Online Profiling of Employees

The challenge is to balance employer needs with ensuring safe and private online spaces for staff.

A new study has revealed that 27 per cent of employees have witnessed their employer using online information to ‘profile’ job applicants. Approximately 55 per cent of organizations now have a policy about profiling. Despite its increased practice, however, most employees are not comfortable with being profiled. Over 60 per cent believe they have a right to a private online identity that should not be accessed by employers. But only 40 per cent of those surveyed reported they manage their social media activities with their current employer in mind.

What is profiling?

Most of us have probably ‘googled’ someone to find information about them. Perhaps we searched for information on a potential flatmate, a new colleague, or even a new boss. With the aid of an internet search engine, we can easily learn important details about people before we meet them. What do they look like? What lifestyle choices have they made? What are their professional affiliations? And perhaps more controversially, do they seem like the ‘right’ kind of person to employ? This is known as profiling.

A growing trend among organizations, profiling is the collection of online information for the purpose of monitoring and evaluating current and future employees. However the practice of profiling is not without controversy, with recent commentaries questioning the legitimacy of the practice. In particular, although personal information is publicly available, some have objected to its use based on employees’ rights to a private identity. In other words, there is some question as to whether profiling employees is a legitimate practice or whether it oversteps the boundaries of privacy.

A Private Practice

A research indicated that 27 per cent of employees had witnessed/heard about profiling and less than 10 per cent reported being profiled. However, other research indicates the practice is much more widespread, with estimates that around 80 per cent of hiring and recruiting specialists utilize profiling. This mismatch between practice and awareness suggests that profiling often occurs covertly.

Profiling is often used to screen unsuitable applicants. Slightly more than a quarter of those who use profiling indicate that they use online information to reject applicants. This is often on the basis of negative information, including inappropriate photographs, poor use of communication, drug use or associations with certain groups. If an applicant is refused a job on the grounds of what is referred to as a ‘protected ground’ such as sex, race, religion or sexual orientation, this amounts to discrimination. However, although employees and prospective employees are in theory protected by discrimination law, claims are very rare. This is because it is difficult for a prospective employee to make an effective claim is the profiling was covert.

In addition to privacy concerns, a further question regarding the legitimacy of profiling relates to its validity and fairness as a selection tool. Online information may be incorrect, or it may be available for some job applicants but not others. In these circumstances, the selection process cannot be standardized across all people applying for the position.

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