The Importance Of Job Screening

In today 's world, technology dominates almost every aspect of day to day life. One place where technology is especially important is the workplace. Technology helps make almost all aspects of work, inlcuding the job hiring process more efficient. The use of the internet has impacted both employers and applicants in numerous ways. It allows for companies to search all over the country for the best job candidate and also helps applicants send out their resume to a vast assortment of companies to increase their chances of getting a job. A byproduct of this revolutionary way of hiring is job screening through social media. This is a very controversial topic that most companies partake in to help gain background information on the people …show more content…
The reason why employers feel the need to screen potential employee 's social media accounts is because these accounts give them additional information that they might not be able to gather through the interview process. Most people 's social media accounts are what they use to express themselves. This makes for a rich resource of information for employers to analyze. You can see many positives about people through their social media. For example, you might be able to see if the person does community service, works out, is surrounded by a good family and friends, and many other traits that would make for a quality employee. However, you can also see negative traits about people too. Some of those traits might include excessive partying, drug use, bad supporting friends and family, unhealthy fitness habits, and other traits that might raise concern to employers. Searching through a person 's social media helps provide you with information that could be useful in making a job hiring …show more content…
Ethical theories such as Kantian ethics suggest that job screening through social media is an ethical process. It is important to keep in mind though that this theory of ethics states that the rightness or wrongness of actions does not depend on their consequences but on whether they fulfill our duty. This process does fulful the employer 's duty if you do not care about the outcome. The theory of teleology also would suggest that this type of job screening is ethical. This is because if an act produces a desired result that it is said to be morally acceptable. Another theory of ethics that supports social media job screening is virtue ethics. Virtue ethics is the thought process that if a mature moral person would agree with what is being done then the process is ethical. This goes hand in hand with my though process that it is ethical to screen a potential job candidate 's social media. The way you present yourself in day to day life has an effect on the way people view you as a person, which is no different than social media. What you put out on the internet is fair game for other people to look at and judge you, including employers. If you want to keep your information private there are settings to do that on social media applications. I only feel it is unethical if an employer forces you to show them