Social Media in Selection

Social media in selection occurs when organizational representatives view social networking Web sites (SNWs) such as LinkedIn and/or Facebook in the employment selection process, leading to the acceptance or rejection of job applicants. SNW screening is prevalent (though more so in the United States than in other countries). Furthermore, the prevalence of SNW screening differs based on the type of job and/or industry of the applicant being evaluated. There has been a shift from viewing personal SNWs (e.g., Facebook) to viewing more professional ones (e.g., LinkedIn). As a new employment selection approach, there is little evidence of the benefit of using SNWs to screen job applicants. The potential to gain useful information via SNWs is largely offset by numerous legal and ethical issues. This has ...