Microsoft released a study conducted with 2,500 consumers, HR managers and recruitment professionals in the US, UK, Germany and France, to learn more about attitudes toward online reputation and how this information can have real life consequences.

The results illustrate how we, as a society, are still grappling with the intersection of privacy and online life. For example, 63 percent of consumers surveyed are concerned that online reputation might affect their personal and/or professional life, yet, less than half even consider their reputations when they post online content. Finally, Fewer than 15% of consumers in any of the countries surveyed believe that information found online would have an impact on their getting a job.

The study found 70% of surveyed HR professionals in U.S. (41% in the UK) have rejected a candidate based on online reputation information. Reputation can also have a positive effect as in the United States, 86% of HR professionals (and at least two thirds of those in the U.K. and Germany) stated that a positive online reputation influences the candidate’s application to some extent; almost half stated that it does so to a great extent.

This consumer outlook contrasts sharply with how important online reputation is to HR professionals as part of the hiring practices. Online reputation is becoming inseparable from the other ways in which employers and professional contacts judge us. In a challenging economic environment where job hunting is top of mind and online information is playing a pivotal role in the hiring process.

I understand this survey report might be embarrassing you all, it sucks, but its reality. This study clearly shows it isn’t a case study anymore, nor we would recommend you to change your social media profile, just be aware that your online character it is as part of your CV as your off-line character. Play safe.

What’s your take on this?


Source: Microsoft, Switched.

Share on Facebook