Be careful what you put on Facebook: your next job could depend on it.

Stuart Corner
Friday, 02 November 2007 00:49

Your IT - Home IT

Employers don't like their staff using social network sites in work time, but are increasingly turning to these as informal sources of references on prospective employees. A survey of employers in the UK conducted by recruiters Crone Corkill & FSS revealed that 7.5 percent of them were using social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace as an informal part of the referencing process. "This number is expected to rise now that Facebook profiles can be accessed quickly and easily through search engines like Google," the company said. "And a social networking profile can give a more personal insight into someone's character that cannot be portrayed on a CV."

The issue of misuse of Facebook information surfaced in Australia last week when ABC Television's Mediawatch programme reported  that photographs of an Australian soldier (and of his family) who had been killed in Afghanistan that were published in newspapers had been download from his unrestricted-access entry on Facebook and used without his family's permission.

And prospective employers are likely to find at least some information on most of their candidates. The Crone Corkill's poll revealed that 86 percent of its job candidates used Facebook regularly, and over 75 percent of respondents from FSS, a finance sector recruiter, said that Facebook was the site they used the most.

The practice is however questionable. Crone Corkill said: "However some have argued that these online profiles are personal and that companies should not mix the business and private lives of candidates...Other concerns about this practice include the possibility of researching the wrong person and the problem of comments falsely made in someone's name."

But it does not anticipate this being a deterrent. "As social networking sites continue to grow in number, popularity and influence, it is almost certain that many companies will be considering using them as another tool in the recruitment process."