Social Media Screening: Should It Be Included In The Hiring Process?

Additional resources

• Ways Candidate Screening Will Change
• The Right to Tweet: What to Know Before You Post on Social Media
• Steps To Clean Up Your Social Media Image
• Costly Hiring Mistakes and How To Avoid Them
• Beware of These Subconscious Hiring Biases

Transcript

Pete Newsome  00:00
You’re listening to The Hire Calling Podcast. On today’s episode, we’re going to talk about whether social media accounts should be considered in the recruiting process.

Pete Newsome  00:09
Not sure where this is going to lead, but it’s probably worth listening to, so let’s go

Pete Newsome  00:19
Welcome everyone, and thank you for listening to The Hire Calling Podcast. I’m Pete Newsome and I’m joined again by Ricky Baez on this Friday afternoon. It’s not afternoon yet it’s actually morning. So that’s strike number one, Ricky. But how are you doing?

Ricky Baez  00:31
Well, I was doing great thinking my Friday was already over. But you had to daylight savings times me back. Thanks, Pete.

Ricky Baez  00:38
Appreciate it.

Pete Newsome  00:39
You were ready to grab a drink and I just ripped it out of your hand.

Ricky Baez  00:42
You did man, thanks!

Ricky Baez  00:45
Awesome. So I’m excited for this topic today.

Pete Newsome  00:49
This topic is one that is interesting, because a lot of people have strong opinions on whether companies should look at social media accounts. Should consider what people do in their personal lives when they’re not on the clock, so to speak.

Pete Newsome  01:07
I think there’s good arguments to be made on both sides. So let’s just get right into it. Let’s start at a high level and say, what do you think? Should companies look at their prospective employees social accounts?

Ricky Baez  01:20
So let me tell you, I’ll tell you what I do, and how careful I have to be from an HR perspective on how we do this. Do I look, I’m not going to lie, sometimes I do. Sometimes I do, right?

Ricky Baez  01:34
Here’s the thing. When I interview somebody, Pete, I’m not just looking for an employee. I mean, although at the end of the day, that’s what you’re looking forbut you’re looking to open up your checkbook and dish out quite a bit of money in exchange for a talent. But at the same time, that talent has to mesh with your team.

Ricky Baez  01:52
So from an HR human perspective, you have to know who you’re bringing onto your team.

Ricky Baez  01:57
The way I look at it is, if you leave your social media out there in the open, for anybody to look from a simple search, I’m going to do it, man. I am right?

Ricky Baez  02:11
So from going down that route, from an HR perspective, I start thinking I gotta be careful, too, because I don’t want to make a decision on whether to or not hire somebody based on something that’s illegal, which you can get into that situation by going on social media.

Ricky Baez  02:28
So it’s one of those balancing acts you have to do to make sure you’re doing the right thing legally, and you do what’s best for your organization. What do you think?

Pete Newsome  02:36
Yeah, I think there’s not a one size fits all answer to this. I think, even among the different social outlets, it’s worth considering these things individually. So let’s do that a little bit and start with the one that by default, I consider a social media account. But most I think some people would consider it a little bit differently.

Pete Newsome  03:00
That’s LinkedIn, because it’s intended for business. So almost by definition, it’s not necessarily social, although it’s blended together. I think LinkedIn, they exist to make money, which we know they charge an arm and a leg for posting ads on their site. But the purpose of the site is to almost mix business and pleasure to some degree.

Pete Newsome  03:30
I think with that one, in particular, employees need to consider that to be a resume of sorts, and that they’re posting publicly so on that one, I always find it very strange when people decide to let their personal feelings out in some extreme cases, or their political thoughts.

Pete Newsome  03:52
Where I look at LinkedIn and think there’s really no place for that. It’s only going to do more harm than good if you end up offending people unnecessarily. So that one in particular, to me is more about judgment than anything else.

Pete Newsome  04:08
So I would say if someone is going off the rails on LinkedIn, and getting into political arguments and taking strong stands that have no real purpose in the workplace, I think that’s a potential red flag for employers to see.

Ricky Baez  04:24
It would be a red flag on both sides, though, Pete right? Here’s my thing, I’m with you. I’m seeing a lot of people on LinkedIn, specifically, that yeah, they treated as a canvas for their political ideology, for their religious identification, which again, I’m not saying it’s right, wrong or indifferent.

