Business memo

MEMO Ms. Virginia Flanders 6th/11/ Re: Suggestions on how to develop a formal policy for searching online information and social media sites as part of company’s standard hiring process
I am writing to suggest to Ms. Flanders on how she can develop a formal policy for searching online information and social media sites for prospective employees during the recruitment process. I suggest that the searches should only look into the factors surrounding an individual, which are pertinent to the position that he or she has applied. Secondly, I suggest that the searches should be through Google, and popular social sites such as facebook, twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram for all candidates. Lastly, I suggest that to prevent discrimination candidates should conceal their ethnicity, race, religion, and any form of disability if they have. As for privacy, the candidates should not give out their passwords and neither shall information obtained used for any other different purpose.
What to look for during the searches and why
The search should look for factors that can make a candidate the best suited for the job or factors that can make him or her unsuitable. From, the social sites searches, Ms. Flanders will be able to learn more about the interpersonal skills of the candidate such as non-verbal communication skills and the social life of the candidate. Because Hathaway Jones is a luxury apparel retailer, Ms. Flanders should look for the fashion sense of candidates through the photos they post. Secondly, Ms. Flanders should gauge the behavior of candidates as suggested through their photos, comments, and conversations with their friends. From this information, Ms. Flanders will learn more about the prospective candidates.
Through Google search Ms. Flanders can verify the authenticity of the academic qualification stated by the candidate and the work experience. Secondly, through Google search Ms. Flanders can be able to know of the candidates’ criminal record or past misdemeanor that can make him or her unsuitable for the job.
How to do the searches efficiently and uniformly
In order to ensure that the searches do not incur the company a lot of cost, the company should state in their job adverts that those wishing to apply for the advertised positions should ensure their personal profile or page can be viewed by the public in either Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. This will minimize the time for carrying out the searches and the labor required since it will be a simple task.
In order to ensure that the searches are uniform for all candidates the same checklist or criteria for searching should be applicable to all candidates to look for similar factors or issues about each candidate.
How to prevent discrimination and protect privacy
In order to prevent against any form of discrimination, candidates should ensure that their profiles, which are visible to the public do not contain any information such as their religion, race, ethnicity, cultural background, and any form of disability that can make them be discriminated upon.
In order to protect the privacy of the candidates, the job adverts will state the exact period when the candidates can enable public access to their pages and profile in the social sites, after which the candidates are free to hide their profile/ page from public view. Secondly, candidates will not be required to give out their passwords and the information obtained from the searches will not be used for any other purpose apart from the one stipulated by the company.
Through the above strategies, the company can maintain professionalism while carrying out the searches and prospective candidates will be more willing to cooperate since it is evident that the searches are not digging into private lives of candidates but rather it is only interested in factors that can make or break the candidate.