ON THE JOB SPECIAL......... BEWARE Every Move You Make, Every Blog You Trawl

ON THE JOB SPECIAL BEWARE Every Move You Make, Every Blog You Trawl

As if things weren’t bad enough in the job market — now your employer, current or future, may well be playing big brother on social media

  

    It was a tough day for Amol and at the end of the evening as he walked out of his boss’s cabin he was at the end of his tether. Facebooking seemed a good way to chill and he duly updated his status: “Had a bad review meeting. My boss stinks.”
    Apart from a literally raising a stink, it also raised hackles in some corners and beyond. For, everyone in the office knew the “boss”, who actually had a body odour problem. As Amol’s colleagues read his Facebook update, it became a rage and a major embarrassment. The human resources people responded promptly with a set of guidelines on what employees can do on social media — and of course a session of counselling for Amol.
    Amol’s identity has to be kept a secret in order to preserve not just his job but his boss’s dignity as well. He isn’t the only one who is creeping onto the radar of HR departments for apparent online indiscretions. And the proverbial big brother is not just keeping track of social behaviour of employees on networking sites, even comments, ‘friends’ and tweets of potential recruits are being traced. If the hirer has a problem with what’s put out, the candidate may face extra questions during the interview or even lose the opportunity.
    HR consultant Varda Pendse, who recounted Amol’s folly, says: “Companies are going down to details of what employees do on social media — even matching their LinkedIn profiles with their real jobs to ensure no one is bragging about stuff they don’t do.”
Anti-social Media
Recently, a former employee of one of the largest IT companies in India posted this on a Linked-In forum: “Do not opt for the UK project, try to go for the US one.” It was a piece of advice to a new employee from an exstaffer that succeeded in puncturing the prestige of the company’s UK project.
    About a year and a half ago, a training company saw its name popping up prominently on Google for a very unflattering reason — a former trainer had put out a blog post about his distress at not being paid when he was with that company. Unfortunately Google searches on this firm would throw up this post first!
    Social media is not just about marketing any more; it is also a major HR function, and defensive in nature. From listening programmes to figuring out what employees and ex-employees are saying to deep dives into the profile of a prospective hire, no web page is being left unturned.
    Specialised agencies have started offering listening services to companies. Along with policies and guidelines for engaging with social-media platforms like microblogging site Twitter, popular networking and friendship site Facebook or LinkedIn, there are even courses and tests that companies run for their employees.
    Says Roopen Roy, managing director of Deloitte Consulting in India, who is also an active blogger and Facebooker. “We have computer-based self-study courses for each one of us in Deloitte which we have to learn, sit for tests and pass.”
    The loudest message that companies seek to send out via their social media policies is that, as Sandip Kohli, HR head at Ernst & Young India, puts it: “Client confidentiality, content ownership and data privacy cannot be compromised.” Kohli insists that at E&Y there has not been a major problem of violation of the guidelines and issues that have come up have been dealt with through counselling.
Rules of the Game
A cross-section of companies ET Magazine spoke to — from TCS, Essar and RPG to Toyo Engineering, Deloitte and E&Y — confirmed that either they have crafted their own policies or have implemented global policies of their parent firms.
    Srikantan Moorthy, senior vice-president and group head of human resources at Infosys, puts it in a nutshell: “Social media has changed the way we communicate, and anything public comes with its own set of responsibilities.”
    Do not badmouth the company, the client or the competition is one of the golden rules. Another one is to not use defamatory language against anyone. It also applies to the bulk of the banter that goes on on social media platforms right now. Jumping into discussions on politics — Rahul Gandhi versus Modi or communalism versus secularism — is kosher, but within certain limits.
    Adil Malia, group president (HR) at Essar Group, points out that views and comments on political figures and issues — particularly by senior honchos — are potential hazards. “There is a huge political risk if you are a prominent face of the organisation and also want to express a strong political view. If your actions impact the corporate brand, then you have to desist from expressing them.” The Essar Group had formulated its social media policies in 2012.
    Of course, an active social media profile can provide leverage in a public-facing role, like that of a CEO. Today many CEOs actually put a premium on how big their social media following is, especially on Twitter. Roy says the value depends on what the person does with his social-media time. “If what he is famous for and we are famous for converge then there is a value. Suppose his blog or tweets are about cloud computing or analytics and he is a thought leader then it adds value. [But] if his social media activity is about astrology or palmistry the value will be neutral to negative depending on what he says and who follows him,” he adds.
    So do Indian companies really check out the social-media profiles of prospective hires, before taking them on board? The short answer is yes. The long answer can be anything — as companies are keen to n o t l o o k l i ke snooping dogs, digging around for dirt. Spokespersons for both TCS and Infosys say the companies do not enjoy playing big brother.
    But there are agencies to do that work. Take Stern India, for instance, the Indian arm of British firm Stern I n t e r n a t i o n a l , which provides forensic services in India and Europe. Souniya Khurana, operations manager for Asia at Stern, says: “We do background checks and provide a social-media background check as an add-on service for our clients. MNC clients operating in India appreciate the add-on the most.” She adds that such checks are done after informing the person who is being researched.
    At the RPG Group, senior V-P group HR Amit Das is candid about the degree of checking that goes on. “We have paid for a LinkedIn licence. So while a normal visitor is able to look at two or three levels of a person’s contacts, we are able to go down to 10 levels. This helps us find people we know and do reference-checks on the person we are tracking.”
    Aditya Narayan Mishra, president staffing and director marketing at hiring firm Randstad India, points out that while an impression during an interview can be managed, by going through social-media platforms recruiters can get a deeper insight of the person. “People try to understand what kind of engagement pattern a person brings to the table,” he says.
    If careers can be built via social media, they can be destroyed as well. Rajiv Singh (not his real name), a graduate from one of the top commerce colleges in Mumbai, had applied for a job in Bangalore. The HR department people went through his social media profile and tracked down common friends and acquaintances who debunked Rajiv’s college life. Neither was he an extraordinary student as claimed nor did he excel in as many extra-curricular activities.
    “At least 2-3% of candidates get rejected as holes are blown in their stories by going through their social-media profiles,” says Mishra.
The Snoop Dogs
Prasad Bagawade, head of HR at Toyo Engineering, feels going through the Facebook profile of a candidate is useful before he is interviewed. “I can get a good understanding of his personality, his family life and his attachments from the various groups subscribed to and photographs posted. This helps me structure the interview better and also figure out which superior officer would the candidate gel with best.”
    One indicator of the relevance of what’s being said on social media is the mushrooming of agencies that monitor the chatter — be it by customers or employees or exemployees.
    Rajiv Dingra, CEO and founder of WAT Consult, a social-media startup, offers services that listen to chatter on social media. While his main business is around creating marketing campaigns and running them on social media, Dingra’s company garners a fifth of its revenues from “listening”. He claims the 2007 start-up is now earning $2 million a year.
    “All the top IT companies are tracking their employees
and exemployees on social media,” Dingra says. For two reasons. One is the sheer numbers they employ, which run into lakhs. “Two, their brand image on social media is crucial for their ability to attract the best talent.”
    A TCS spokesperson says the company does have agencies that do the listening for it and if anything out-of-the-line is heard it is dealt with by counselling the employee. At TCS, the departmental heads are also likely to do some social-media profile checking before a new hire joins.


