Law
Scenario
A manager was in the process of hiring a new employee and interviewed several candidates. After narrowing the search down to two candidates, the manager and another employee searched several social media sites and reviewed the two candidates’ accounts to gain additional information about them and to decide who they thought would be a better fit for the organization. The manager and employee used the information found in the social media searches in making their final selection for the position. The use of the information gained from the social media search was not disclosed to either candidate at any point in the interview process.
Assignment
Assume you are the director of human resources for the company, and you have just learned about the social media searches that were used in the hiring process. Write a 250-word memo to the company managers that addresses the ethical issues resulting from this situation. Your goal is to reeducate managers about the ethical framework of your organization and the way business, including hiring, is conducted. Include discussion of the following.
The legality of the use of personal information taken from social media as part of the hiring process.
The legality of failing to disclose to candidates of the use of social media account reviews as part of the hiring process.
Summary of the ethical dilemmas and the ambiguities of the situation.
Propose guidelines for the review and use of social media profiles as part of the hiring process.
APA style is not required, but solid academic writing is expected.
This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.
You are not required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite.
ANSWER
Internal Memorandum
To: All Company Managers
From: Director of Human Resources
Date: 29th January 2020
Subject: Ethical and Legal Implications of Using Social Media Candidate Profiles in the Hiring Process.
It has come to my attention that managers have employed social media in the hiring process. I acknowledge that it is much easier to go through an employee’s social media profile to determine their applicability to the teams we all lead but I must let you know that it is both unethical and illegal in many countries including the United States and the company does not stand for it in principle and in the eyes of the law.
The law protects several individual liberties. One such law it the right to privacy which comprise but is not limited to the gender, age, race, sexual orientation, religion and disability (Eglit 1992). The freedom of privacy is protected under both the federal law and the state law. By simply perusing a candidate’s profile on social media, you have infringed three laws. The first law is the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that prevents employers from discrimination on the base of race, skin colour, origin, ethnicity or sex. The second law is the age discrimination act of 1967 that prevents employers from side lining capable young or elderly job applicants. Lastly, Title 1 and V of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 which prevents employers from discriminating against capable candidates with disabilities (Eglit 1992). Often this information can be deduced from a social media profile making you and your hiring panels liable for the consequences of infringing either one.
Ethically, it is fairly easy to tell where the line is. For example, whenever you log in to your Facebook account, the question on the box is What is on your mind? Social media is a platform to engage on both the sensible and nonsensical alone. As an illustration, a group of friend seated somewhere discuss all sorts of topics without any information revealed during the conversations having consequences to their professional lives. Because, if we were all to be tried for the thoughts in our minds, then most of us would be guilty for heinous crimes. Social media profiles especially when it comes to your job applicants and your employees are out of bounds (Lam 2016). They are private and protected by the law. And if it is absolutely important that their profiles are considered, this information must be provided to them and their consent duly requested in writing with explanations of the ramifications on the resulting information.
It is expected by the company that all company managers will comply to this internal memorandum that explicitly explains that social media profiles cannot be used to perform job candidate background searches. Please comply.
Signed;
Director of Human Resources.
References
Eglit, H. (1992). The Age Discrimination in Employment Act, Title VII, and the Civil Rights Act of 1991: Three Acts and a Dog That Didn’t Bark. Wayne L. Rev., 39, 1093.
Lam, H. (2016). Social media dilemmas in the employment context. Employee Relations.
