Googling as ‘due diligence.’ Ever done it?

The folks at Harvard Business Review have a case they want you to crack.

It’s called called "We Googled You" and is right up your street! It involves googling a potential employee as a background check, and coming up with search results that could cost the candidate the job.

I think it’s a good what-if scenario not just from an HR perspective, but about due diligence and reputation systems in the digital age. What we ‘know’ based on search results, may not often be the complete picture. Digital breadcrumbs that people leave behind may be skewed by the algorithm. Would you do business or not with an organization based on its reputation you find online?

We know that the blogosphere sometimes gets it wrong; the posts remain, even after the facts have been disproved.

Back to the case study. A fictitious Mimi Brewster, is googled after the interview, and her dossier turns up with something no candidate would present at an interview. Problem? Or reality in the digital age?

The case study is open to anyone, and closes tomorrow, June 15^th.

Comments

[Bobby Hewitt]

An interesting senario and one that is becoming more and more relevant in todays time. If I were in the situation of the employer in the case study I would call the candidate directly and discuss my concerns giving her a chance to defend her position before submitting my report. I would not dismiss the candidate just on my google findings. Ultimately I would have to make a discission that would be right for the company's culture.

[Angelo]

I wonder, too, about an alternative scenario: The company hiring the person, and later Googling that her to discover her 'reputation.'