United Kingdom (17 September 2010) – PeopleChecking, a service dedicated to offering employee background checks and employment screening services, comments on the complex technicalities of social network privacy and employment screening.
PeopleChecking appreciates that in recent years, the popularity of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter has increased considerably, with the former now having over 500 million users and more and more signing up every day to connect with friends and family via messages, photos, and videos. Some employers now actually try to access their prospective employees’ accounts to get an insight into who they are, particularly as part of employment screening, though there is debate over how legal and ethical this is.
“It is certainly a difficult subject,” says Mathew Armstrong, Business Development Manager at NorthgateArinso PeopleChecking. “When someone puts personal information and photos onto these sites, they are intending them to be viewed by people on a casual level, not a professional one, and so it is actually irrelevant to their capacity to do the job they are being considered for. An employer looking at the information does not break data protection laws but uses it to make decisions for example a recruitment decision could be illegal. If the person believes they have been unfairly treated due to the way they are represented on these sites, the employers could find themselves open to a tribunal claim for discrimination, which could not only be damaging to a company’s finances but also to its reputation.”
To find out more about PeopleChecking and the employment screening services they provide, visit their website at: http://www.peoplechecking.com/ or telephone 0800 035 0545
About PeopleChecking:
NorthgateArinso PeopleChecking is the leading provider of candidate online individual background checks and employment solutions in the UK. PeopleChecking provides a service enabling organizations to confirm that recruits (and existing employees) are who they say they are, have the experience and qualifications they claim to have and are eligible to work in this country.
Contact:
NorthgateArinso PeopleChecking,
Thorpe Park
239 Thorpe Road
Peterborough
PE3 6JY
Tel: 0800 035 0545
Fax: 01733 312 347
Email: hrsolutions@northgatearinso.com
