As people’s social media activity has the potential to damage their employer’s reputation, more and more recruiters are realising the importance of social media screening or digital footprint checks as part of their recruitment process. 

While it makes sense to review a candidate’s digital footprint, a DIY approach to it could cause issues for your organisation. 

Read on to find out how to save time and effort with outsourcing your digital footprint checks.

What is a digital footprint check?

A digital footprint is a person’s online representation. It’s a collection of data points (e.g., cookies, public social media posts, comments, and reactions) that give an indication about who you are, your opinions and online activity.

Social media screening, or digital footprint checks, are a recruitment step that can give indications of behaviours such as bullying, racism, sexism, homophobia, unprofessional or criminal behaviour. 

These behaviours are typically exhibited by bad hires, and avoiding them through a digital footprint check can protect your organisational culture and reputation as well as decrease turnover.

What your organisation needs in place before doing social media screening

Most organisations make the decision to implement social media screening, or digital footprint checks, to ensure new hires are aligned with their values and workplace culture.

To do that, you should review these five things ahead of running your first check:

• Organisational values
• Employee code of conduct
• Social media policy
• Knowledge of relevant laws
• Business case

This article is a great read if you want to know more about how to integrate social media screening into your hiring process.

The costs and inclusions of digital footprint checks

The cost of a digital footprint check ranges up to $195 depending on the number of checks performed by an organisation each year. 

Each check includes a breakdown of the candidate’s online life and includes any indications of:

• Discriminatory behaviours, such as racism, sexism, homophobia, ableism and hate speech
• Criminal history and conduct, such as fraud, acts of violence, and cybercrime
• Unprofessional behaviours, such as online bullying, strong language, explicit content, substance use and bad-mouthing employers or coworkers

In addition to identifying risks, a check can highlight positive aspects of a candidate such as their online reputation and influence, to help you gain an overall picture of who they are and what is important to them.

Learn more about social media checks and their costs here.

How to save time and effort by outsourcing your digital footprint checks

When it comes to conducting a digital footprint check, you want to make sure the process is error-proof and legally sound. 

To avoid any possible legal implications, ensure compliance and quality and save time and effort in the process, it is best to outsource your digital footprint check with a trusted and credible third party.

CheckSocial is an intelligence platform for talent acquisition that discovers insights about candidates, including interests, qualifications and risk factors from the web and social media, using artificial intelligence (AI) technology combined with expert human analysts. 

The integration automates digital footprint checks and returns the report to you within three business days to help you make hiring decisions.

How our digital footprint check works

Once you implement digital footprint checks into your hiring process and have access to the CheckSocial platform, you can start requesting and accessing reports.

Simply enter your candidates’ contact details and a link is sent to them to provide further details and consent for the check.

From there, our AI looks for red flags in their online activity and searches for undeclared accounts. Our team of expert analysts then review everything found by our AI and assign relevancy and risk ratings to give context to each finding, before providing you with your report.

It’s then over to your HR team to review your report and action any findings.

Read this article to learn more about the kind of content found by digital footprint checks.

Work with CheckSocial as your third party social media screening partner

Just as you would outsource your traditional background checks and criminal background checks to a third-party entity, outsourcing your digital footprint check to an expert makes sure this process is done for you with the right combination of superior technology and comprehension of employment law.

CheckSocial is your trusted partner to handle all of your screenings. We will help you save time and increase efficiency in your recruitment process using our online intelligence platform so you can discover more about the candidate you’re hiring and reduce the risk of a wrong hire. 

Download a free sample report

To get an example of what a digital footprint check looks like, the information they include and the types of content they flag, you can download a free sample report.

The 23-page sample includes:

• A Candidate Risk Score and Cultural Fit Assessment
• An outline of our cultural fit indicators
• Examples of content that indicate discriminatory, unprofessional and criminal behaviours
• Examples of other candidate insights