Yes, recruiters check your Facebook profile.
14 October 2014
Read by 3709 persons
French researchers are convinced of this after applying for 800 job offers with two fictitious candidates with identical resumes. The one whose Facebook account indicates a foreign origin received up to twice as few responses as the other.
For almost ten years, job applicants have been agonizing: have recruiters gotten into the habit of "snooping" on their Facebook pages? Three researchers from the University of Paris-Sud now dare to affirm it. "Our study suggests that online profiles are indeed used to filter candidates," they write in a survey published on October 3.
Until now, only declarative studies existed. Companies may be tempted to downplay a controversial practice. To eliminate this bias, the Paris-Sud researchers set up an experiment: between March 2012 and March 2013, they responded to 837 offers published by Pôle emploi, with two fictitious candidate resumes.
Nothing distinguished these two phantom young accountants: same diplomas and experience, sex, address and age, French-sounding first and last names... In other words, nothing that could a priori disadvantage one or the other.
On Facebook, however, their profiles, set to "public," varied. The first candidate indicated being born in Brive-la-Gaillarde and speaking Italian; the second showed Marrakech as his birthplace and mastered Moroccan Arabic.
"The literature on hiring discrimination considers that this signal [foreign origin, or perceived as such, editor's note] must have a significant negative effect on the response rate" received by candidates, explain the researchers. If this second profile was less often contacted for a job interview, it would prove that recruiters had extended their information search on Facebook, they judged.
And that's what happened. Between March and October 2012, the candidate whose profile might suggest a foreign origin recorded a positive response rate of 13.4%, compared to 21.3% for his Corrèze counterpart.
The test continues from October to December with two less experienced resumes. "Seniority could compensate for discrimination," explains Nicolas Soulié, co-author of the study. The gap then widens: only 7.1% of favorable responses for the accountant from Marrakech, compared to 16% for the one from Brive.
Differences evaporate when the layout changes
But in December 2012, Facebook changed the presentation of its members' profiles. Only the city of origin appeared at first glance. The languages spoken - a strong reason for discrimination in hiring, according to several studies - were only accessible in a sub-tab. In a few months, the gap between the two candidates narrowed, until it became insignificant. "This suggests that the filtering [operated by recruiters] is superficial," conclude the researchers. Companies are content to look at the profile's homepage without further exploring.
"The study used discrimination as an indirect way to show the use of Facebook by recruiters," a field little explored until now, specifies Nicolas Soulié. The survey therefore does not address the substance of the problem, nor does it seek to interpret the discrepancies: the authors suggest that they may come from discrimination, but also "conflicting information," a name that sounds "too French" for someone born in Marrakech, languages that are not those announced on the resume, etc.
In any case, in the experiment, "with identical resumes, the Facebook profile is a source of negative information" for the recruiter, and decreases the chances of getting an interview. Good to know for job applicants...
* Do recruiters "like" it? Online social networks and privacy in hiring: a pseudo-randomized experiment, Matthieu Manant, Serge Pajak and Nicolas Soulié, RITM, University of Paris-Sud, October 2014.
Alexia Eychenne.
Lexpress.fr
Published October 9, 2014.
Posted online October 14, 2014.
For almost ten years, job applicants have been agonizing: have recruiters gotten into the habit of "snooping" on their Facebook pages? Three researchers from the University of Paris-Sud now dare to affirm it. "Our study suggests that online profiles are indeed used to filter candidates," they write in a survey published on October 3.
Until now, only declarative studies existed. Companies may be tempted to downplay a controversial practice. To eliminate this bias, the Paris-Sud researchers set up an experiment: between March 2012 and March 2013, they responded to 837 offers published by Pôle emploi, with two fictitious candidate resumes.
Nothing distinguished these two phantom young accountants: same diplomas and experience, sex, address and age, French-sounding first and last names... In other words, nothing that could a priori disadvantage one or the other.
On Facebook, however, their profiles, set to "public," varied. The first candidate indicated being born in Brive-la-Gaillarde and speaking Italian; the second showed Marrakech as his birthplace and mastered Moroccan Arabic.
"The literature on hiring discrimination considers that this signal [foreign origin, or perceived as such, editor's note] must have a significant negative effect on the response rate" received by candidates, explain the researchers. If this second profile was less often contacted for a job interview, it would prove that recruiters had extended their information search on Facebook, they judged.
And that's what happened. Between March and October 2012, the candidate whose profile might suggest a foreign origin recorded a positive response rate of 13.4%, compared to 21.3% for his Corrèze counterpart.
The test continues from October to December with two less experienced resumes. "Seniority could compensate for discrimination," explains Nicolas Soulié, co-author of the study. The gap then widens: only 7.1% of favorable responses for the accountant from Marrakech, compared to 16% for the one from Brive.
Differences evaporate when the layout changes
But in December 2012, Facebook changed the presentation of its members' profiles. Only the city of origin appeared at first glance. The languages spoken - a strong reason for discrimination in hiring, according to several studies - were only accessible in a sub-tab. In a few months, the gap between the two candidates narrowed, until it became insignificant. "This suggests that the filtering [operated by recruiters] is superficial," conclude the researchers. Companies are content to look at the profile's homepage without further exploring.
"The study used discrimination as an indirect way to show the use of Facebook by recruiters," a field little explored until now, specifies Nicolas Soulié. The survey therefore does not address the substance of the problem, nor does it seek to interpret the discrepancies: the authors suggest that they may come from discrimination, but also "conflicting information," a name that sounds "too French" for someone born in Marrakech, languages that are not those announced on the resume, etc.
In any case, in the experiment, "with identical resumes, the Facebook profile is a source of negative information" for the recruiter, and decreases the chances of getting an interview. Good to know for job applicants...
* Do recruiters "like" it? Online social networks and privacy in hiring: a pseudo-randomized experiment, Matthieu Manant, Serge Pajak and Nicolas Soulié, RITM, University of Paris-Sud, October 2014.
Alexia Eychenne.
Lexpress.fr
Published October 9, 2014.
Posted online October 14, 2014.
