Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/138053
Employee Screening Obstacle Course Are the hoops that employers have to jump through to screen via social media channels worth it? Yes and no. By Russ Banham Three major technological forces are changing the ways in which companies conduct business and run their operations—social media, mobility, and cloud-based hosted systems. Mash them together, as IDC recently did, and you get what the consultancy calls the SoMoClo Edge. The ability to provide employees access to business apps that can be leveraged on the go is a godsend for organizations looking to drive profitable business growth. Just imagine a salesperson chatting on LinkedIn with a major customer who mentions the company's plan to increase its order volume by 10 percent. Armed with this vital [36] HRO TODAY MAGAZINE | JUNE 2013 information, the salesperson alerts production, procurement, and inventory management via the cloud-based system of the need for additional products in the pipeline. Sitting at a dashboard, the CFO now alters plans and budgets accordingly. In the HR space, social media also is playing a similarly important role. For instance 54 percent of companies are using social networking sites for recruiting purposes, according to the 2013 HireRight Employment Screening Benchmarking Report. Another 7 percent of respondents have such plans in the works. Both numbers are up from previous benchmarking studies.