ‘wrong’ person.  Hiring is not about finding the most qualified person, but rather the best suited person for the position and the organization.  Online information can help to make that determination regarding ‘best suited.’”

According to the New York Times some companies, such as Enterprise Rent-a-Car, Ernst & Young, and Osram Sylvania, don’t want to know what you’ve been writing in your blog.  “I'd rather not see that part of them," said Maureen Crawford Hentz, Manager of Talent Acquisition at Osram Sylvania. "I don't think it's related to their bona fide occupational qualifications."

But other companies, particularly those involved in the digital world like Microsoft and Métier, a small software company in Washington, D.C., said researching students through social networking sites was now fairly typical. "It's becoming very much a common tool," said Warren Ashton, Group Marketing Manager at Microsoft. "For the first time ever, you suddenly have very public information about almost any candidate."

Colleges are starting to get smart to employers’ research.  Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts has a Facebook seminar lesson during First Year orientation to warn students against putting up anything potentially damaging on the site, and to address the abuses and misuses of others. This hour-long orientation that tells freshmen that, “when you click ‘go,’ you lose control of this. We have an obligation to educate ourselves and them about this,” Assistant Dean of Student Life Alwina Bennett told Inside Higher Ed. At the orientation, technology staff members tell students how non-secure peer-to-peer sites really are, and that people have lost their jobs over blogs.

The Wall Street Journal’s CareerJournal, in response to the New York Times article, came up with two articles about covering your tracks in an online world and then burying your online dirt.

Even with people trying to cover their tracks, doing online searches before hiring an employee comes down to doing regular due diligence.  “With so many people saying they want to ‘get the right people on the bus,’ HR Professionals must do complete research in order to make the best hiring decision.  We do complete due diligence with other HR activities.  A few extra moments’ time could save your organization years of trouble,” explained Loftus.  Finding out in a simple background search that someone does not embody the ideals and values of your company can save a lot of time and money. With the tools available to Human Resources professionals now, it would be negligent not to do so.