For too long, social media screening has been “something of a blind spot” in the hiring process, says Veremark CEO Daniel Callaghan.
Global employee screening HR tech startup Veremark has partnered with US tech startup Ferretly to offer AI-powered social media background screening to its HR customers.
Ferretly analyzes posts and images across 14 distinct risk classifications, using advanced machine learning and natural language processing to flag social media posts for specific risk factors including bullying, self-harm, narcotics, violence, violent images and (political) hate speech.
In most cases, it can produce a report in less than 30 minutes, while following and conforming to official guidelines around social media privacy.
Ferretly’s social media checks are now available alongside Veremark’s existing range of employee checks, which include employment history, academic, professional qualifications, criminal, global sanctions, conflict of interest and credit.
Daniel Callaghan, founder and CEO of Veremark, says: “Until now, social media checks have been something of a blind spot in the hiring process: globally, these amounted to less than 1% of all automated checks carried out on employees last year. But it’s quite common for HR teams to run their own manual checks on individuals to identify any offensive or inappropriate online behaviour in the public domain. However, such methods are far from rigorous or even reliable, especially given the ease with which online profiles can be manufactured and identities stolen. And the laws surrounding social media privacy may differ between countries.”
“Ferretly offers a compliant, fair and thorough way to check years of social media activity in minutes, eliminating human bias and error, which we believe is key to encouraging more companies to add social media checks to their standard screening processes,” adds Callaghan.
Darrin Lipscomb, founder and CEO of Ferretly says: “We’re incredibly excited to be working with such a reputable partner as Veremark as we embark on our expansion into the UK, Asia-Pacific regions and beyond with our world-class AI-powered social media screening platform. Organizations are realizing the increased risk to their brands from what is being shared on social media by employees and subcontractors, and social media screening is a way to mitigate these risks.”
