by Fisher Phillips

Roughly 70% of employers now screen social media profiles as part of the applicant screening process – but manually scrolling through Facebook posts, X feeds, and Instagram photos is time-consuming and inconsistent. Enter social media AI investigations tools that promise to streamline the process. These platforms use natural language processing (NLP) to scan candidates’ public posts, analyze language patterns and sentiment, and generate personality assessments predicting traits such as teamwork, openness, adaptability, or leadership potential. The pitch is compelling: get deeper insights into candidates' “real” personalities beyond what resumes and interviews reveal, all while saving your HR team countless hours. But before you deploy AI to comb through applicants’ social media, you need to understand the significant legal risks these tools create and consider some best practices.

by Caroline B. Burnett and Sofia Chesnokova - The Employer Report

It’s increasingly common for employers to use social media during the hiring process. The temptation is obvious — there’s a wealth of potentially useful information about applicants available online. It’s not unreasonable to wish to use social media to understand a prospective employee’s professional qualifications and skills to determine whether they fit with the criteria for the position. It’s no wonder that a recent survey from The Harris Poll finds that seventy-one percent of US hiring decision-makers agree that looking at candidates’ social media profiles is an effective way to screen applicants. Furthermore, 70% believe employers should screen all applicants’ social media profiles, while the majority (67%) say they use social networking sites to research potential job candidates.