The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is studying the use of social media by employers and employees and how it affects protections from discrimination. It’s a timely and significant issue. A SHRM study shows over 75% of companies are using social networking sites to recruit candidates.
Employers use social media for several different reasons: employee engagement and knowledge-sharing, such as having a corporate Facebook page or blog to keep employees aware of new programs or policies; marketing to clients, customers and crisis management; and for recruiting and hiring new employees. LinkedIn and Facebook can provide a valuable tool for identifying good candidates by searching for specific qualifications. But the improper use of information obtained from such sites may be discriminatory since an individuals’ race, gender, age or ethnicity might be discernible from online information. The use of personal social media accounts could also figure into situations of workplace harassment.
The EEOC’s position is that personal information-such as that gleaned from social media postings-may not be used to make employment decisions on prohibited bases, such as race, gender, national origin, color, religion, age, disability or genetic information. Also, several states have enacted laws that limit an employer’s access to social media websites by prohibiting them from requesting an applicant’s or employee’s password or user name.
The EEOC is inviting the public to submit written comments on the issues up for discussion during its open Social Media Commission meeting until March 27, 2014. Public comments may be mailed to Commission Meeting, EEOC Executive Officer, 131 M Street, N.E., Washington, D.C. 20507, or emailed to: [email protected].