How far can a company get in your life?

New technologies speed up the selection process and increase labor productivity but also make blurred the line separating the personal from the strictly professional.

Is it relevant to my activity on Twitter to get a job? Can the company access to my email? And you can control the websites that I visit during my working day? Email, social networks and all that flows through the network of future job candidates or employees has become a double-edged sword.

In most selection processes, in addition to the skills and attitudes of the candidate, we tend to value, or at least take a look at the virtual track: our activity on social networks is the ideal to be more attractive makeup, but Also the trigger to exit the list of potential candidates if the coach considers unsuitable for the job in any conduct or comment. The same applies to our daily work.

Jose Prieto, a member of the labor department of Baker & McKenzie and expert in the field, warns that "new technologies merge professional life and personal and primacy is given to privacy in the workplace".

In his opinion, to avoid conflicts over the possible infringement of the right to privacy of the employee, companies must communicate any susceptible process complaint by the professional: "prevention is better that monitoring."

Selection
Selection experts believe that new technology provide extra valuable information. According to Jose Luis Gugel, director and founder of The Key Talent, "these rules try to ensure confidentiality of the candidate, and that's good. Moreover, issues such as the recognition of digital fingerprint or facial ensure that whoever is applying for a position is the same person involved in the process. "

Encarna Maroño, human resources director of Adecco, said "any question or request for information that does not favor the identification of the competencies required for the position, has no reason to be in the selection process and could be considered discriminatory".

If you still detect any form of discrimination and accounts with evidence to prove it, Maroño explains that "if the organization does not have a committee set up for this, the simplest is to inform the human resources department. Whether this has to do with performance monitoring and to promote professional development of just, well so; otherwise you have to report it to the competent authority. "

Clearly, there is a limit to privacy of the employee and that discrimination based on gender, race or religion seems overcome. Maroño is clear that "the sexual orientation or religion and age, marital status or have children, do not provide information to predict the success of a person in a job. Only deepen it would be justified when information comes to ensuring the health or welfare of the worker. "

Mary Michaelidou, adviser to the data protection unit of the Council of Europe, said that "it is permissible when this information is relevant for the position, for example, to check whether the employee is fit for work, for example in the case a bus driver. All these data are considered sensitive data, as specifically stated in the convention on data protection ".

Developing
Experts agree that social networks are a very interesting to measure the pulse of a professional environment. Gugel says this is a factor in the selection and development, "First you look if present; Second, information about preferences, motivations and interests is obtained. "

Maroño adds that "it may be a useful tool for deepening the phase of the interview information." From the point of view of development, Gugel says, "the use of collaborative tools and the Internet is critical to identify digital professionals."