Explaining the Data Double: Confessions and Self-Examinations in Job Recruitments

Abstract

The practice of cybervetting-i.e., online background checks of a jobseeker's 'data double'-is considered to be a valuable tool in the recruitment process by an increasing amount of employers. As a consequence, jobseekers lose some control over what aspects of their past, personal interests or private life they will share with the employer. Moreover, jobseekers are expected to confess, explain and contextualize unfavorable information about them if they want to be perceived as employable. This study aims to show how cybervetting recruiters encourage and anticipate such confessions, and use the outcomes to evaluate jobseekers' honesty and capacity for self-reflection. The analysis is based on qualitative interviews with 36 Swedish human resource professionals, hiring managers and employers, and guided by Foucault's theoretical work on self-examinations, along with the confessional culture and its related concepts. We argue that confessions about information found on the internet are an important factor of what we label 'online employability': jobseekers' capability to sanitize, keep track of and explain their data doubles. Hence, as the recruiter can examine a jobseeker's private spheres, cybervetting is a surveillance practice with direct consequences on recruitment as well as clear effects on jobseekers' self-examinations and interactions with human resources personnel.

“You never really know who’s looking”: Imagined surveillance across social media platforms

“…And, indeed, reports of employers screening employees’ or job candidates’ personal social media accounts are rife (Gandini and Pais, 2018; McEwan and Flood, 2018). As such, an evaluation of what Hedenus and Backman (2017) term “online employability” becomes part of the recruitment process: employers expect job seekers “to sanitize, keep track of, and explain their data double” (p. 651). Increasingly, employability directives are hitched to discourses of reputation-management and the more buzzy concept of personal branding.…”

Online privacy in job recruitment processes? Boundary work among cybervetting recruiters

“…It appeared that employers and employees had different understandings of when posts on online forums, blogs or other media were private or public. As we have elaborated elsewhere (Authors, ), if jobseekers’ online flow of information is outside their control, employers expect jobseekers with ‘inappropriate’ online information to act proactively and discuss the content of this information with the recruiter. Similarly, Berkelaar et al .…”

Исследования Надзора: Основные Направления И Теоретические Подходы

“…Чрезмерно инвазивный надзор за сотрудниками нарушает их право на неприкосновенность частной жизни, может порождать дискриминацию при приеме на работу, продвижении по службе, повышении заработной платы и увольнении [Ajunwa, Crawford, Schultz, 2017;Bodie et al, 2016;Ball, 2010]. Чрезвычайное расширение надзора за работниками разрушает границы между работой и личной жизнью, работой и домом [Hook, Noakes, 2019;Hedenus, Backman, 2017]. Эта проблема особенно актуализировалась в последнее время с переводом значительной части сотрудников на удаленную работу вследствие пандемии COVID-19 [Blumenfeld, Anderson, Hoope, 2020].…”