PDA

View Full Version : Do you Research Potential Hires on the Web?



KristineS
11-25-2009, 12:45 PM
The thread where I was talking about poor grammar and practically illiterate forum posts got me thinking about this, so I decided to ask the question.

I know not all of us here have employees, but I still think it is an interesting question. If you did have to hire someone, would you research them on the web? If you did research them, how much bearing would what you found have on your final decision? Would it count as much as a personal interview?

Personally, the last time I had to hire someone, I did do research on the web. Part of this was because I was hiring a graphic designer and lots of designers have online portfolios. So I was more looking for examples of artwork then to get a general feel for the candidates personality. What I found did have some bearing on who got an interview and who got hired. It didn't carry as much weight as the in person interviews, but it did carry some weight.

What about the rest of you? Would you do research and how much would what you found matter?

cbscreative
11-25-2009, 01:27 PM
Even if it's not for hiring in the traditional sense, it does matter. Yes, I do a lot of online research, but I also know I'm not alone.

I know for a fact that many of my clients have researched me on the Internet before I got "hired" and I appreciate that they did that. It helps build confidence (as long as you have nothing to hide). I've found clients who do more due diligence are better clients. The fact that they screen you in advance is a good thing.

I think it goes well beyond just spelling and grammar, it's a question of standards, and those who allow themselves a lower standard will suffer for it.

billbenson
11-25-2009, 09:50 PM
What do you use for databases to find this stuff?

The reason I ask is a friend has the opposite problem. His brother took a corvette for a test drive 20 years ago, was speeding, ran from the police, totaled the car and said he was my friend. My friend went to court and showed the police officer he wasn't the one in the chase and accident. Charges were dropped for him and changed to his brother, however to this day he is in databases as having been arrested for auto theft and a bunch of other charges. A couple of years ago he found out he had warrants in other states related to this.

He would like to find out what charges are still out there. What databases would help him find that info. He is still getting turned down for jobs because of this.

He would also like to know if he can still file civil charger against his brother related to this if anybody knows.

vangogh
11-25-2009, 10:54 PM
Bill I don't know that I'd be looking for specific databases, but rather general searches on the person's name to see what they've said and done online. You might find them at forums and other social sites easily enough.

I'd also guess it's a little late to file civil charges for something 20 years old, though take that thought with the idea that I'm hardly a lawyer.

I don't hire at the moment, but assuming I did I think I would spend a little time searching online about potential candidates. I wouldn't choose not to hire someone because they did something stupid one night in college. Who among us hasn't. I wouldn't automatically not hire someone because I found them using poor grammar either. I'd have to weigh the context of how much poor grammar and how often I found it. Everyone of us here leaves typos in posts for example. It's the nature of a forum. We're typing very fast and not really going back over every post to correct things. The same is going to be true in many places online. I wouldn't hold it against someone for using abbreviations on Twitter even if it were grammatically incorrect.

I'd be searching online more for a sense of who the person is and whether or not I thought they could help my business and be a good fit.

billbenson
11-25-2009, 11:38 PM
There are databases that do criminal background checks. I don't know how good they are though. You are always hearing news stories about someone who committed a crime in some state and the police in another know nothing about it.

In the case of the 20 years passing for my friend, I wonder if that is the case in what is affectively identity theft, particularly for civil cases. If he could show that he recently lost a job because of the actions of his brother 20 years ago, I wonder if he has a case. Its an unusual situation. Obviously a very dysfunctional family as well.

KristineS
11-26-2009, 07:16 AM
I just generally Google the person's name. I don't go as far as signing up for the databases that do background checks and stuff. Bigger companies might do that though.

Steve B
11-26-2009, 07:50 AM
I did a lot of the "official" background checks in my HR Manager role. These searches were pretty inexpensive and a good investement for what you found out.

The information you get from them is getting better and better. Most states now require the data to be input in a cosistent manner and it is all based on SS#. Believe it or not, the police records from a lot of small communities didn't use SS#'s for a long time, so if your name was "John Smith" you had to rely on the HR guy to carefully look at the records to make sure all the bad stuff the other John Smith's did wasn't applied to you.

I haven't done too much research on the few folks I've hired since starting my own business. I probably should.

huggytree
12-22-2009, 06:58 PM
i had myself background checked a while back so i could work for an insurance company....luckily i passed.....my union health insurance randomly drug tests also.

so i advertise myself as background checked and drug tested

if and when i hire employees i will background check and drug test...the background check was like $50-$100 or something like that.

i also check everyone i deal with on the WI court system...it takes 2 minutes and shows all lawsuits, driving voilations, divorces.....i had 1 potential builder who had 3 pages of lawsuits....i also had a guy who wanted to join my networking group who had 2 pages..i found out that Ford has just taken his van...

background checking your employees and customers is VERY important....if a employee or customer isnt paying his child support that shows what kind of person he is...you need to know!

Steve B
12-22-2009, 08:16 PM
I don't know how much value anyone would place on the fact that you did a background check on yourself. That's just sounds kind of funny and probably wouldn't impress anyone. The drug test through the union on the other hand has a bit more credibility - but they're still relying on you to be telling them the truth about your own drug test results.

