References and LinkedIn

LinkedIn is facing a class action lawsuit in California over its premium “reference search” function that allows employers to identify and approach applicants’ former colleagues.

 

Resourcing professionals who pay for premium LinkedIn account status are able to find people in their network who have worked at an organisation at the same time as a job applicant. Without informing them, the recruiter can then contact those individuals to ask about the candidates’ previous employment.

 

Four LinkedIn members, Tracee Sweet, Lisa Jaramillo, James Ralston and Tiffany Thomas, have filed a lawsuit claiming that the system violates the Fair Credit Reporting Act, a 1970 law enacted amid concern of potential misuse of consumer credit history...

 

For more details see Candidates sue LinkedIn over lost job opportunities (Robert Moss, Personnel Today).

Instagram for doctors

An app which enables healthcare professionals to share photos is to be rolled out across western Europe by the end of the year.

The app was designed to enable doctors to share pictures of their patients, both with each other and with medical students.

So far, more than 150,000 doctors have uploaded case photos with the patient's identity obscured...

For more information see 'Instagram for doctors' to be launched in Europe by Zoe Kleinman (BBC News).

Job hunting and Web 2.0

"It's not what you know but who you know," is an old saying about job-hunting.

In the world of social networks we "know" more people than ever and we can be connected to the people they know as well, making it easier to find work and hear about people using our personal networks...

See Why 50 is the magic number for job-hunting by Peter Bowes (BBC News) for more details.

Health employer uses YouTube for recruitment

 

A Scottish health board has uploaded a short film to video sharing website YouTube in a bid to recruit new staff.

The video promoting vacancies in NHS Highland's cancer treatment services is the first in a series the board plans to produce to attract new employees.

In the six-minute film, workers seek to dismiss misconceptions about the Highlands...

See NHS Highland uses YouTube in bid to new recruit staff (BBC News) for more details.

Employee rights and LinkedIn

Millions of us use professional network LinkedIn as a sales, marketing and database tool, either through personal profiles or LinkedIn groups.

Some of us have a few contacts, while others have hundreds – but the ownership of these on the site has been the subject of legal debate in the UK and abroad...

For more details see LinkedIn contacts: who owns what? (Philip Landau, The Guardian).

Employee fired for posting payslip online

A Brooklyn dad claims he was fired from his job as a salesman at Lacoste for posting a photo of his paycheck on Instagram...

For more details see Former Lacoste employee: I was fired for posting my paycheck on Instagram (Carole Kuruvilla, NY Daily News).

ACAS guide to social media in the workplace