Googling a potential employee

A while back I read an article about increasing one's on-line presence. Since then, I have created blogs, commented on other blogs, posted my resume on job boards, and joined networking groups such as Facebook and Linkedin with the purpose of getting my name out there. In other words, if a potential employee was to do an internet search of my name, I wanted them to get positive results.

I recently went through the hiring process of a new instructor at the English school I currently work at. We had already decided on the new instructor; however, I decided to do an internet search on the names of the some of the candidates, out of interest. What I didn't realize, is the potential legalities in performing such a search.

In reading this article, two points jumped out at me. One, an internet search of a potential candidate is a test; therefore the testing must be fair, consistent, and relevant. How does a candidate’s personal information on the website demonstrate relevance? As the author clearly pointed out, it would be very difficult to “define or quantifiably measure the relevancy of someone’s blog, or a random mention in a Google reference, to the job you are filling”. The second point that caught my attention was the potential to discriminate based on marital status, religion, or age should a Google search provide such information one should not consider when hiring.

I thought the article concluded nicely, with a question anyone involved in the hiring process should ask themselves, “how does it relate to the person’s job?”.

Reference
Bruce, Steve. (April 16, 2008). Hiring based on internet searches: are you dodging the bullet or becoming the target? HR daily advisor. Retrieved April 18, 2008 from hrdailyadvisor.blr.com/archive