FAQs - Social Media Screening For Employers - CheckSocial

FAQs

Social Media
Screening
For Employers

Social media screening can help your organisation make confident and informed hiring decisions, select candidates who align with your culture and values, prevent bad hires and reduce turnover.

Below are some of our most frequently asked questions about our digital footprint checks.

social media screening

Frequently Asked Questions

What is social media screening?

Social media screening involves a pre-employment review of your candidates’ social media accounts and content to assess their potential cultural fit and alignment with organisational values.

At CheckSocial, we take this one step further, by offering a more in-depth solution; digital footprint checks, which include all online platforms.

What is a digital footprint check?

A digital footprint is an online representation of who someone is; their attitudes, interests, values and behaviours.

At CheckSocial we automate the process of digital footprint checks to help you gain powerful insights from your candidates' social media and other online activity.

Digital footprint checks help you select candidates who align with your culture and values, prevent bad hires, reduce turnover and hire a workforce you can trust.

How do digital footprint checks work?

Once you have access to the CheckSocial platform you can request a report by providing your candidates’ name and email address to us. We then gather further information and receive consent from them before our powerful AI technology gets to work.

Next, our platform looks for red flags, positive information such as interests and education and any undeclared accounts the candidate may have.

Our team of expert analysts then review all of the findings, assign relevancy and risk ratings to give context to each one and provide you with your report.

Which platforms are covered?

CheckSocial’s digital footprint checks provide insights from any publicly available content online.

This includes platforms such as:

  • Social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and TikTok
  • Online forums such as Reddit, Parler, Quora and forums for special interests such as Steam (gaming)
  • Messaging applications such as Signal, WhatsApp and Telegram
  • Any findings on search engines, such as news stories

The above list is not definitive, but includes the channels most likely to be used by your candidates. If any other findings are found on other platforms not listed above, our reports will include them.

Is social media screening legal?

Yes. Social media screening and  digital footprint checks are being used by organisations globally, including federal government agencies in the US, UK and Australia.

Our checks are done with the full consent of each candidate and only look at publicly available information.

At CheckSocial, we use the Protective Security Policy Framework (PSPF) as a framework for digital footprint checks; an objective model set out by the Australian government, whose agencies and departments use it to conduct their own digital footprint checks.

How do you protect our candidates’ privacy?

Our checks only search for and report publicly available information on the candidate.

We never request logins from candidates, or use any form of hacking or other deceptive methods. All data we collect is deleted once the check is complete, so there is no storage of personal data.

Do you ask for login details from candidates?

No. We only access publicly available data and never ask for login details or passwords.

What red flags do you look for?

Our platform looks for any indication of your candidate engaging in behaviours that raise red flags.

We use a group of three behaviours called ‘cultural fit indicators’, to find and highlight indications of:

  • Discriminatory behaviour, such as racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia, ableism and hate speech
  • Unprofessional behaviour, such as online bullying, bad mouthing employers or coworkers, strong language, explicit content and substance abuse
  • Criminal history and conduct such as fraud, violence and cyber crime
What context do you give to each red flag?

When our analysts review the red flags found by our AI technology they assign a relevancy rating and impact rating to each finding and include these in your reports.

These ratings indicate how confident they are that the content belongs to the candidate and the seriousness of the findings.

Can I see a sample of a report?
Does looking at our candidates’ online activity put us at risk of discriminating against them?

No. Our reports exclude all protected attributes such as race, religion, sexuality and age, which avoids HR teams applying human bias that could lead to discrimination.

The same can not be said for organisations that Google or look up their candidates on social media internally.

Using digital footprint checks demonstrates your support for diversity, equality and inclusion, by allowing you to avoid hiring people who exhibit discriminatory behaviours.

How does this affect the candidate experience?

Integrating digital footprint checks into your hiring process doesn’t only benefit your organisation, it benefits the candidate you hire and helps them become a welcome and trusted member of their team.

Our blog breaks down the candidate experience including how to communicate checks and what's involved on their end of the process.