Ricky Baez  04:44
But if you put that out there as a candidate, you are you’re narrowing who your audience is when you start looking for a job. Now, that’s from the candidates perspective.

Ricky Baez  04:55
From the employers perspective, we got to be careful, right? If we see some somebody who’s really great for your team.

Ricky Baez  05:03
But then you see on LinkedIn that they’re really leaning one way, politically or religiously on LinkedIn, when we would say, “God, I don’t want to, I don’t want to bring that kind of angst into the organization”, and you make a decision because of that.

Ricky Baez  05:17
That can land you in legal trouble, because in the eyes of the law, that means you made a decision based on the political and or religious affiliation. That’s illegal in the Title Seven.

Pete Newsome  05:27
It’s strange times, needless to say, and I remember, gosh, 20 years ago, now, when I was at Tech Data Corporation, there was some sort of political event going on. I don’t know if it was just a local issue, if it was national, I can’t recall circumstances.

Pete Newsome  05:48
But I remember the CEO of a company, this was a large public company, sent an email to all the employees with his opinion. Basically implying or strongly suggesting, I don’t remember the wording, what our opinion should be on this issue. And I remember thinking that it was an inappropriate thing to do is an employee, I did not need to know, his opinion on this issue.

Pete Newsome  06:14
It wasn’t something that affected our workplace. I almost felt like I said, inappropriate not in a way that I deleted the email and moved on, right.?

Pete Newsome  06:26
Unlike today, where people build, they take a life stance around things that they don’t like saying, but I remember thinking it was just unnecessary to inject that into the workplace, and to suggest that employees should agree with an opinion on a political issue.

Pete Newsome  06:44
Now fast forward today, here in Florida, everyone, you’d have to be blind and deaf and just not paying attention at all to not see what Disney has done recently, with a bill that’s happening here that people are taking sides on.

Pete Newsome  07:02
They’re coming up with names for the bill that may or may not be relevant to what it is. The CEO of Disney decided to approach the governor of the state about this.

Pete Newsome  07:16
I look at that and think, “Well, I mean, that’s a business decision.” But I continue to find it an odd one, 20 years later, although it’s becoming very prevalent in our world today.

Ricky Baez  07:29
It is, and I know what situation you’re talking about, because I’m following that very closely. At first, I’m thinking why did the CEO step into, why is he getting involved?

Ricky Baez  07:40
Then I quickly found out why. He’s getting pressure from his employees. A lot of his employees are putting pressure on the CEOs and the CEO kind of had to act.

Ricky Baez  07:53
From my perspective, I’m thinking, look, they’re a business, let them run the business how they want it. Right? I’m a big believer in that.

Ricky Baez  08:01
If people don’t like to work for that, for that organization, because of their stance, then then let the market choose, let the market decide, but to get involved politically, to me, it’s just nobody wins there, man.

Pete Newsome  08:14
Well, what I find strange about it is, as a president of a company, I don’t want to ostracize my employees on either side of an issue, regardless of how I feel about it. Like everyone, I have certain strong feelings on issues.

Pete Newsome  08:29
But I don’t expect my employees to agree with those issues, especially agree with my opinion, especially where it’s not relevant.

Pete Newsome  08:36
That’s where I scratched my head over. I have a very strong line that I’ve drawn there to say, I’m not going to weigh in on those things. If it’s not relevant to the business, and, our employees can they could have whatever opinions they want, provided, they don’t…

Ricky Baez  08:58
Affect the business because of it.

Pete Newsome  09:00
Don’t intrude too much.

Ricky Baez  09:00\
Yeah.

Pete Newsome  09:01
On the business or, make us look bad publicly. But I do find it very strange that companies are going out of their way to take a stance on certain things.

Pete Newsome  09:12
In this case of Disney, yes there seems to be a large number of vocal employees encouraging them to take a stand. But what about the ones who don’t agree? Are they less important? Are they less valuable to the organization?

Pete Newsome  09:29
I think it just is just unnecessary, and it’s a little off-topic for what we’re talking about. But it is a time it’s happening.

Ricky Baez  09:37
That’s us man, we always do this.

Pete Newsome  09:40
So it’s interesting for us to take the view that employees shouldn’t share those things, when employers are are blazing the trail doing the polar opposite. So it’s a tough place to operate right now.

