Social Intelligence

Social Intelligence is a corporation that specializes in digital media background checks. It provides companies and businesses with state-of-the-art background checks of their employees, or in schools’ cases, students, in order to make sure the environment is a safe and efficient one. These checks can be used on potential employees and incoming students to make sure they are respectable individuals and that they will not bring down a company or school’s reputation and all-in-all well-being.

Many businesses want to have access to background checks on future and current employees, in case there are people they need to avoid hiring or currently fire. This can sometimes be hard on businesses because there can be “potentially discrimination issues involved”( "Social Media Background Checks" Doyle) and it can often be “time-consuming for hiring managers to research employees, themselves.” This is where the Social Intelligence Corporation comes in: it saves hiring managers time and makes sure that no discriminatory information is included in the background checks of employees. Social Intelligence also “searches the deep web” in order to provide legal reports on information an employee requests.

The checks mostly focus on social media activity that could potentially be harmful in a workspace “such as racist remarks or behavior, explicit photos and video, and illegal activity.” Employers want to keep the workplace a safe environment for people from all walks of life, and Social Intelligence provides them with a program to allow them to do just that.

Digital Media Background Checks

Included and Excluded Information

Many kinds of information can be included in a person’s digital background check, but there are also quite a few things that legally cannot be documented in a background check. Companies are not allowed to keep record of anything that could be used to discriminate against an employee. Things such as “religion, race, marital status, disability, or other”("Social Media Becomes a New Job Hurdle" Preston) cannot be used against an employee, and employers are not supposed to ask about those things. Another form of “background checks” that are greatly frowned upon because of the discriminatory risks they pose are Google searches, because “‘an employer could discriminate against someone inadvertently. Or worse, they are exposing themselves to all kinds of allegations about discrimation’” according to Max Drucker, chief executive of Social Intelligence.

On the other hand, there is still so much that can be included in background checks, some of which are beneficial and others that are not so much. Positive information can often show up on someone’s background check and help them get hired for a job. Examples of this can be “professional honors and charitable work,” as well as other types of achievements. However, along with the positives, some negatives can show up, as well, especially if someone has not been the kindest or most appropriate person. Posting things that are sexually explicit, making racist comments, referencing drugs, and displaying violence or suggestive of violence can get someone fired and even keep them from being hired.

Background Checks

Social media background checks can often be crucial to the success of a company. Background checks performed by Social Intelligence can protect companies from possible brand risks, make sure there is inclusion in the workplace, and can prevent the drainage of resources that it would cost a company to do it themselves. Screenings can be particularly useful in many different jobs such as education and nonprofit, law enforcement, manufacturing and utility, and entertainment and tech. Businesses want to be able to keep a good reputation in order to maintain their sales, and by using the background check screening process, they will be able to make sure that they do not hire, or make sure they fire, anyone who could possibly bring damage to the company. Inclusion is also very important in keeping a safe and friendly work environment, as violent acts, racism, or any other forms of intolerance for a people can greatly harm the work ethic, or employees, in general. If a business were to conduct its own background checks on future or current employees, it could drain resources and run across legal risks, which is why Social Intelligence can be used as a timely and safe option.

In the financing business, background checks can help with such things like “money and security” ("Social Intelligence"), as well as being able to “instill maximum trust” in their employees, and these screenings can allow them to “hire better talent for a safer, more reputable industry.” A similar effect can take place within the healthcare industry, because background checks, especially Social Intelligence-based ones, provide “HIPAA compliance” and they can protect both employees and customers by “improving workplace safety and compliance [through] social media screening” overall making healthcare businesses more secure.

Education and nonprofit organizations also receive benefits from the screening process. Services that use background checks are often “held to a higher standard” than other businesses in the industry might be. This process can help many of these companies “maintain their reputations” and make the “classroom a safer place for students.” In law enforcement, the same is true. Upon exploiting Social Intelligence’s services, “police departments [can] better manage their reputations,” and by making sure current and future officers are good people, “safer working conditions for both their officers and the general public” can be provided.

Manufacture and utility companies can also reap the benefits of these background checks. They want to make sure they can trust the people that work for them, and digital screenings can do just that by insuring “trustworthiness and workplace safety” as well as making sure to “[monitor] programs” and “protecting their trade secrets” from getting out, because they will not pick potentially wrong choices for the job, since they did thorough screenings. Employers in the entertainment and tech industry also need to make sure they hire people they can trust, because “when... trust is violated, it can create irreparable damage” to the companies and the products. Background checks can help them to see if any of their current or potential employees have been involved in illegal or unfavorable activities, especially cyber crimes, because their “producers and tech moguls… [need to] stay ahead of scandal.”