Social Media Screening in Manufacturing

As the digital age continues to change the way people work, it is worth asking how digital spaces are changing an industry not often thought of as digitally innovative: manufacturing. Manufacturing companies are often tasked with hiring in high volume. If not handled shrewdly and efficiently, high volume hiring can easily turn into high volume turnover, incurring more losses than necessary and potentially dealing a blow to the company image as an attractive employer. All that to say, how can manufacturing benefit from innovating the hiring process?

Manufacturing in the public eye

Manufacturing companies with business-to-consumer models work hard to permeate the cultural consciousness with brand recognition and work even harder to preserve positive associations with that brand over long periods of time. Others operating on a business-to-business model still work to maintain stellar reputations within their industry and client base. Often, depending on the industry, this means manufacturing businesses have the luxury of flying under the radar when it comes to individual employee behavior. Traditionally speaking, in a pre-digital age the consequences of one employee’s inappropriate behavior would blow over in a news cycle. However, in an age of rampant social media firings, viral stories, and “think global, act local” initiatives trending across industries, the impact of a singular employee can still have a ripple effect across digital spaces. 

Reputation management is key

Reputation management in the digital era is key to ensuring that companies can protect the integrity of their brand image as well as the safety of their employees. Racism, intolerance, violence, and harassment are all top-of-mind concerns for any workplace. On top of that, manufacturing companies are often concerned with protecting trade secrets and privileged information. In the digital era, social media policies are emerging as an additional means of extending the code of conduct into the digital sphere. However, how can a manufacturing company with thousands of employees, a sprawling network of locations, and a globalized supply chain afford to survey their entire workforce--or even portions of it? Enter social media screening, a fast and efficient way to streamline the digital screening process. Social media hiring reports are designed to eliminate hiring and workplace risk by identifying potential threats before they have a chance to inflict further damage. Whether a company is concerned about inappropriate behavior going viral or industry-specific problems cropping up in digital spaces, Social Intelligence is equipped to legally and safely deliver FCRA-compliant reports at scale with a quick turnaround.

How does social media screening help the manufacturing industry?

Manufacturing companies, due to their sheer size and placement across a diverse array of industries, have a wide range of needs concerning the employee lifecycle. After all, the hiring process is an investment in and of itself, and at scale, bad hires become an expensive cost to operations. Whether the concern is brand image, protecting trade secrets, or even candidates with ulterior motives, Social Intelligence can easily adapt a social media screening report to a company’s hiring needs by adapting standard filters or developing a custom filter based on an industry-specific concern. For example, a longtime client of Social Intelligence is a large food manufacturer. Their greatest concern in the hiring process involves their biggest threat: animal rights activists seeking to sabotage the company by getting themselves hired and broadcasting insider footage. Social Intelligence was able to mitigate this risk in the hiring process by creating a custom filter that specified charged language surrounding animal rights.

Curious about our process or qualifications? 

Read more about our food manufacturing client in this case study or contact us to find out how we can help your organization implement a social media screening strategy.