Ricky Baez  09:58
So I’m on the fence on that, right? I believe that the president, the leader of an organization if they’re going to be showing, leading the way, and they want to be able to show their political affiliation, religion, whatever it is, go ahead and show it.

Ricky Baez  10:18
But when other people show the opposite of it, right, something completely different, you should be okay with it as well. If you, like in that email, if you open up and say, “Here’s what I think about it,” the next thing, you know, I get fired, because of it.

Ricky Baez  10:35
You are just opening yourself up to unnecessary legal issues, right? So if you’re going to go that route, exactly how you said, let other people do it so far as that it doesn’t affect the business because of what you’re saying. And that’s what, Pete, that’s what people are doing on LinkedIn man.

Ricky Baez  10:51
LinkedIn quickly is becoming the Facebook of the business world when it comes to social media. Not only political affiliation, and religious stuff, I’m seeing some questionable pictures on there as well. I don’t know if you see them.

Pete Newsome  11:14
People are free to do what they want. But your actions have consequences.

Ricky Baez  11:19
That’s right.

Pete Newsome  11:20
That’s a part that has to be acknowledged in this. Go nuts, right, go post, whatever you choose, but understand you will be judged for it. It’s a weird thing to me as well, for people to think that they shouldn’t be judged, you’re always going to be judged by your actions and words.

Pete Newsome  11:41
So you just have to understand that, regardless of whether you think you should be, you will be and it may be sub subconscious in some cases. It certainly won’t be known to you in some cases, but make no mistake, it’s happening.

Pete Newsome  11:57
Whether it’s a company taking a stand on an issue, or an individual deciding to post strong opinions publicly on a forum, like LinkedIn, you know, just it’s being read, and it’s being considered and people will treat you accordingly.

Pete Newsome  12:18
I mean, that’s all it is. So just know what you’re doing. You know, your actions do have ramifications.

Ricky Baez  12:26
So that said, from an employer’s perspective, or a recruiting manager’s perspective, or recruiter for that matter, when you’re interviewing somebody, and you find that person is the best fit for the organization, right? And as a recruiter, we spend quite a bit of time on LinkedIn, we spent quite a bit of time on social media because that’s what we do to find the best and brightest candidates.

Ricky Baez  12:47
But then you run into after you made the offer, right, the person hasn’t started yet, you run into a video, they posted on LinkedIn, showing how they used to know Kenosha from the previous organization, how they used to steal from the previous organization.

Ricky Baez  13:02
And obviously, they didn’t put the videos on LinkedIn, but it’s a TikTok that they did that they shared on LinkedIn. So it’s from a recruiting manager’s perspective, what do you do with that information?

Pete Newsome  13:14
We can’t ignore it.

Ricky Baez  13:15
Yep. Agreed

Pete Newsome  13:17
Can’t unring that bell? So I think as much as anything, it’s a matter of judgment that well, now you just you mentioned something that pretty extreme, you know, stealing from your previous employer, right? That’s a legal issue. That is something that is much different than just sharing an opinion on something.

Pete Newsome  13:35
So I would separate those, but then I think everyone else would too right? But let’s just keep it to sharing something that’s questionable on there.

Pete Newsome  13:46
I look at it as much as anything is judgment calls and, can I trust that person’s judgment? And if they if they’re representing themselves poorly now, why should I expect them to change if they’re an employee of my organization?

Pete Newsome  14:04
The answer is I shouldn’t. So that’s how I look at those sorts of postings that you referenced is that you can do it. But you know, if it’s on LinkedIn, and if your name is attached to the business, the business has to, at some point, get involved in that.

Ricky Baez  14:27
There’s the key.

Pete Newsome  14:28
To consider whether you’re the type of employee that best represents that brand.

Ricky Baez  14:33
There have been a lot of videos in the past couple of years that have come out of what people do on their own time. That video goes viral, right? One person’s a victim, one person is the aggressor. Next thing you know, people get fired, right, because of nothing they did at work, only something that went viral on social media.

Ricky Baez  14:54
Now, the organization needs to be careful with it because organizations should ignore when they see things like that happening on social media whether it is a political conversation or a religious one where if somebody takes a stance against the other, but let’s say if you caught a video doing some crazy things to somebody because of your political stance on social media in the organization.

