{"id":29493,"date":"2009-09-08T11:15:50","date_gmt":"2009-09-08T10:15:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/blog\/?p=29493"},"modified":"2009-09-03T11:58:06","modified_gmt":"2009-09-03T10:58:06","slug":"online-screening-statistics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/online-screening-statistics\/","title":{"rendered":"Online Screening: Some Surprising Statistics"},"content":{"rendered":"


<\/p>\n

\"magnifying-glass-2\"<\/a><\/div>\n

As social media plays an increasingly large role in job-hunting and recruitment, the “public persona” is bound to become more and more important.\u00a0 Job seekers research the employer, so employers work to build a persuasive employer brand.\u00a0 (Or at least they ought to!)<\/p>\n

So should job-seekers build their own “brands” by crafting a search-friendly online identity?\u00a0 It looks as if those who don’t may swiftly fall behind . . .<\/p>\n

A recent CareerBuilder survey<\/a> found that 45% of employers use social networking sites to screen applicants–and that’s double<\/em> the number from last year’s result.\u00a0 That in itself is surprising, but I was even more amazed at this figure:\u00a0 35% of employers report finding content on social networking sites that caused them not to hire<\/em> a candidate.\u00a0 \u00a0The top reason (53%) was “candidate posted provocative or inappropriate photographs or information,” followed closely by “candidate posted content about drinking or using drugs” (44%).\u00a0 Criticizing former employers, co-workers or clients came in at 35%, with poor communication skills (29%), discriminatory comments (26%), lies about qualifications (24%) and sharing confidential information from past employers (20%) rounding out the mix.<\/p>\n

On the other hand . . . only 18% of employers reported that online screening had a positive<\/em> effect on their decision to hire a candidate.\u00a0 In those cases, 50% of the time it was because a profile “provided a good feel for the candidate’s personality and fit with the organization,” while 19% of the time it was because other people posted good references about the candidate.\u00a0 In between, were some interesting reasons in the 35% range:\u00a0 “candidate was creative”; “candidate showed solid communication skills”; and “candidate was well-rounded.”<\/p>\n

Unsurprising numbers:\u00a0 The industries most likely to include online screening (via social networking sites and\/or search engines) in their review process were Information Technology and Professional\/Business Services. \u00a0The most frequently researched sites were Facebook (29%), LinkedIn (26%), and MySpace (21%), followed distantly by blogs and following candidates on Twitter.<\/p>\n

Best for last:\u00a0 14% of employers disregarded a candidate “because the candidate sent a message using an emoticon.”\u00a0 The surprise here was not that employers found the smiley-face a turn-off, but that there were enough emoticon-includers to produce a statistical effect.\u00a0 \u00a0(Much as I love emoticons personally, they just can’t be used safely until you’re not only hired, but the boss of somebody.)<\/p>\n

It will be interesting to see how these statistics change in months to come.\u00a0 The CareerBuilder survey (which tapped 2,667 hiring managers and human resource professionals) found that an additional 11% of respondents plan to add social site screening to their candidate reviews.<\/p>\n


