Social media as HR tool for background checking

CEBU, Philippines - With the advent of technology and hype in social media at present, existing and would-be employees are advised to be careful and responsible with their actions in social networking to prevent possible risks that could harm their relationship with their employers.

This according to Jonah Lafuente, immediate past president of the People Management Association of the Philippines (PMAP) - Cebu, who said that human resource practitioners now find social media useful for investigation and background information on workers  particularly the newly—hired applicants and potential employees.

She added that they intend to exploit the social media and take it as an advantage for the company to get to know the personality and attitude of a person.

She cited that among the social networking sites they use to check an employee include Facebook and LinkedIn accounts.

She also said that it is not recommended to post their rants about the company or another colleague at work as it might reflect a bad image for both parties and could possibly harm the former more.

“Avoid posting pictures or posts that would put you in compromising situations. Minimize, or stop if possible, ranting on social networking sites.

Employees, nowadays, should be extra careful,” she stated.

Lafuente further clarified that this is not a matter of depriving employees with their freedom to express themselves but is rather an issue of discipline.

She said that in fact, there are business process outsourcing companies which already have come up with policies that concern social media.

Among the issues to be discussed during the 13th PMAP regional conference that is slated to run from August 22 to 23 include the power of social media and latest technology.

PMAP – Cebu Chapter expects to gather more than 150 participants during the event to be held at Radisson Blu in Cebu City.

Dubbed with the theme “Tomorrow’s HR:  Rethink, Reinvent, Rebuild”, this year’s conference shall feature the use of innovative approaches, highlight advocacies and showcase inspiring case studies and latest trends in human capital management.

Resource speakers shall also tackle topics on human resource branding, qualities of an effective people ambassador, role of human resource in managing workplace drama, weaknesses of a human resource team and how to solve such, strategies for human resource to succeed in family-owned companies and rewarding the department accordingly.

PMAP is a non-stock, not-for-profit organization with over 1800 member companies and individual management executives engaged and interested in human resource management and industrial relations work nationwide.

In Cebu, it has over 186 member-companies of HR managers, practitioners and consultants. /JOB (FREEMAN)