Ricky Baez  15:16
Now, I’m not an attorney, and neither are you. I don’t know. Are you an undercover attorney Pete?

Pete Newsome  15:20
I’m not, no.

Ricky Baez  15:22
It’s just you never know these days. So we’re not attorneys. So my take on it is though, that legally, you should not be able to take any action unless the organization is easy to connect those persons’ actions to you as the organization.

Ricky Baez  15:40
And now because of that, it brings your organization into a bad life from a brand new perspective, then you can take action, but even then you got to be careful. I highly encourage you to get an attorney, which Pete and I are not just to make sure there’s a get an attorney to help you in that process.

Ricky Baez  15:57
But you’re right, it’s, it’s really easy to fall into that into that trap. When you see somebody who you don’t align with and then you’re like, “Oh, they’re not going to mesh well with this team.” Be careful, because the reason you’re selecting a religious party that is highly protected under Title Seven of the Civil Rights Act, that they could come back after you.

Ricky Baez  16:22
So I say do it, but proceed with caution, and be careful what actions you take because of it.

Pete Newsome  16:27
Well, I’m going to give it a bit of a different answer on that.

Ricky Baez  16:30
Okay.

Pete Newsome  16:30
I’m going to say, as advice, don’t do it, because there’s no upside.

Ricky Baez  16:35
Okay.

Pete Newsome  16:36
Right? As an employee, there’s no upside. No one’s asking, doesn’t need my advice, either.

Ricky Baez  16:42
I got it.

Pete Newsome  16:43
I would give them the same advice as an organization to say, you know, maybe, stay in your lane a little bit right with this stuff for at least consider, you know, the opposite opinion when you do anything publicly.

Pete Newsome  16:56
That would be a guideline that I try to follow, is that just because it’s my opinion, and maybe the opinion of a lot of people that I’m surrounded by. It doesn’t mean it’s the right opinion for others.

Pete Newsome  17:10
It doesn’t mean it needs to be shared by others. And if there’s not a clear upside to it, but a clear downside, then maybe you just keep it to yourself, right? I mean, not every thought in your head has to be shared publicly.

Ricky Baez  17:25
Yeah.

Pete Newsome  17:26
Just because you can do it again, doesn’t mean you should. So when it comes to and I’m not even thinking about in terms of people posting on LinkedIn, their political opinions, I just think that’s weird. More than anything else, because it’s LinkedIn like it keeps politics away for like. how does everyone not know that?

Ricky Baez  17:45
I don’t understand.

Pete Newsome  17:47
Part of my, what makes me incredulous about this is who decided that’s a good idea in the first place, to blend those things.

Pete Newsome  17:57
We were all together or a lot of us locally, with 4 Corner, we were together yesterday in the office. I guarantee if we went down the line and asked opinions on politics, religion, and anything that was really just generally I thought accepted as a bad idea to talk about in the office, we’re going to, see every opinion on the spectrum out there, and that’s okay.

Pete Newsome  18:24
I think there’s a benefit to that I think having a diversity of opinions makes an organization stronger because without those other perspectives, you’re going to be limited. But to unnecessarily express it, you know, in a business setting on LinkedIn, it’s just going to be limiting for you as an individual.

Ricky Baez  18:48
What’s the goal? What’s the goal of putting that out there? Right? To me, it’s, I’m with you on that, I am.

Ricky Baez  18:55
Here’s what gets repeated because somebody puts it on there. And I’m like, “Ah, God, here we go. We’re going to go down this rabbit hole.”

Ricky Baez  19:01
Then you look at the comments 2000 comments, people engage in it and I’m like, it’s like give it credibility. Don’t give it credibility at all just let it ride but I don’t see any upside to it. I’m with you.

Pete Newsome  19:14
Not all attention is good attention.

Ricky Baez  19:15
Yeah.

Pete Newsome  19:16
I think that’s where it gets lost is that these social accounts in many ways and in addition to not being attorneys, we’re not a psychiatrist either.

Ricky Baez  19:26
Speak for yourself

Pete Newsome  19:30
You may play one on TV or feel like that often.

Ricky Baez  19:36

I feel like that a lot.

