- Sixty percent of employers use social networking sites to research job candidates, up from 52 percent last year and 11 percent in 2006
- More than a quarter of employers have found content online that has caused them to reprimand or fire an employee
Spending your work day browsing social media? You’re not the only one in the office. According to CareerBuilder’s annual social media recruitment survey, 60 percent of employers use social networking sites to research job candidates, up significantly from 52 percent last year, 22 percent in 2008 and 11 percent in 2006, when the survey was first conducted. Additionally, 59 percent of hiring managers use search engines to research candidates – compared to 51 percent last year.
The national survey was conducted online by Harris Poll on behalf of CareerBuilder between February 10 and March 17, 2016, and included a representative sample of 2,186 hiring managers and human resource professionals and 3,031 full time, workers in the private sector across industries and company sizes.
“Tools such as Facebook and Twitter enable employers to get a glimpse of who candidates are outside the confines of a resume or cover letter,” said Rosemary Haefner, chief human resources officer of CareerBuilder. “And with more and more people using social media, it’s not unusual to see the usage for recruitment to grow as well.”
Hiring managers in information technology and sales are the most likely to use social networks to screen candidates; professional and business services were least likely.
- IT: 76 percent
- Sales: 65 percent
- Financial services: 61 percent
- Health care: 59 percent
- Retail: 59 percent
- Manufacturing: 56 percent
- Professional and business services: 55 percent
Most hiring managers aren’t intentionally looking for negatives. Six in ten employers who currently use social networking sites to research job candidates (60 percent) are “looking for information that supports their qualifications for the job,” according to the survey. For some occupations, this could include a professional portfolio. Fifty-three percent of these hiring managers want to see if the candidate has a professional online persona, 30 percent want to see what other people are posting about the candidate, and 21 percent admit they’re looking for reasons not to hire the candidate.
Why Can’t We Be Friends?
There’s a lot of buzz about the various ways social media blunders can cost you a job, but that doesn’t mean you should keep your profiles completely private. More than two in five employers (41 percent) say they are less likely to interview job candidates if they are unable to find information about that person online — a 6 percent increase since last year.
