© 2022 Fairygodboss. All rights reserved.
LinkedIn Check by Employer
Our recruiter asked me how I felt about him using an outside source to check which of our employees have set their LinkenIn status to "open to new opportunities." This direction came from management.
He explained that the information they gather from this check will allow them to know who they need to do a temperature check on and try to retain.
I have mixed feelings about this. I know LinkenIn has that disclaimer when you update the status, but I feel like it is also a bit sneaky/lazy on our part as the employer to check who is not as engaged. I wanted to get some outside input! Thank you!!
schoenlegal
schoenlegal 25 yr legal recruiter MBA and JD
574
11/13/19 at 9:05PM UTC
Everyone should always be open to hearing about opportunities. Not that you are actively looking, but you should always be open.
LinkedIn set up the "open to opportunities" feature the way they did for a reason. For employers to try to circumvent this protection of members is really bad. So bad, that if I were to find out that my employer did that...they wouldn't be my employer for very long.
surfnwrite
509
11/13/19 at 3:47PM UTC
It's spying. Unacceptable.
Laverne EubanksYour next Data Analyst!
168
11/13/19 at 3:01PM UTC
For me, this raises some pretty distinct ethics concerns. It must also do the same if he's asking for opinions on whether it's the right thing to do or not. I would suggest that you find alternative ways of engaging your employees directly. One of my previous employers used Peakon Surveys to find out how their employees feel about their jobs, workplace, and company as a whole. It also sounds like your company needs to do some soul-searching and re-establish who they are and who they want to be for their employees and clients.
Anonymous
11/13/19 at 2:30PM UTC
Like it or not, my employer has AI to scan LinkedIn, in addition to other things, and determine which employees are a flight risk. Then they decide if they are worth retaining or not. If you are on social sites that are open to the public and WWW, then it is fair game, to employers and third parties at least.
Orlagh CostelloEngineering Manager for food manufacturing site
1.2k
11/13/19 at 10:33AM UTC
I think the option of a 3rd party, confidential survey would be more appropriate and less underhand. If my employers look at my LinkedIn page, as I said above it's always set to open to opportunities.
If an employer looks to check LinkedIn for things like that, I don't want to work there. Ask me out straight, but seriously if you're not having regular conversations with employees generally and regularly about how they're doing, how are development plans, training plans, succession plans etc being organised?
4Y2Go
26
11/12/19 at 1:12PM UTC
Our company used a third-party managed "Voice of the Employee" to ask pointed questions concerning senior management direction, direct manager engagement, work-life balance, etc. anonymously. Perhaps you can suggest a similar avenue to your company.
Anonymous
11/12/19 at 3:35PM UTC
Yes, this is something I would like to do instead! Thank you
Tammy Hager Admin Professional in corporate finance
594
11/12/19 at 2:55AM UTC
This is definitely an undermining way to find out who they can let go... Corporate America is always trying to find ways to cut headcount and save money. What better way to say your position has been eliminated once they know you are unhappy in the current role you're in. I've seen it happen many times...
User deleted comment on 11/12/19 at 2:54AM UTC
Jennifer A
968
11/11/19 at 9:16PM UTC
You said: "asked how I felt about him using an outside source to check which of our employees have set their LinkenIn status to "open to new opportunities." "
I think you should politely tell them the truth. Mine would be a combination of what I believe two people said above as they are both very important points of view. Something like
"That would worry me. I would hope management would use a third party source to instead take a confidential survey of the employees as this would probably be more helpful. The reason I say this is that I am not currently looking for other opportunities but I do have my own profile set to 'looking'. I do this because it's in my best interest to always know what the market is doing and this is one of the ways I accomplish this task. It would worry me to have someone feed back to you that you feel I am not satisfied because this is set to looking. Does that make sense? In addition, I know others who might feel this was an invasion of privacy and/or think the might feel as if the company is overstepping and that might cause some employee dissatisfaction. I would hate for the organization to lose employees when they are working on employee satisfaction and retention.
If you don't want to use yourself, then you can always use a family member or friend as your example. Heck use me as your example. My 'looking' is always set to yes.
Anonymous
11/11/19 at 5:52PM UTC
This seems really concerning and probably something that is indicative of a larger issue at your company. If they are that worried about who is looking and not focusing on retention all the time, their priorities are clearly not right. And if they are that worried about many people looking to leave, it should also show that they need to do a better job talking to employees and getting a read on how employees are feeling at all times. Maybe time for an anonymous employee survey?
© 2022 Fairygodboss. All rights reserved.