Screening job candidates via social media: Opportunities and pitfalls

Many businesses have undergone significant changes over the past decade due to the exponential growth of social media. These technologies have not only altered how professionals and businesses operate but also the way they get engaged with target groups. With millions of job seekers being tech-savvy, recruiters are heavily using social media to screen job candidates. Whether seeking a job or hunting for candidates, these online networks seem to be the ideal venue. Therefore, our objective in this paper is to examine the opportunities and pitfalls of using social media in the recruitment process. In this respect, it was found out that these online platforms enable human resources managers to have access to a large and diverse pool of qualified prospective employees at a lower cost, and to get connected with passive candidates. Social media also provide recruiters with an opportunity to get greater insight into an applicant's real abilities and competences as well as to view aspects of his personality. Nevertheless, using these platforms in the hiring process usually inundates employers with huge amounts of data that is often difficult to analyze. Moreover, being limited to the information available on social media runs the risk of excluding skilled candidates or hiring under qualified employees. Finally, accessing sensitive information on a job candidate's social media profile could be viewed as an invasion of privacy. Despite all these pitfalls, we strongly believe that social media represent a significant component of the hiring process that will give businesses a competitive advantage.