Recruitment process
[ch 6: pages 48-49]Monitoring can start before employment even begins. According to the 2019 report Workplace monitoring and surveillance produced by American think tank Data & Society, some recruitment technology firms analyse job applicants’ speech tone and facial expressions based on recordings made during the interview. More frequently, employers are looking at candidates’ social media accounts where they are able to see any comments they have posted or pictures they have uploaded.
UNISON’S report Bargaining on monitoring and surveillance workplace policies warns that although websites like Facebook and Instagram are in the public domain, using information from these sites to decide whether or not to offer someone a job is not only unfair but is also potentially discriminatory. “In some circumstances it could also lead to victimisation, for example if it influenced the employer’s decision in relation to what it revealed about a candidate’s ethnicity, sexual orientation or trade union membership”.
Unison, Bargaining on monitoring and surveillance workplace policies (https://www.unison.org.uk/content/uploads/2018/08/Monitoring-and-surveillance-at-work-08-2018.pdf)
Data & Society, Workplace Monitoring and Surveillance (https://datasociety.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/DS_Workplace_Monitoring_Surveillance_Explainer.pdf)