Workforce Darwinism
January 30, 2010
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A stunning statistic: 70% of surveyed HR professionals in U.S. (41% in the UK) have rejected a job candidate based on online reputation information.
We’ve seen digital reputation issues repeatedly sensationalized by media, who pull out singular examples of inappropriate content shared in social channels causing job loss. However the fact that a majority of hiring managers are outright rejecting candidates highlights a larger, if less publicized trend: workforce Darwinism.
Further details from the survey solidify this:
63 percent of consumers surveyed are concerned that online reputation might affect their personal and/or professional life, yet, less than half even consider their reputations when they post online content.
Let’s get this straight:
- A majority of hiring managers reject candidates for publicly posting items which make themselves look bad
- Candidates are cognizant of it
- Despite this, they continue
This is workforce Darwinism at its finest – I can’t think of a better label for the situation. People are consciously taking themselves out of the talent pool.
image credit: HelgaNoir via Shutterstock
MikeTek replied | Jan 31, 2010 (6 comments)
That is an incredibly telling pair of statistics.
I met with a group of marketing job seekers last week – about 30 of them. And I was amazed to find that few of them had any presence in the Google results for their own names.
Bad results are bad news, but if you’re gunning for a marketing job and your Google results are empty you’re basically invisible – unless you think submitting resumes still works.
BC replied | Jan 31, 2010 (1 comment)
I think people are rejecting the intrusion of their employers into their personal life. If they want to look at me, great… if they don’t like what they see, fine, we probably weren’t meant to be together anyway. I personally refuse to be all that concerned with what a potential employer thinks of me. On the other hand, I am not posting offensive content and I don’t want to appear ignorant to my friends and family so I try to keep it clean and half way intelligent anyway. My reputation will take care of itself. Most of the people I have rejected based on their online ‘stuff’ I find I would have probably rejected anyway during the interview process.
Damian Eyre replied | Jan 31, 2010 (1 comment)
This has become more of a factor in the last year. One interesting twist was a client who did not reject a candidate of mine, but asked him to wipe his profile of a certain site before commencing employment. I run a specialist recruiter in the area of sales and social media is playing a much larger role.
Kristin replied | Jan 31, 2010 (20 comments)
I’m continuously shocked by how unabashed some people are about loudly broadcasting the unsavory parts of their personal lives simply over a cell phone, let alone the web. There is a real lack of pride and an almost a childish impulse to shed all dignity, akin to going about in public with no clothes on – and you don’t look good naked.
Peter McMahon replied | Jan 31, 2010 (3 comments)
100% on the money! Those who think that prospective employers should exercise balance and discretion in making decisions based on publicly available information should perhaps consider applying the same qualities to the personal information they make available.
Despite the best intentions, people are people. Part of the problem seems to stem from confusion about the notion of privacy. As far as I can see, information intentionally placed in the public domain becomes (and remains) public.
For those considering the creation or management of a personal brand, this has some serious implications – the unfortunate reality is that life (and its mistakes) now comes with an audit trail.
Dayne Shuda replied | Feb 1, 2010 (44 comments)
Interesting!
I thought twice before even commenting. ;-)
Dave Malone replied | Feb 17, 2010 (10 comments)
A recruiter I spoke with told me that he uses the Xobni Outlook plugin (Inbox backwards). It automatically displays the persons Facebook profile picture when he receives emails from them. Now, picture you’re a college student trying to get a job, and you’re either half naked and completely drunk in your FB profile picture, or worse (insert imagination here). Some companies design their HR policies to be social media friendly, but what it boils down to is that you can’t save stupid people from themselves…