Be careful about doing drug testing of your prospective employees. There are some very strict laws on doing so and they vary by state.

billbenson
12-22-2009, 08:48 PM
Huggy, do you subscribe to a service for the backgound checks. If so, what service and how much does it cost?

Evan
12-29-2009, 11:16 PM
If you did have to hire someone, would you research them on the web? If you did research them, how much bearing would what you found have on your final decision? Would it count as much as a personal interview?

Would you do research and how much would what you found matter?

Absolutely, I would research them. Social networking sites would be one of my first stops, and I'd try to probe a bit into their profile to see what I can learn. Certainly I'd expect people to have a life and post a few personal pictures, but I'd want to see how "risque" people get with what they put online.

I'd compare that to the personal interview and see if it seemed like a match, and whether that ultimately seemed like a fit for me. If they seem are a party animal, and in the interview tell me they're very laid back and would rather learn than go out with friends -- that'd raise a flag. The image they portrayed online seems different, and I'd feel one of them is a lie, and I don't care which, I wouldn't hire them. If they were consistent, and I felt it was a good match, I'd consider the hire.

I also take what people say about themselves as a grain of salt. I'm more interested in what others have to say about them, or what things they can demonstrate competence in.

billbenson
12-30-2009, 08:51 PM
That being said, Evan, what does a person with an arrest record do. I have a friend who's brother stole a car, used my friends name, and my friends name is still in databases out there. But take situations where people have had a record. If you put that on your application, it goes straight into the circular file. If you lie, it may come up later. Sure there may be some people that will look beyond it on a job application, but I bet not many.

Evan
12-30-2009, 09:19 PM
That being said, Evan, what does a person with an arrest record do?

I have to consider what the charge was, and how it would affect me. If they were arrested for some type of white-collared crime (e.g. misappropriation of funds), I'd consider that more serious than a DUI or drug charge. If I were a furniture delivery company, it'd probably be the opposite, for the same reason.

The best thing to do is be honest. If you explain on the application what it was, the nature of the crime will be most telling. But if you lie on that one question, the issue becomes -- what else have you lied about? And in that case, I'd terminate a person who lied.

orion_joel
01-04-2010, 05:40 PM
I think there is possibly another aspect to the criminal record area when hiring as well. Which is frequency. I think how often the person has committed a crime is telling as well.

Whether the crime is something that is likely to happen to your business or not, if there is a record of the person committing a crime multiple times. Then this is likely to flag potential for someone that is opportunistic. The more encounters with Police the more chance that they are going to have more in the future, which can mean potentially time off work and possibly a poor reflection on your business.

On the main topic though, i think that it is entirely a good idea to go and have a look at potential hire's on social networking sites. If they make their profile public, then they are making it open information. It is really not difficult to make your profile private or at least aspects that you may prefer your employer did not see. However if you do silly things like put up compromising pictures, or post off hand bad remarks about previous employers, then you should not be surprised about if you don't get a job because of it.

sequoiapayroll
07-05-2010, 05:35 PM
we absolutely research on the web. Background checks, and social networking sites. There have been times we have not hired people based off their facebook page. If an employee is bragging about their party and they have a picture of them doing a keg stand on the web, chances are they will not be hired by us...

vangogh
07-05-2010, 07:42 PM
I find that interesting. I completely understand why you wouldn't hire that person, however, having been to college, I can also assure you that most of the other people you're thinking about hiring have done the same thing. The only differencing being the presence of the camera and posting the images in one case. Now if the picture was posted by the person in the picture and they're bragging about partying then sure, don't hire that person based on the bad judgement of posting the picture. If it was someone else who captured and posted the image, then I wonder if it's such a big deal. Depends on the picture to a degree, but like I said the other people you're considering would likely have been doing the same thing and were simply fortunate not to have their indiscretion captured and made public.

Patrysha
07-05-2010, 07:57 PM
Yeah, but you have to wonder about the discretion of a person who has that sort of thing open to the world. They aren't likely to be "friend"ed by a prospective employer and so control what information they would have access to by keeping their default profile very sparse.

vangogh
07-05-2010, 08:37 PM
I agree if the person posted their own picture, but what about the case where you were doing the same thing everyone else was doing, except you happened to be the one in the picture. I'm thinking of the case where you were openly drunk and I took a picture and posted it on my Facebook page tagged with your name.

sequoiapayroll
07-05-2010, 10:35 PM
I find that interesting. I completely understand why you wouldn't hire that person, however, having been to college, I can also assure you that most of the other people you're thinking about hiring have done the same thing. The only differencing being the presence of the camera and posting the images in one case. Now if the picture was posted by the person in the picture and they're bragging about partying then sure, don't hire that person based on the bad judgement of posting the picture. If it was someone else who captured and posted the image, then I wonder if it's such a big deal. Depends on the picture to a degree, but like I said the other people you're considering would likely have been doing the same thing and were simply fortunate not to have their indiscretion captured and made public.

