Social media screening is quickly becoming standard practice in businesses, schools, and churches. Whether you are hiring new employees or monitoring employees, social media screening, based on established policy, can help you hire the right people to uphold your business’s reputation.

Creating a social media code of conduct and screening process that works for your business is the key to success. Here are five reasons establishing a code of conduct the first step.

The established policy is the basis for all hiring and HR decisions

Social media screening is an excellent tool for hiring the right employees and maintaining a staff that upholds company standards. Social media screening looks for red flags on the social media profiles of potential hires or established employees.

Creating a thorough code of conduct sets the standards and expectations to be upheld by HR during the hiring or monitoring process. Establishing these standards creates a reference for human resources during the hiring process and possible ongoing monitoring and ensures that everyone is on the same page.

These policies can minimize the potential risk of litigation.  If someone is not hire based or terminated for violating the clearly defined social media code of conduct, this provides cause for such decisions.  Also, make sure these policies are communicated in the initial hiring phases to potential employees and once someone is hired.

Risk comparison is the objective of social media evaluation

When hiring new employees, social media screening can provide a character evaluation you might not otherwise see during the hiring process. Social media screening is a virtual process that can point out various risk factors in a hiring candidate. For example, social media screening might pick up hate speech, insults, and bullying.

These could be significant risk factors for your company’s reputation and would not represent qualities you want to condone. A social media code of conduct establishes guidelines to prevent candidates with these red flags from being hired.

Consistency is key

Social media screening succeeds when it creates a level playing field for all potential hires or employees. Equal opportunity can be established only when expectations are created ahead of time. Creating this opportunity is where a social media code of conduct shines. A code of conduct lists the expectations.

Those expectations can be communicated to a social media screening company, who will use them to create screening criteria. When all potential-hires or employees are evaluated on the same principles, it will help you identify which candidates are right for the job.

An unbiased analysis is essential

Social media screening protects you and your company from biased analysis. It is natural to want to view a potential hire’s social media profile. However, seeing a profile can expose you to information you can’t un-see.

When a social media screening company virtually analyzes a profile, it searches for the criteria outlined in your code of conduct. This virtual search protects you by preventing you from seeing things like age, race, or if the candidate is expecting a child- all things that could make your company subject to bias when screening a profile yourself.

Scoring

When determining which candidate is better for a position, social media screening can help you choose. After establishing a social media code of conduct, your search criteria will become clear. When a social media screening company screens a potential hire, they can produce a score based on the content of the profile without having to examine the profile visually.

This scoring protects your company from bias. Since it is virtual, it also protects the potential-hire from privacy concerns. Overall, scoring creates a hiring situation beneficial for both parties.

A clearly defined and communicated Social Media Code of Conduct (a policy) is the first step in effective and successful social media screening.