Spegal And Hoyce Lemay: Article Analysis

In an article for The Society of Human Resource Management authors Jonathan A Spegal and Hoyce Lemay both give their input into topic. Spegal, who supports methods used by companies, begins his side of the argument by referencing statistics related to the topic. He states that according survey conducted by the SHRM in 2013, over 77 percent of companies use this method to screen their applicants. He goes on to defend this method by highlighting the positive outcomes this could have for future applicants. He claims that companies, when conducting the screenings, try and look for the good attributes in a candidate rather than the bad. For example, posts written on Facebook can highlight a candidates writing ability. Spegal goes on to explain that …show more content…
Lemay starts the article with a moral question “Would you follow a job applicant home and peek into her front window? Would you eavesdrop on a candidate who is socializing with friends at a bar?” she answers both questions with a firm no! She states that over half of the hiring managers surveyed claimed to have found information on social media that led to the firing of a candidate. She claims that this is due to employers finding out personal information about the candidates, such as their religion or their sexuality, which can lead to several lawsuits for the company. In addition, Lemay questions the accuracy of the screening. She states that a picture or a comment that can be taken out of context should not have the power to affect someone’s job. Lemay claims that the screening method used by employers is only there to make their jobs easier. She remarks that the process for Human Resource professionals should be “fair and just” (Lemay 6) and that they are called on to be ethical and their actions legal. Lemay’s comments are focused mainly on the ethical problem of screening. By asking the reader various moral questions she effectively reduces the topic into one fundamental question; is it right or wrong? The author also makes her stance clear throughout the article by focusing on the opposition’s defense and finding errors in their …show more content…
The article claims that due to The Civil Rights Act of 1964, many companies are now facing legal actions from their employees who claim that the screening method is an act of discrimination. When looking at the conflict the author recognizes the large grey area involved in a company’s actions due to how recent social media is. The author also looks at the other side of the situation; the applicants. An experiment showed that applicants applying for a job were more likely to find the process “unfair” (Jacobson 5) if they were informed by their employers that they would be screened. The article concludes by question the validity of surveys conducted. The author states that although the issue has been going on for several years, social media itself is very new and thus should be given time to be analyzed and researched thoroughly before we can go on to modify the screening process as a