You're right. There are probably people who work for us who have done, and might still do these things. The difference is, I don't know about it. If an individual chooses to place that picture on their page and then they brag about it to all their buddies, for all the world to see, I view this person as unreliable and irresponsible, to a degree. In our profession, as well as most others, we want people we can count on. It's not so much the act, as it is the attitude behind the act...

billbenson
07-05-2010, 11:17 PM
If you are doing this for new hires from college or in that age group, you are doing yourself a disservice. College is a maturing process as well as education.

vangogh
07-05-2010, 11:18 PM
If an individual chooses to place that picture on their page and then they brag about it to all their buddies, for all the world to see, I view this person as unreliable and irresponsible, to a degree.

Absolutely. I would think anyone who posts drunken images of themselves and brags about it isn't really someone you want working for you. And I'm certainly not arguing against the idea of not hiring someone even if they didn't post their own picture. More something I find interesting. Like I said most of us who have been to college have had nights where we made drunken fools of ourselves. It's part of the college experience. I'd say even more of us have done something we regret at one point or another. What's interesting is that not all have those moments caught on film. I also think as this happens to more and more people, less and less companies will worry about it when hiring. Sooner or later someone who once lost jobs over a picture on Facebook will be in a hiring position.

KristineS
07-06-2010, 01:22 PM
I have to agree that it's one thing if people are posting pictures of themselves and bragging about how messed up they got last week and another if other people are posting pictures of you. You can control what you post. You can't control what other people post. Plus, ultimately, there might be a lot of people who are out getting drunk and partying every day but are smart enough to keep that off their social media accounts.

Really the only thing you can know about someone from their social media accounts is what they want to tell you. I would think that checking their accounts would be more useful as a way of determining if your impression of them in an interview was right or not. I don't know that I would not hire someone on the basis of what they had on their Facebook page or Twitter feed, but I would take it into consideration.

vangogh
07-06-2010, 06:25 PM
That's how I feel about it. I would definitely take it into consideration, but I'm not sure I'd hold it against someone if they didn't post anything stupid. Of course it's still going to be in mind so maybe it has an influence, but I wouldn't automatically remove someone from consideration, because someone else took a picture of them while they were drunk. Odds are everyone else I'd be interviewing has been drunk once or twice too.

sequoiapayroll
07-06-2010, 06:44 PM
If someone else took the picture of them, then I would probably never know about the picture because it would be placed on someone elses profile somewhere else on the web. And like everyone else, I agree that you can't hold it against them if someone else took the picture and placed it on their own page. I certainly understand that college is college, and that things happen. BUT, I would hold it against the candidate if he chose to put it on their own site. To me that is the defining action, and to me it speaks volumes about character...
If you have a reputation built around virtue and integrity, and you hire someone with a questionable character it only tears down the reputation you are trying to build and makes one look like a hypocrite...

vangogh
07-06-2010, 09:07 PM
The thing is if they tagged the image with the person's name it might still show up. Also a cousin of mine posted an image on his profile of me, him, and his brother from when we were 4 or 5 years old. There is a connection to my profile. I forget whether it shows up on my profile or of there's a quick link to it. Either way you could easily see it and I had nothing to do with posting. I'm guessing I can prevent it from showing up on my profile, though in this case I don't mind the image. However with Facebook making changes all the time some people aren't going to figure out how to change it.

Or how about the person who opened an account, but rarely uses it. I hardly ever sign in to Facebook. People could be posting images of me right now and I might never know about.

We're in total agreement about posting the picture on your own profile. You have to know by now that employers are likely to search those things and posting pictures of yourself in compromising situations is something you really need to be thinking about. That does show a lack of judgement that I think would be cause for not hiring.

I have a hunch though if we fast forward 20 years this will be a non issue. By then so many people will have shared embarrassing images of themselves that no one will really think much about it.

billbenson
07-06-2010, 10:02 PM
I think you need to be very careful when you are taking information from an unknown context. I know someone (bob). Bob's brother takes a corvette for a test drive. Steals the car, totals it, gets arrested, doesn't have a license with him and says he is bob. Mom comes down and identifies him as bob. Bob doesn't find out about this until he gets a letter saying he has to appear in court for a bunch of charges. Bob calls the investigating officer. Cop doesn't believe him over the phone. Meanwhile bobs brother is in jail in another state for some other crime. So bob, the arresting officer, and mom go to court. Bob has his ID and talks to the arresting officer. Officer immediately recognizes that Bob wasn't driving that corvette. Brother does a year in jail and mom also does time for lying to the officer and the court.

The think is, on paper, Bob was arrested and his name was in arrest documents all over the place. He wasn't smart enough to get a letter from the cop saying his brother was the guilty party and the cop has retired. This was about 20 years ago.

So, he goes for a job and checks the box never been arrested. Company does a background check and it says he stole a corvette. Or he checks the box has been arrested and attaches the story. Either way his application goes in the circular file.

The above is completely true. The point being, in using info you find on the web, you should be very careful in how you use it. Weird things happen and in the case of my friend it has haunted him for life.