Social networking sites 'not popular with recruiters'

New research has shown that the majority of employers do not bother to look through social networking sites to glean information about potential employees.

A study of 220 people by Personnel Today and law company Charles Russell discovered that only 27 per cent of companies go on sites such as Bebo and Facebook to check up on applicants, with the charity industry being among the least likely to do so, reports Personnel Today.

A spokesperson for the British Heart Foundation Julie Weston told the magazine why charities are reluctant to make recruitment decisions based on social networking profiles.

"We would not use Facebook to check candidate information as the validity and reliability of the information is questionable. Also we believe it to be too intrusive to a candidate's private life," she said

The research follows a February study by Badenoch & Clark, which warned jobseekers to exercise caution when displaying their personal life on the sites, according to Personnel Today.

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