Careful what you post. Your employer may be watching

Dubai: Some companies in the Middle East have begun following the digital trial which prospective job candidates have left online, to see what they are really like outside the interview room. While not all clients are requesting tracks of the online behaviour of candidates, recruitment consultants agree that it is foolhardy to be careless about posting things online that might very well come back to haunt you in the future. Many people changing jobs or moving to the Middle East underestimate the stringent reference and background checks that are undertaken including social media, says Andrew McNeilis, group managing director, Middle East and Africa, Talent2.

"Social Media is used to assess whether the personality and values set candidates are trying to portray at the interview stage matches how they behave in the community," he says.

The experience of Hays, another premier international recruitment consultant, has been somewhat different. Chris Greaves, managing director at Gulf and India, Hays, says that they are not asked to check out social media history by their Middle East clients.

"They may be making these checks themselves of course but if they are this is something about which we are unaware, and also we do not know of any circumstances where someone's prospective employment has been jeopardised by an unflattering presence on social media websites," says Greaves.

Use of linked-in is of course widespread and both recruiters and client organisations check out candidates' profiles as part of the overall fact find, he added. However, this is no cause for complacency on the part of jobseekers. All organisations without exception take formal and informal references.

"Trends are hard to buck and if this kind of vetting is routine in other parts of the world it will eventually become common practice here as well," says Greaves. "Employers are aware that traditional references are not a great deal of use. People are very wary of giving a bad or ‘honest' reference and will seek out any information which gives an insight into the true character of an individual."

Sanjay Modi, managing director, India, Middle East and Southeast Asia of Monster.com, agrees. When applying for a job, applicants should only be judged on their ability to carry out the tasks that the position entails, according to Modi.

"Having said that, Modi says, if an option of viewing candidate's social profile exists, employers today consider that important to know about the personal and social traits of the candidate. "This helps them in gauging the cultural fit and interests of the candidate."

High-profile roles

In Talent Partners, one question that is always asked to senior candidates who are shortlisted for high profile roles is: "Is there anything in your business or personal life that could bring embarrassment to the client or the government?"

"We have numerous examples of where candidates have clearly been ‘caught out' through their own personal views expressed via social media," says McNeilis.

"These have ranged from individuals who have portrayed themselves as having devout adherence to a particular faith and clearly been seen to demonstrate contrary behaviour in their personal life. Other times we have seen people who have been dismissed for making disparaging remarks about their employer on social media, and people who have been passed over for promotion for an inappropriate tweet."

Given that social media is part of the new generation and this region has a burgeoning young population, with surveys showing Facebook subscribers picking up faster than ones of newspapers — the Arabic platform of Facebook is growing at the rate of 175 per cent per annum — it is imperative that users be restrained so as not to regret later.

"We all have a youth, a past and some of us will have regrets associated with our behaviour during our past," says McNeilis.

The challenge of the internet is that it finds the individual's ‘headline views' and they are, timewise, immortalised in digital black and white.

"The reality of this is that if you had an online rant about someone, it is out there and not particularly easy to delete — regardless of whether you said it one hour ago or a decade ago," McNeilis adds.

Privacy concerns

When asked about how one can ensure that a prospective job-seeker's privacy is respected, McNeilis said it is not a question of using laws to protect them. "It is about giving them strong pragmatic advice that will help them protect themselves. We actively encourage candidates interviewing to ‘clean up their site' when it comes to social media and the like."

It is possible, McNeilis says, to separate private comments from workplace comments. However seriously career-minded individuals, particularly those who do not thrive on publicity, are better advised not to make inappropriate comments that could come back and bite later.

In the absence of a specific privacy law, individuals should take necessary precautions to limit access on social media to only those they are familiar with, advises Modi. "The very nature of modern life and social media presents the opportunity for anyone to screen the background of an individual, regardless of the situation."

McNeilis warns not to assume that because you have privacy settings, your views are private.

Tracking tools

There are all sorts of tools — web spiders, simple search engines and advanced search engines that can unearth every aspect about you that is on the internet. "We have known of firms who will deliberately send a ‘friend' invite to connect with people just to get on the inside."

And it is not just about job seekers that social media checks are carried out. Some employers may very well be tracking behaviour of their current employees as well.

Greaves says the content may not just be seen by friends/relatives but by prospective employers as well, and particularly for certain members of the expat community, it is better to remember that we are in a more conservative region than where you consider ‘home'.

Regarding ‘common sense' he personally knows of a situation where someone was off work with a broken arm (in plaster cast), which was apparently very painful and the restricted movement meant that the person "couldn't possibly use a keyboard". Well, the employer of this person was tipped off that on their Facebook site there were hundreds of pictures of her enjoying a 10-day tour of the UK including visiting a shooting range and a bowling alley, with a nice picture of the injured hand gripping a ten-pin bowling ball.

"Needless to say, the company dispensed with her services," Greaves said.

The top five things to avoid putting online

1. Extremist views

2. Foul language

3. Disparaging comments about your current employer or boss

4. Clearly illegal behaviour — drink and drugs

5. Interviewing elsewhere

Best behaviour

1. Be yourself — don't try to be someone at an interview you are patently not. If you have a wide and wild social life, do not pretend you are in bed by 8 pm with your teddy bear and a cup of cocoa.

2. Clean it up — if you have retrospective comments or photos that deep down, even with an iota of self awareness, you know will shoot you in the foot, delete them.

3. Pause before send — think about what and why you use social media- is it really right to rant about your boss on a community site with five hundred million members? Viral mails always start with just one mail being forwarded once.

4. If you register for social media, use a private email address not your work address. Many searches will track via IP address and email/ domain. Separate the two

5. Never ever ever give your password to someone else.

—Source: Andrew McNeilis, Talent2