07/ 31/ 2008
by Tamara E. Holmes
Finding the right employees is crucial to all small business owners who want to ensure that day-to-day operations run smoothly and avoid the costs associated with high employee turnover. Since information is key to maximizing your chances at determining whether an employee is the right fit, take advantage of Internet resources that can be used to prescreen potential employees.
Anyone who has ever searched for something on the Internet knows that it can be a treasure trove of information. A simple search of a potential employee on a site such as www.google.com or www.ask.com may direct you to a personal Web page, a posting to an Internet forum or even photos posted to a dating Web site. Use the advanced search function on these sites, which allows you to look for exact names and phrases. In doing so, you can more quickly sort through information you don't want. You can also include the name and state of the person in the search criteria to weed out people across the country who might share the same name as your prospective employee. When embarking on your Internet search give yourself plenty of time to click on a few links to see where they lead you. You may be pleasantly surprised if something impressive turns up about the potential candidate but there's also the chance that a piece of information may cause you to think twice about making the hire.
Once you've done a general search, find out whether the person utilizes social networking sites such as Linked In, Facebook and MySpace. If your business does a lot of hiring, set up an account with these sites since you'll be using them periodically. LinkedIn may provide the most pertinent business information since it is primarily a business networking tool. If a prospective employee is "linked in," not only will you be able to see that person's electronic resume, but you can also see if they have any professional recommendations from former colleagues, a useful LinkedIn feature. Sites like MySpace and FaceBook are more often used for personal networking purposes, but they can also be insightful. For example, a prospective employee who posts racy photos or writes about excessive partying on a social networking site might not have the judgment you'd like a high-ranking employee to have, prompting you to look elsewhere.
With blogs being a major way that people express themselves these days, you might want to see if any prospective employees are using that medium as a forum of self-disclosure. Google's Blog Search site, blogsearch.google.com, lets you search blogs for the names of prospective employees to see if they're the authors of any posts or are mentioned in others.
If you know where an employee worked previously, the Web site of that company may be another good place to search. Many company Web sites let you search for specific information. By entering the prospective employee's name in the search field, you may turn up a press release or information about a project or committee that mentions that person's participation.
While the preceding Internet search tools are free, you can get more in-depth information about a prospective employee through am Internet background search. For less than $50, you can find out about any criminal records, address history, sex offenses, marriage records and bankruptcies at www.intelius.com. Other sites that provide background checks include USA People Search, and Background Check Gateway.
Prescreening employees via the Internet won't replace traditional hiring tools such as interviews, reference checks and resumes as the ultimate way to deem the right fit for your business. But when used in conjunction with those traditional tools, Internet checks can help you spot red flags and definitely give you an edge.