Dingra points out that many companies are now responding on social media platforms where exemployees crib — and also use these situations to glean information. “Often former employees are more candid on social media forums than they are in exit interviews,” Dingra adds.
    Another player in the same field is MSL Group India, which uses software tools like Brandwatch and Radian6 to do the listening. Dingra adds names like Trackur, Unmetric and WatConsult’s own proprietary tool Manage.Watconsults.
    What these tools do is called crawling — they scour the internet for references to key words like company names and product brands. MSL’s social media co-lead Narendra Nag, a former journalist, says the tools are even able to classify the references found on different social media platforms and then mark them out as “positive” “negative” or “neutral”. But it’s not always foolproof. “The machines do not get it right all the time, so we have to keep a check. A newspaper story would often come out as neutral though it may have negative implications,” Nag adds.
    A deep-dive into a person’s social-media profile is not always profitable, points out Surabhi Mathur Gandhi, senior VP and cofounder of recruitment firm Teamlease Services. “Often many hiring managers immediately send a Facebook request to a candidate after they have met. However, for very young people who are just starting out there may not be enough on social media about their careers or professional achievements. Even a LinkedIn will not have recommendations for starters. So at one level there is little that can be done.”
    Still, the message for tweet-happy employees is clear: if your boss stinks, don’t take it online. 

Better to grin and bear it.
•
10 Commandments
for Social Media-Happy Employees
Do not speak ill of the company
Do not badmouth clients
Do not badmouth the competition
Do not discuss a client’s confidential information
Do not disclose information that is market-sensitive
Do not write stuff that is defamatory
Always declare this is your own view and not the company’s
Take care not to disclose data that is intellectual property
Do not overstate your role on LinkedIn
If you are a senior honcho avoid expressing strong political views

Psst…you may be under watch
Firms like E&Y and Stern India that do background checks can provide reports on a prospective employee’s social media profile
A technology expert tweeting about palmistry or astrology can jeopardise his career prospects
Social-media contacts are used for background checks. If firms do not know you, they can find out through your networks
Agencies do a listening programme on social media and offer companies what is being said in a nutshell, including what is being said by employees
Software like Brandwatch or Radian6 help in this task
Social-media profiles are scanned before hiring
An employee posting something out of line is called up and counselled in some organisations
Too much activity on social media may be seen as negative

Suman Layak ETM 130825