Pete Newsome  19:38
But it’s, whatever’s going on in someone’s mind that makes them crave those likes crave the shares and the comments. It’s a weird thing that’s happened with social media. But just because it’s attention doesn’t mean it’s a good thing for you as an individual.

Pete Newsome  20:00
So my recommendation at least is to keep it, keep it business, and keep it professional on LinkedIn. Don’t enter into areas that you know are going to have some portion, even if it’s a small portion of the population on there, you think less of you, It’s unnecessary.

Pete Newsome  20:21
Now, should employers take those things and make hiring decisions? Or consider terminating someone because of it? No, but on the other hand, subconsciously, it’s going to happen, right? That is what we know to be definitively true.

Ricky Baez  20:42
So let’s talk about the other social media aspect. So let’s say Facebook, let’s say TikTok. TikTok has been growing by leaps and bounds. And, you know, it’s, I don’t know about you, but it’s, I find myself not watching TV or cable anymore. I get all my all my entertainment from TikTok.

Ricky Baez  21:00
It is one of those things that you’re like, “Oh, let me hop on here for two minutes.” And then three hours later, “Oh, my God, I got to go to bed.” Right? You see some really interesting things. I don’t know if this has happened to you. But previous life, It wasn’t TikTok back then it was, oh, my goodness reels from Instagram, that were popular.

Ricky Baez  21:20
I’m looking through and I see one of my employees. You know, there was some questionable stuff. I’m like, okay, that’s illegal. So what do you do with that information?

Ricky Baez  21:32
Now, whether it’s right, wrong, or indifferent, right, I couldn’t test that that was the stuff that this employee was doing. But I felt a duty to have a conversation with that employee.

Ricky Baez  21:42
Look, I wasn’t looking for this, this came across my feed. I’m here to let you know, that I saw this. I’m not going to take any action on it. But I’m just merely letting you know, this is your time, I completely get it. Be careful what you put on there.

Ricky Baez  21:58
If I passively found it, somebody else can passively find that as well. And as soon as they attach where you work for, then we’re going to have a different conversation about that

Pete Newsome  22:09
Well, so my rule that I follow, as a manager of people and having employees is the owner of a company. I don’t follow anyone on their personal accounts.

Ricky Baez  22:21
Oh, absolutely not.

Pete Newsome  22:22
Unless they follow me first.

Ricky Baez  22:23
Oh, yeah? Okay.

Pete Newsome  22:25
If they want to open that door, fine. But it’s a hard and fast rule for me not to infringe on someone’s social life unless they open the door first. And even then, I look at it differently. That’s why I wanted to talk about LinkedIn first because I put that in its own category.

Pete Newsome  22:42
That is a business tool and keep it that way. When it comes to the social tools, I think if an employee wants to blend those things together, then so be it, to your point, they should know that there’s a potential downside to it.

Ricky Baez  22:42
Yeah.

Pete Newsome  23:00
But we’re talking about today, in terms of using those accounts, in the recruiting process. Now, that’s, a little different. Now employers are going to potentially recruiters are going to look at these accounts without being asked to do it, without being invited in.

Pete Newsome  23:22
So if you are someone who feels overwhelmingly compelled to share things that a prospective employer may be considered negative, by all means, keep your account private. So much of it to me, legal things are legal things, right? If you’re committing crimes and acts of violence, or whatever, that would be considered illegal under any, under any circumstance, good luck if you’re sharing that stuff on social media or anywhere, I mean, that’s just foolish.

Pete Newsome  24:03
But if it comes to judgment, and that’s where I go back to again, that’s what I’m concerned as for individuals that if you are out, doing something that is legal, but generally considered something that is showing poor character, or that would just be embarrassing to an organization, as you referenced earlier, you know, then you’re going to be looked over for opportunities.

Pete Newsome  24:34
You’re going to be passed over for things and, rightfully so, because companies want to understand who they’re hiring. Beyond just the resume, you may have all the skills and experience, and background. But if you’re, a foolish individual, and you’re willing to show the world how foolish, then that speaks to your character in a pretty significant way.

Ricky Baez  24:59
You know Pete, I really feel bad for the people who are up and coming these days, because they have a much harder time than you and I did coming up in our careers, right?

Ricky Baez  25:10
Look, we were young ones, and we’ve partied. We’ve done some things back in the day. But there’s no digital evidence of that. Right? Are we saying should you not document this? No, we’re not saying that.

