Social Media Background Checks

Social media screens are a powerful tool that can save your business time and energy.

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Social Media Background Check

Social media screens are a powerful tool that can save your business time and energy.

Get Started

SOCIAL MEDIA SCREENING FOR EMPLOYMENT

Request a Social Media Check in Minutes

In this modern era of technology, social media has seamlessly woven itself into the fabric of our daily lives. It serves as a platform where we freely express our thoughts, share our experiences, and divulge personal details to the world. For companies in search of reliable and insightful information about prospective employees, conducting a thorough social media background check has become a crucial necessity. In response to this demand, Hire Performance proudly presents an all-inclusive social media screening service that delves beneath the surface, empowering you with invaluable candidate data to make well-informed hiring decisions.


Misconduct Behaviours

Harassment

What we flag

Direct intimidation, ostracizing, shaming or name-calling; patronizing insults aimed at an individual.


What we don’t

Degrading language towards a broader audience or non-human object (“this table is ugly”).

Intolerance

What we flag

Prejudice on the basis of characteristics such as race, gender, sex, sexual orientation, and national origin; use of bigoted symbols & images.


What we don’t

Mainstream political beliefs, civil political discourse.

Sex

What we flag

Sexual innuendos, nude photos, explicit or suggestive imagery, adult sex stores, pornographic content.


What we don’t

Swimwear, underwear, nude statues, sex education, “food porn”.

Violence

What we flag

Violent words and images, endorsements of gun violence, excessive gore or intention to commit a violent act.


What we don’t

Articles about violence not involving the candidate, movie scenes, gun control advocacy.

Threats

What we flag

Desire to physically hurt oneself or others, intent to destroy property, control and intimidation.


What we don’t

Violent or aggressive acts of other people, mixed martial arts.

Crime

What we flag

Involvement in crimes such as theft or terrorism; arrest records, gang affiliations, support of criminal activity.


What we don’t

Crimes not involving the candidate, cannabis consumption.

Cannabis

What we flag

Use, growth or sale of cannabis 

(including CBD products), images 

of cannabis in any form.


What we don’t

Cigarettes, cigars, e-cigarettes 

including Juul.

Other Drugs

What we flag

References to or consumption of illicit drugs, use of drugs outside of their intended purpose.


What we don’t

Cannabis, cigarettes, cigars, advocating detox or rehabilitation.

Our Social Checks Adhere to Canadian Privacy Laws

We understand that information posted on social media often contains personal information.  Manual screening can give rise to privacy issues and other legal considerations, and privacy regulators in Canada have expressed concerns about compliance of social media checks with Canadian Privacy Laws.


Hire Performance Inc. has taken steps to minimize the privacy implications of social media checks and ensure that social media background screening complies with Canadian Privacy Laws and other applicable laws.

  • Notice/Consent

    As a condition of providing our services, clients are required to obtain consent from candidates or provide notice to them, in accordance with applicable Canadian Privacy Laws, before a social media check is performed on such persons.  To ease this process for our clients, we provide a standard notice or consent form, as applicable, that can be used for this purpose.

    Also, since Hire Performance filters the information provided to clients, using our services reduces the chance that clients will collect information about third parties who have not provided consent to a social media check (e.g., information about the candidate’s social media “friends”, “followers” and other contacts).

  • Reasonableness

    Hire Performance's social media background screening service involves scanning of information that is accessible to the public on, for example, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and the Internet in general.  Hire Performance does not use any unfair, misleading or unlawful means to obtain information about individuals.  Hire Performance will never attempt to circumvent passwords and does not obtain information by “friending” the candidate or connecting with their social media contacts.

  • Accuracy

    One of the concerns that privacy regulators in Canada have expressed about social media checks that information posted online can be inaccurate. For example, the search results can include information about persons with the same or a similar name to the relevant individual, as well as mislabeled and out-of-date information.

    Hire Performance has invested significant time and resources into developing human-supervised algorithms that find a person's set of public social media profiles with pinpoint accuracy. In addition, Hire Performance has a Quality Control team that checks the accuracy of screening results before they are provided to our clients. Therefore, using Hire Performance’s services reduces the risk that social media background screening will result in collection of information about the wrong person, as compared to a manual social media check. 

  • Relevancy

    Another concern expressed by privacy regulators in Canada is that social media searches can result in collection of irrelevant information and/or too much information.

    Clients that use Hire Performance’s services define the content that is relevant to their hiring decisions. The results of the social media search that are returned to our clients only include content that is relevant to the pre-selected criteria.  This means that clients only receive information that is relevant to their workplaces and the positions for which they are hiring. 

    Therefore, using Hire Performance’s services reduces the risk that social medial background screening will result in collection of more information than is reasonable and appropriate in the circumstances.

  • Other Legal Considerations

    A significant risk related to manual social media background screening is that it can reveal information about candidates that relates to protected characteristics under applicable human rights legislation, including race, ancestry, place of origin, colour, ethnic origin, citizenship, nationality, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, criminal convictions, social condition, source of income, political beliefs, marital status, family status and mental or physical disability.  For example, such searches could reveal pictures of pregnant individuals or affiliations with religious or ethnic groups. Hire Performance has reduced this risk by designing our software to eliminate information about such protected characteristics. In fact, by pointing hiring managers to content that is relevant to job performance, our services promote hiring decisions that are based upon data, not opinions, which reduces the potential that biases (whether intentional or unintentional) will influence decision-making.

Improve Employee Experience

Approximately 20% of employees resign due to their association with a toxic colleague. Hire Performance now specializes in detecting potential instances of workplace misconduct, such as harassment, by conducting pre-employment social media background check. The inherent unpredictability of human behaviour poses a significant risk to the overall well-being of the workplace. Employers must take additional measures beyond conventional background screening methods to safeguard their brand from potential viral online misconduct by candidates.

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