Businesses have to worry about image now more than ever before. Read here to learn why businesses should run a social media background check on potential employees.
Should you run a social media background check on employees and job candidates before hiring?
That’s a question that some business owners are trying to answer. The fact is, more than 70% of businesses will conduct a social media search before hiring someone.
You may be hesitant to because you may feel that it’s an invasion of privacy. That’s understandable, but the costs to your business may be great.
Keep reading to learn why it’s important to run social media checks on your potential employees.
Your Business Culture Is Important
Your business culture is important to the long-term health of your business. You have worked hard to create a positive environment for your company.
The last thing you want it to have someone come in with a negative attitude that brings everyone around them.
These toxic personalities are easy to spot on social media. Just look at what they post. Are they constantly complaining? Do you see them blame others for what’s wrong with their world?
If they are, you can bet that they’ll do the same thing in the office, which can create a toxic environment.
It Costs Money to Hire the Wrong Employee
Think of the time and energy you went through to hire the employee. You read resumes, run countless job interviews, invest in the background and drug testing.
Why wouldn’t you look at someone’s online accounts?
If you find that after all of that, you’ve hired the wrong employee, you have to go through the painful process to replace them. That’s more time and money.
There are some estimates that put the cost of hiring the wrong employee at 30% of their salary.
Other estimates are a high as $240,000.
How to Conduct a Social Media Background Check
The first place to start with a social media background check is on Google. Type in the person’s name and see what comes up. You’ll see links to LinkedIn profiles, Facebook, and Twitter.
They may have other profiles under pseudonyms, so you may have to do additional digging. Also, keep in mind that the names that come up in a Google search may give you people who share the same name as your job candidate.
You may then have to do a search on each social channel for the person you’re looking for. Then you have to sort through the results to make sure you have the right person.
If that seems like too much work, you can always outsource the work. Companies like GoLookUp can help you make that task much easier.
Start Conducting a Social Media Background Check
Hiring an employee is a serious undertaking for you and your business. Hiring the right employee is important to your company’s culture and bottom line.
A social media background check can help you discover whether or not an employee will be a good fit for your company or not.
That can save time and money in the long run.
If you want more tips on hiring employees, check out and as well.
You’ll find everything you need to hire an employee.