How is someone’s online activity related to how well they can do the job?

Conducting a digital footprint check isn’t about whether someone can do the job. It’s about determining if they are aligned with your organisation’s values, brand reputation and culture.

Digital footprint checks allow you to be more proactive in ensuring candidates align with your organisation, by discovering cultural fit issues during the hiring process.

How can social media screening prevent bad hires?

Social media screening helps to mitigate the risks and costs involved in hiring the wrong candidate by picking up on negative behaviours that are unlikely to present during interviews and reference checks.

Hiring someone who exhibits discriminatory, unprofessional or criminal behaviours online not only poses financial and reputational risks to your organisation, they are not conducive to a safe, healthy and welcoming workplace.

Our reports allow you to proactively avoid bad hires and select candidates who share similar values to your organisation.

How can social media screening assess someone’s cultural fit?

Our digital footprint checks include a Cultural Fit Assessment to give a more complete image of your candidates’ attitudes, interests, values and behaviours.

The Cultural Fit Assessment includes:

  • The number of findings the report includes
  • Details on each finding
  • Impact and relevancy ratings to give context to each finding

The assessment uses cultural fit indicators to find any discriminatory behaviours, criminal history and unprofessional behaviours of the candidate, which allows you to assess them against your values and relevant policies.

How can social media screening determine the risk level of a candidate?

Our reports include a Candidate Risk Score which is calculated using the relevancy and impact ratings our intelligence team apply to each of the findings.

  • Relevancy ratings: This rating indicates our team’s confidence the data belongs to the candidate and comes from a reliable source.
  • Impact rating: This rating indicates the seriousness of the finding. It also considers how long ago the behaviour occurred.
Can I do this myself?

Yes. However, while it’s possible for human resources teams to undertake checks, a manual process has many limitations and risks.

Our blog provides a step-by-step guide for HR teams looking to do social media screening manually.

Does CheckSocial integrate with any other HR software?

Yes. CheckSocial integrates with Xref’s online reference checking software, for simplified candidate management within a single platform.

We are continually assessing platforms for integration with CheckSocial. If your platform is not currently supported, we probably have it on our product roadmap. Reach out to us to find out when the integration will go live. In the meantime, you are able to access our web portal to conduct your digital footprint checks.

How do I integrate social media screening into my hiring process?

Before you get started, you may want to consider some of your organisation’s key processes and policies, when you would like to run checks and how you’ll action the findings in your reports.

We’ve outlined how to integrate social media screening into your hiring process on our blog.

How do I request a digital footprint check report?

Once you’ve spoken to our sales team and have access to the CheckSocial platform, simply provide your candidates’ name and email address and we’ll do the rest.

Find out more about how digital footprint checks work.

How long does it take to receive a report?

You will receive each report within 3 business days.

How do I access completed reports?

Once completed, your reports will be available to access and download from the CheckSocial platform. If your HR system is integrated with CheckSocial, the report will also be accessible from that system if it supports this feature.

What do I do with reports once I receive them?

Our reports provide your HR team with the metrics needed to assess your candidates against your values, culture, code of conduct and any other relevant policies.

After the report is reviewed, any findings can be raised with your candidates to discuss your concerns ahead of any potential employment.

We’ve outlined how to review your digital footprint report and action any findings on our blog.

Do you make a hiring recommendation based on your reports?

No. Our reports do not provide direct advice on whether a candidate is employable.

Instead, we flag behaviours that indicate a potential risk to your organisation as well as provide insights that may indicate their fit with your organisation, including education, interest and awards.

How much do reports cost?

The cost of a digital footprint check depends on the number of checks performed by an organisation each year.

You can get in touch with our sales team for more information.

What ROI can I expect on social media screening?

Social media screening can not only prevent bad hires, but deliver value to your bottom line through improved culture, increased productivity and a reduced risk of reputation damage.

To help you calculate your financial ROI, we have created a free downloadable Digital Footprint Check ROI Calculator.

Download a FREE
Sample Digital Footprint Check Report