Social media a big part of hiring process

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CHICAGO, April 18 (UPI) -- Social media Web sites are playing a significant role in the hiring process in U.S. companies, a national survey of hiring personnel found.

In a survey of 2,303 respondents, conducted by Harris Interactive from Feb. 9 through March 2, 37 percent of respondents indicated their companies used social Web sites to check on job candidates.

Sixty-five percent indicated they were looking to see if a candidate appeared professional. A majority -- 51 percent -- indicated they were checking to see if the candidate would be a good match in the company's culture, said CareerBuilder, the firm that sponsored the survey.

Twelve percent of hiring personnel indicated they went online to find an excuse for not hiring a candidate but one-third of the hiring personnel indicated they had found some reason online to not hire a candidate.

Hiring personnel indicated provocative or inappropriate photos, revelations about substance abuse, indications of poor communication skills and negative comments about past employers were among the job candidate deal-breakers found online.

Other blunders included online comments that were derogatory about race, religion or gender and information that revealed a job candidate had lied about their qualifications.

Hiring professionals also found reasons online to hire a job candidate.

Social Web sites reveal professional behavior, good communication skills and creativity and are good places to find spontaneous testimony concerning winning personality traits, CareerBuilder said.

Results of the survey have a 95 percent probability of being accurate with a margin of error of 2 percentage points, Harris Interactive said.