Why should employers consider Social Media Screening?
24/04/2026
As social media stories are becoming more and more prevalent in mainstream news, these social media checks are extremely useful.
Why you made need this screening
These days, there seems to be a Social Media story in the news almost every week. Organisations now actively evaluate the risks of employee social media activity, whether assessing personal stories or the fallout from past posts and comments. In particular, they must consider how an employee’s online presence could impact their business. Additionally, they should consider how online activities could affect them.
Almost every applicant for a job role has a sizeable online presence. This can be from well-known platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Tik-Tok. It can also be from less-known niche services such as gaming sites, political affiliation and associations with extreme views.
Such sites can provide you with a vast pool of information about a person’s beliefs and attitudes. You can learn a lot about a person from looking at their online platforms and reviewing their activity.
As these stories are becoming more and more prevalent in mainstream news, this level of check is extremely useful. It is now becoming common practice to review a person’s social media footprint during the recruitment process. Our checks can reduce the risk to your brand and reputation.
As Benjamin Franklin once said, “An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure”.
We would highly recommend that an online risk assessment becomes a standard part of the recruitment process. In addition, we offer enhanced assessments to complement any interview.
Just like organisations have policies for the recruitment of ex-offenders, many organisations are adopting a social media policy for their employees. They are embedding this within their contracts of employment.
What can these checks show?
Our check identifies the person’s online presence and looks for negative behaviours, language, issues relating to drugs, crime, or other such antisocial participation.
This check would provide a full report detailing any information that has been found. It uses a convenient flag system that highlights any posts or comments which could be deemed as harmful to your company’s reputation. Additionally, details of the post and comments are also provided to give yourselves a full insight into what might trigger a flagged response. The report would show if any of the above have been found across any accounts held by the applicant. These accounts must be in the public domain. This includes, but is not limited to, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Flickr, Pinterest, Google, Skype and My fitness App.
When might you conduct this check?
We would recommend that an organisation perform this check during the pre-employment recruitment stage. We can complete social media checks in a few days or, bundle them into a comprehensive vetting package.
Please could we make you aware that, for example, a Facebook account set to Family and Friends only is not in the public domain. It is considered a closed account. Only information in the public domain can be sought.
Making the applicant aware of the check
In our experience, most of us don’t like surprises, especially ones that may have a negative impact or bearing upon us. Information in the public domain is classified as public from a Data Protection point of view. Therefore, the applicants’ permission on a technical level does not have to be sought to perform a social media check. However, for the sake of good ethics and employee relations, we would strongly recommend that all candidates are advised that such checks will be performed as part of your organisation’s recruitment process. Organisations might also wish to consider how they might tackle a negative social media profile with an applicant before the situation is present and urgent!
If you would like to see an example of our screening report, please do contact us.