Ricky Baez  25:21
But to your point, if I was a recruiting authority, and I’m looking for you to come to my organization, and now I see that you either don’t know or don’t care to separate your personal stuff from your business stuff on LinkedIn, I’m going to have some questions.

Ricky Baez  25:41
I’m going to have because exactly how you said if you don’t know you don’t care to put that out there. What else are you going to be careless with my organization? Especially if I have to give you an NDA? Or some kind of a contract to sign to keep confidentiality? I have to worry about that now.

Pete Newsome  25:58
Yeah, and well, you mentioned something that I think is worthy of calling out and exploring a little bit is this idea that companies or on social media in general, our cancel culture that has come about over the past couple of years, this desire to go back in time and look at what adults did as children, and, then punish them years later. Which is bizarre to me.

Pete Newsome  26:28
As you said, we didn’t have that burden of being filmed anywhere at any time. Maybe our actions would have been different, had we known that risk existed, but I don’t know anyone who would be willing to have their entire life or their thoughts or their opinions they had at a previous stage of their life at a younger age.

Pete Newsome  26:57
They change, they evolve, and we mature and grow. And that is that’s just life. And that’s what being a person is all about.

Pete Newsome  27:06
So to drag up old things is bizarre to me. And I don’t have much respect for people who do that and punish people who clearly have grown out of doing stupid things.

Ricky Baez  27:21
You’re saying it’s bizarre, I’m saying it infuriates me because people are going to punish other people for something they said or did 20 years ago. So are you celebrating that they’ve never changed? We’re human beings we grow and evolve, the person you are today should not be the same person you were 10 years ago.

Ricky Baez  27:43
It shouldn’t be right, you should evolve with time, evolve with change, and, whatever trials and tribulations you’ve been through, shape you into a different person you are today than where you were 10 years ago, so to be punished for something you did or say 20 or 30 years ago, I think it’s infuriating.

Ricky Baez  28:01
Now, I think that’s going to create an environment where people are going to be even more fake on social media. And we’ll never get really going to get to see the real person. Now, if you’re a somebody who wants to explore all these things, and you want to say, all crazy kinds of things. Yeah, don’t hit record, don’t hit upload, it will come back and bite you.

Ricky Baez  28:23
Look, it’s going to be a great presidential campaign in 20 years because all these kids that are in school or have been out of school for 10 years now. So a lot of things are going to come up on Facebook and LinkedIn right now that are going to affect them in the presidential campaign 20 years from now.

Pete Newsome  28:39
That’s right, well the campaigns will just be….

Ricky Baez  28:44
Their history, their social media history.

Pete Newsome  28:47
And then we just decide how much we liked someone based on that.

Ricky Baez  28:50
I mean, we’re not far from that.

Pete Newsome  28:54
No, it’s bizarre. And especially since these things are used selectively. That’s a whole different, that’s a whole different path to go down.

Pete Newsome  29:05
Growth, learning, and evolving, in most cases come from adversity or making a mistake to learn from and we should celebrate those things. We should celebrate people not being who they were, in the past, being better today than they were in a former place in their life, not admonished them for it.

Ricky Baez  29:28
Correct.

Pete Newsome  29:29
So we’re on the same page with that.

Pete Newsome  29:30
Now, if someone chooses to continue to leave those things online, I would separate this too. If someone screen-captured something from years ago or kept a recording that the person had deleted and then brings that up against them. That’s really what we’ve been talking about for the past few minutes.

Pete Newsome  29:51
But if someone continues to share things from their past online or leave it up there, well then you know, once again, you’re showing bad judgment.

Ricky Baez  30:01
Yeah.

Pete Newsome  30:02
So if you’re going to evolve, actually evolve.

Ricky Baez  30:08
True!

Pete Newsome  30:08
Don’t put any stupidity out there for the world to see.

Ricky Baez  30:11
So, here’s my advice for candidates out there who are trying to find a job that shouldn’t be too hard these days. There’s a really good market out there right now for you guys. It’s a great market for people looking for a job and it’s a great market for people looking to sell a house, jump on it.

Ricky Baez  30:27
So here’s what I say. Before you go out and interview before you even apply. Sanitize your social media accounts, sanitize your LinkedIn, make sure your LinkedIn is a properly written, you got stuff in there that should be in there. If you got Facebook, Tik Tok, all those other things, and you, you know, you’ve, digitally preserved questionable behavior, lock that down, keep it to your internal network.

