Over a quarter of Australian employers admit to screening the social media profiles of potential candidates.

According to new research conducted by Telstra, a third of employers have hired candidates based on positive impressions gleaned from social networking sites.

Face-booking the music

Candidates whose profiles showed they had the correct skills for the job were looked on favourably by 42% of employers, while 24% indicated positive references on a candidate’s profile was highly desirable. However, more than 50% of bosses rejected Facebook ‘friend’ requests from potential and current employees.

Significantly, almost half of the employers surveyed had rejected applicants based on social networking behaviour. The most common reasons were posting negative comments about their workplace and discriminatory posts.

Social media listening continues on the job

The research shows that online monitoring does not always stop once a candidate is hired. One if five employers admit to using social media to track employee’s habits, with Facebook (41%) LinkedIn (31%), Twitter (14%) YouTube and MySpace (both 7%) are the screening websites of choice. 
 
The research, conducted by Pure Profile, was conducted online and surveyed 1255 people looking to hire new employees.