<\/p>\n

(Thanks to Danard Vincente<\/a> for the great “search” image.)<\/p>\n


<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As social media plays an increasingly large role in job-hunting and recruitment, the “public persona” is bound to become more and more important.\u00a0 Job seekers research the employer, so employers work to build a persuasive employer brand.\u00a0 (Or at least they ought to!) So should job-seekers build their own “brands” by crafting a search-friendly online […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":29495,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,25],"tags":[1192,5881,5880],"class_list":{"0":"post-29493","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-best-practices","8":"category-careers","9":"tag-employer-brand","10":"tag-online-identity","11":"tag-online-screening","12":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\nOnline Screening: Some Surprising Statistics - Corporate Eye<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/online-screening-statistics\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Online Screening: Some Surprising Statistics - Corporate Eye\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As social media plays an increasingly large role in job-hunting and recruitment, the “public persona” is bound to become more and more important.\u00a0 Job seekers research the employer, so employers work to build a persuasive employer brand.\u00a0 (Or at least they ought to!) So should job-seekers build their own “brands” by crafting a search-friendly online […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/online-screening-statistics\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Corporate Eye\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-09-08T10:15:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/magnifying-glass-2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"331\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"338\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cynthia Giles\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@lucynixon\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@lucynixon\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Cynthia Giles\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/online-screening-statistics\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/online-screening-statistics\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Cynthia Giles\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#\/schema\/person\/58241bb9b531d4ce4e6bea1e86f915a1\"},\"headline\":\"Online Screening: Some Surprising Statistics\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-09-08T10:15:50+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/online-screening-statistics\/\"},\"wordCount\":426,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/online-screening-statistics\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/magnifying-glass-2.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"employer brand\",\"online identity\",\"online screening\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Best Practices\",\"Careers\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/online-screening-statistics\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/online-screening-statistics\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/online-screening-statistics\/\",\"name\":\"Online Screening: Some Surprising Statistics - Corporate Eye\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/online-screening-statistics\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/online-screening-statistics\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/magnifying-glass-2.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-09-08T10:15:50+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/online-screening-statistics\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/online-screening-statistics\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/online-screening-statistics\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/magnifying-glass-2.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/magnifying-glass-2.jpg\",\"width\":331,\"height\":338},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/online-screening-statistics\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Online Screening: Some Surprising Statistics\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/\",\"name\":\"Corporate Eye\",\"description\":\"...compare, compete, excel\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Corporate Eye\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/corporate-eye-logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/corporate-eye-logo.png\",\"width\":283,\"height\":42,\"caption\":\"Corporate Eye\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/x.com\/lucynixon\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#\/schema\/person\/58241bb9b531d4ce4e6bea1e86f915a1\",\"name\":\"Cynthia Giles\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/00b4c2d781f5c3112f4bdd0ed82e6e42e943bd02b01a6cac8ea479bb1abecb50?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/00b4c2d781f5c3112f4bdd0ed82e6e42e943bd02b01a6cac8ea479bb1abecb50?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Cynthia Giles\"},\"description\":\"Cynthia Giles has followed a serpentine career path from academia to publishing to marketing and design to information technology and corporate communications. There\u2019s plenty of detail about this journey at www.cynthiagiles.com, but briefly--the common theme has been ideas, and how to present them effectively. Along the way, she became an accidental expert on data warehousing and business intelligence, and for the past ten years she has combined corporate contracting with an independent consulting practice that focuses on marketing strategy for smaller businesses and non-profits. Having spent quite a bit of time looking for work, and anywhere from two weeks to two years inside a wide variety of American companies\u2014she has given much thought to what works (and what doesn\u2019t) when it comes to creating a great employment fit.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.cynthiagiles.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/author\/cynthia\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Online Screening: Some Surprising Statistics - Corporate Eye","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/online-screening-statistics\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Online Screening: Some Surprising Statistics - Corporate Eye","og_description":"As social media plays an increasingly large role in job-hunting and recruitment, the “public persona” is bound to become more and more important.\u00a0 Job seekers research the employer, so employers work to build a persuasive employer brand.\u00a0 (Or at least they ought to!) So should job-seekers build their own “brands” by crafting a search-friendly online […]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/online-screening-statistics\/","og_site_name":"Corporate Eye","article_published_time":"2009-09-08T10:15:50+00:00","og_image":[{"width":331,"height":338,"url":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/magnifying-glass-2.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Cynthia Giles","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@lucynixon","twitter_site":"@lucynixon","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Cynthia Giles","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/online-screening-statistics\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/online-screening-statistics\/"},"author":{"name":"Cynthia Giles","@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#\/schema\/person\/58241bb9b531d4ce4e6bea1e86f915a1"},"headline":"Online Screening: Some Surprising Statistics","datePublished":"2009-09-08T10:15:50+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/online-screening-statistics\/"},"wordCount":426,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/online-screening-statistics\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/magnifying-glass-2.jpg","keywords":["employer brand","online identity","online screening"],"articleSection":["Best Practices","Careers"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/online-screening-statistics\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/online-screening-statistics\/","url":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/online-screening-statistics\/","name":"Online Screening: Some Surprising Statistics - Corporate Eye","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/online-screening-statistics\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/online-screening-statistics\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/magnifying-glass-2.jpg","datePublished":"2009-09-08T10:15:50+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/online-screening-statistics\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/online-screening-statistics\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/online-screening-statistics\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/magnifying-glass-2.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/magnifying-glass-2.jpg","width":331,"height":338},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/online-screening-statistics\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Online Screening: Some Surprising Statistics"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/","name":"Corporate Eye","description":"...compare, compete, excel","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#organization","name":"Corporate Eye","url":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/corporate-eye-logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/corporate-eye-logo.png","width":283,"height":42,"caption":"Corporate Eye"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/lucynixon"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#\/schema\/person\/58241bb9b531d4ce4e6bea1e86f915a1","name":"Cynthia Giles","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/00b4c2d781f5c3112f4bdd0ed82e6e42e943bd02b01a6cac8ea479bb1abecb50?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/00b4c2d781f5c3112f4bdd0ed82e6e42e943bd02b01a6cac8ea479bb1abecb50?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Cynthia Giles"},"description":"Cynthia Giles has followed a serpentine career path from academia to publishing to marketing and design to information technology and corporate communications. There\u2019s plenty of detail about this journey at www.cynthiagiles.com, but briefly--the common theme has been ideas, and how to present them effectively. Along the way, she became an accidental expert on data warehousing and business intelligence, and for the past ten years she has combined corporate contracting with an independent consulting practice that focuses on marketing strategy for smaller businesses and non-profits. Having spent quite a bit of time looking for work, and anywhere from two weeks to two years inside a wide variety of American companies\u2014she has given much thought to what works (and what doesn\u2019t) when it comes to creating a great employment fit.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.cynthiagiles.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/author\/cynthia\/"}]}},"modified_by":"Lucy Nixon","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29493"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29582,"href":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29493\/revisions\/29582"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}