Social Media Screening and Procedural Justice: Towards Fairer Use of Social Media in Selection

Eva Vosen

doi:10.1007/s10672-021-09372-4

Abstract

Companies have started using social media for screening applicants in the selection process. Thereby, they enter a low-cost source of information on applicants, which potentially allows them to hire the right person on the job and avoid irresponsible employee behaviour and negligent hiring lawsuits. However, a number of ethical issues are associated with this practice, which give rise to the question of the fairness of social media screening. This article aims to provide an assessment of the procedural justice of social media screening and to articulate recommendations for a fairer use of social media in the selection process. To achieve this, a systematic literature review of research articles pertaining to social media screening has been conducted. Thereby, the benefits and ethical issues relating to social media screening, as well as recommendations for its use have been extracted and discussed against Leventhal’s (1980) rules of procedural justice. It turns out that without clear guidelines for recruiters, social media screening cannot be considered procedurally fair, as it opens up way too many opportunities for infringements on privacy, unfair discrimination, and adverse selection based on inaccurate information. However, it is possible to enhance the fairness of this practice by establishing clear policies and procedures to standardize the process.

Highlights

The recent COVID-19 crisis has demonstrated the impact of digital technologies on the way work is organized: With the use of technology, work can to a large extent be done remotely and in isolation (Bapuji et al 2020)
This paper aims to discuss procedural justice with respect to social media screening according to Leventhal’s justice rules
To assess the state of research on social media screening, the procedure recommended by Webster and Watson (2002) was applied: First, publications were revealed from electronic databases using the search terms “social media screening,” “social network screening,” “social media assessment,” “social network assessment,” as well as “social media in selection.”

Summary

Introduction

The recent COVID-19 crisis has demonstrated the impact of digital technologies on the way work is organized: With the use of technology, work can to a large extent be done remotely and in isolation (Bapuji et al 2020). Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal (2021) 33:281–309 found themselves working from home, and many managers have started leading remote teams (Caligiuri et al 2020) These changes in work organization are expected to continue to affect the future of work and the role of technology in it (Bapuji et al 2020). Social media profiles appear to contain more revealing information on candidates than traditional recruiting methods because users are believed to be more honest on social networks than in the résumé These profiles often include information posted by others, which goes beyond the information provided and controlled by the applicants themselves (Slovensky and Ross 2012; Thomas et al 2015). This way, the use of social media sites in recruiting decisions may prevent irresponsible employee behaviour and help the company avoid negligent hiring lawsuits, which may occur if an applicant is hired who causes harm to others and if the hiring company does not use information from background checks (Woska 2007; Elzweig and Peeples 2009; Davison et al 2012; Bentley 2013; Kluemper 2013; Lam 2016)

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