Ricky Baez  30:54
You don’t want to give a recruiter any ammo to go one way or the other on the desirable outcome you want in that hiring process. Now, I know at the beginning of the show, I said, do I look?

Ricky Baez  31:07
Yeah, of course, I love somebody up on LinkedIn. Right? Because I want to see what this person has been in the past how, active they are on LinkedIn. You know, that’s what it’s there for.

Ricky Baez  31:19
But your other stuff, your personal stuff, keep that locked down or sanitized. Because some people will dip into it.

Pete Newsome  31:28
That’s it, just make it all private.

Ricky Baez  31:30
Make it private.

Pete Newsome  31:31
Because even if you don’t give, don’t give anyone that you know, the opportunity to hold something against you.

Pete Newsome  31:40
What do you think about the concern? I can’t remember the exact circumstances I don’t remember if it was a blog article I wrote or just something I put on LinkedIn a couple of years ago about this topic and making similar recommendations, to what we’re talking about now.

Pete Newsome  31:55
Someone said that recruiters shouldn’t do that, you know, that’s the potential for discrimination. My thought there was, you know, it was what remains? Well, if someone’s going to discriminate there, they’ll have their opportunity to do that.

Ricky Baez  32:15
So I never understood that either.

Pete Newsome  32:17
Yeah, it’s, uh, you know, if people are going to do bad things, they’re gonna do bad things, whether it’s in the dark or in the light or eventually come out. So I don’t see that as even a consideration in this, do you?

Ricky Baez  32:39
Okay, so I’m going to separate my answer. Is there a potential for discrimination? Of course, there is, there’s a potential anytime you meet somebody in person for discrimination, whether you do it or not something different right.

Ricky Baez  32:53
Now, it’s the second part to that is, is that I don’t again, I don’t see that as any different than you coming into the interview having me meet you in person. This same argument came up a couple of years ago, when I forgot the name of the organization, into the back of my mind that they proposed the idea of video interviews.

Ricky Baez  33:16
And a lot of people came, I got some attorney friends of mine, that’s going to create an issue. Again, what is the difference between me seeing a video of somebody in which I can see their personality, how they sell, especially if I’m looking for a sales position. I want to see how they do.

Ricky Baez  33:33
How is that any different than them standing right across from you In person? So to me, it’s, no difference, the possibility is only there, just make sure whatever decision you make is based on your skill set and skill set alone. It’s the same thing. Yeah, I’m with you.

Pete Newsome  33:49
So, but hold on, their skill set alone?

Ricky Baez  33:55
Well, okay, I’ll take it back. Skill sets should be a part of it. Right? Because on a resume, you can see that this person is spot on, they got all of the criteria that you’re looking for. But then they come in in the complete, you know, what, to people I almost said it I forgot. This is the LinkedIn podcast. Sorry about it.

Pete Newsome  34:17
Was it a box?

Ricky Baez  34:18
We don’t check other podcasts I do, but not this one. No, yeah. So now, obviously, I want this person to meet my team. I want this person to meet everybody he or she is going to be working with because I care about chemistry.

Ricky Baez  34:34
Some people disagree with us, some people say yes, let’s, that’s why I’m correcting myself. That’s why yes, they focus just on the skill set. But what’s it going to do to your team, if this person has a skill set that you need? Your team is running great, this person comes in and they have a toxic personality?

Ricky Baez  34:51
Well, obviously that’s not written in an interview. But I’m going to say no to that person. So yes, skill set is part of it. The chemistry is just another part of it, but the chemistry, you got to make sure that whatever decision you make, it’s got to be tied to that. Right? Because you don’t want it to come back and say, “Well, I’m the best person for this job. Tell me a reason why I wasn’t hired. And don’t tell me this because I’m Hispanic or I’m a woman, or I’m this or that.”

Ricky Baez  35:17
So then you have to answer that right?

Pete Newsome  35:19
Well, okay, so we have to caveat, I think that any protected class if we’re talking about, you know, gender, or age, or, race or religion, it goes without saying. So, here we are saying, and it should go without saying, that discriminating against someone based on any of those things is awful. It’s illegal, it shouldn’t happen.

