Nearly half of HR look to online for candidate information
Posted by Cath Everett in Recruitment on Thu, 28/01/2010 - 13:51
A huge 41% of UK HR professionals have rejected potential job candidates because of information they found out about them online, according to a new study.
But the figure contrasts markedly with the mere 9% of consumers who believe that internet-based data has any impact on their job prospects.
Although such a finding appears to indicate that applicants significantly underestimate the amount of online research that employers undertake nowadays, in reality, a huge 48% of UK respondents said that their companies have formal policies in place requiring them to research the background of applicants online.
Bizarrely, however, it appears that men are nearly twice as likely as women to undertake reputational searches on the internet. A huge 56% of males confessed that they undertook the activity routinely compared with only 32% of females.
As to what information was most likely to turn HR professionals off, top of the list were inappropriate comments and text written by the candidate (57%).
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Forgotten your password?Editor's Welcome
Hello! And welcome back as we enter 2012, with a busy year ahead of us all. With talk of double-dip recessions, a possible partial or even full break-up of the Eurozone and unemployment rates set to hit nearly 9%, topics such as organisational streamlining, staff resilience and talent management are likely to be on many an HR professional's lips over the next 12 months.
But to lighten the gloom here in the UK, we also have the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and its attendant public holidays to look forward to at the start of June. Followed by two weeks of Olympic Games from 27 July to 12 August and the Paralympics from 29 August to 9 September, each generating their own excitement, but also issues to work through for hard-pressed HR departments trying to sort out the multifarious staffing issues in advance.
So with an interesting but challenging year to come, HRZone promises to be with you, supporting you all the way and providing our usual insightful blend of news, analysis, community blogs and expert comment to help you sort the wheat from the chaff. As ever, we love to hear from you too so feel free to either post your words of wisdom to our blog section yourself or, in the case of longer, more in-depth ‘expert voice’ articles, drop me a line with any ideas to cath.everett@siftmedia.co.uk.....
Cath Everett
HRZone Editor
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