See it here: http://bit.ly/cRohGi

I beleive it’s a scare tactic that I hope businesses don’t buy into, and if they do, disclosure to employees and candidates is essential!

I agree with a lot of what you have said.

I see no problem with giving a potential employee a quick look up and then having a glance over their various profiles, however with that said I would not be going through their entire profile in detail because to be honest whatever moral or ethical differences we have in our personal behaviour that should not be relevant to their work. What I look for is evidence of common sense, for example: if their profile picture is them with a bong I know that their not the most clever of people and therefor may want to think about the potential impact of someone who doesn’t fully think out decisions. I see this kind of thing as very different to an offensive joke, or link to an article I dont agree with.

With regards to ongoing monitoring, I take the view that it is unnecessary and a complete waste of time and money. Speaking from an employee’s perspective, if I had an employer speak to me about my conduct online (through personal, non work orientated profiles) I would be immediately looking for a new job and I’m sure many feel the same way.
Speaking from an employer/manager perspective I honestly don’t think that this practice of ongoing monitoring will gain long-term traction as even if it is only $5 a head, the time needed to monitor and analyse the information makes it a massive drain on resources for very limited potential payoff… The most a business could ever achieve is to catch an employee saying they hate their job, and who cares, everyone has good days and bad days and anybody with any common sense would recognize that.

If negative employee sentiment is a massive concern to you as a business the issue is not that your employees post about it online, it is that there is a fundamental issue within the business, usually relating to poor leadership or a lack of employee recognition within the business. More often than not problems that extend throughout the business start at the top and spread downwards.

/rant

You highlight another area for dicussion which of course is the positive rammifications of such a service.

As hiring managers I think it’s important we do our checks on people and Facebook etc can often say a lot about someone, or at least the what they chose to publish.

My major area of concern though is companies continuing to monitor profiles and new activity once that hiring decision has been made (Assuming as you have been hired already that you are somewhat of a fit), and the potential limitations this may have on a person and their internal progression. A new manager coming on board for example, could change your career path dramatically as it often does anyway, however personal views can easily over ride that of the organisation that has hired that person.

Different industries, professions and people will all react differently to different content, so keeping your profile as safe as possible for the broadest possible audience is certainly a consideration.

Thanks for reading and for taking the time to leave your feedback.

This post was mentioned on Twitter by JimiHopkins: My warning to businesses – be careful what you wish for – http://bit.ly/9TmLle...

With the rapid changes in the way lives are being documented on the web, the rules are changing. Yes, reputations can be damaged. Yes, you could become undesirable for a certain job. But, maybe your lifestyle doesn’t fit with that organisation anyway.