Ricky Baez  35:46
That’s right.

Pete Newsome  35:47
Okay. However, there’s a whole long list of other reasons to like or dislike someone as a potential employee. And there’s this movement that’s going on right now about AI recruiting and removing bias from recruiting. And that’s an interesting word to me. Because although the English language seems to be a change, evolving rapidly, and the meanings of words change, bias, in and of itself, isn’t inherently bad.

Pete Newsome  36:20
It’s often bad and it’s associated with a negative thing. But I am biased against unenergetic people. And I do not apologize for that.

Ricky Baez  36:28
There is nothing wrong with that.

Pete Newsome  36:29
I’m biased in our hiring of salespeople against those who lack ambition. If someone wants to use a different word for it, they can but by definition, that bias. And I don’t apologize for it, because I want ambitious energetic people in our, sales and recruiting roles, because I believe those are important traits in order to be successful.

Pete Newsome  36:54
So it’s a strange thing to me as a professional recruiter to try to eliminate all of those things. Because if I only consider who you are on paper, I’m not considering who you are at all. Considering what you’ve done, and whether its team fit or ability or potential to exceed in a particular role. We have to get to know someone at a more intimate level.

Pete Newsome  37:25
So, to bring this back to social accounts, I’ll get a pretty good feel for who you are. If you’re very active on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, you may be someone different in person, there’s certainly the opportunity to have a public persona on social media that’s made intended for fun or just to create, you know, attention. And so that may not be exactly who you are, but it’s worth looking at, to get a feel for someone.

Ricky Baez  38:00
I think so.

Pete Newsome  38:01
We have to just acknowledge at some level that it’s, whether I see it then or I see it the day you walk in to meet me for the first time or on Zoom. Yeah, it’s all going to come out anyway. So as we cut to the chase has a recruiter and by the way, it happens. That’s the message that as much as anything else we want to deliver today.

Pete Newsome  38:22
Make no mistake, I look right in the camera and I won’t look at you, Ricky, recruiters are looking at your social accounts.

Ricky Baez  38:28
Yep.

Pete Newsome  38:28
They are judging you. They’re making decisions on whether to move forward with you as a candidate. So proceed accordingly. That’s really the only message we want to give. Companies have those decisions to make, individuals have those decisions to make but just know the consequences. There are consequences to your actions, that’s all.

Ricky Baez  38:50
I think with that, Pete, we should go ahead and end it because I couldn’t have said that better myself. I got to throw some applause in there.

Ricky Baez  38:58
I know you said…

Pete Newsome  38:59
That’s a crowd in the studio.

Ricky Baez  39:01
Thank you. They’re all paid. You know, because you said you are biased against people who are not energetic and you’re not going to apologize for it. I understand that. My last name is Baez. I’m not going to apologize for that nor there Pete. So I’m with you 100%. No, but I’m with you as well.

Pete Newsome  39:17
For anyone who gets upset about that I was spelling it as Baez.

Ricky Baez  39:25
No, but look I’m with you 1,000%. t’s for everybody out there recruiters are looking. Don’t give anybody any type of ammunition to not give you the outcome that you’re looking for.

Ricky Baez  39:37
Should they make a decision based on social media or not? That’s up to the law to decide on how they do it. But don’t rely on that. Just make sure that you’ve got everything locked away the way you should and include a social media cleansing protocol whenever you start preparing to go out there and be a candidate for different jobs.

Ricky Baez  39:59
That is the best thing I can tell you today. Yep, and I think we should close it with that Pete, until the next time, right?

Pete Newsome  40:07
Absolutely.

Ricky Baez  40:07
Awesome.

Pete Newsome  40:08
It has been fun. Thank you, Ricky!

Ricky Baez  40:09
Let us know what kind of questions you are looking for, Pete and I answer. So those are coming in like crazy. Keep them coming in.

Ricky Baez  40:09
It has. Thank you, sir. So if you want to reach us hirecalling@4cornerresources.com.

Pete Newsome  40:28
I think q&a is next.

Ricky Baez  40:29
Yes, we’re doing it.

Pete Newsome  40:30
We have some questions piling up.

Ricky Baez  40:31
All right, excellent. Folks, thank you very much for your time. You have a great one drive safe and good night.

Pete Newsome  40:37
Thank you.