By Steve Bruce for HR Daily Advisor

What do you do when the experts’ advice conflicts? Some experts say run Google searches on every candidate and don’t forget their MySpace and Facebook pages. Others say, stay away, you don’t want that information. So should you surf or not?

It’s annoying when the experts don’t agree, but it doesn’t mean you’re paralyzed. Here are a few things to consider.

A Grain of Salt
Take any personal Internet page with a grain of salt. First of all, you’re never entirely sure that the pages are authentic. They may have been set up or modifi ed by someone other than the person you are looking for. Furthermore, many people are posturing on their pages, or have posted false information intended as a joke for friends.

A Little Understanding
Many experts urge recruiters to use a little understanding. As one noted, “I did some wild and crazy things in my youth, but they were quickly forgotten.” Now those same antics are “up” for everyone to see. Nevertheless, do you want to hire someone who jokes “publicly” about violence or illegal acts or displays risqué pictures of himself or herself?

Is No News Good News?
Another factor to consider is the fact that many people don’t have a personal page at all, but that doesn’t make them great candidates.

Information You Don’t Want
The biggest argument against peeking at personal pages is that you will learn things you don’t want to learn, such as information about protected characteristics (e.g., marital status, childcare responsibilities, race, religion, or disability).  When making employment decisions, you can’t consider such characteristics, and the best way to prove that you didn’t consider them is to show that you did not know about them.

If you do decide to do Internet background checks, here are two important steps to take:
Train and Train Again — Stress the necessity to make decisions based on job-related factors and to ignore information about protected characteristics. Then be sure to clearly document the legitimate business reasons for your hiring decisions.

Be Consistent — If you do Internet checks for one candidate for a job, be sure to do the same checks for all candidates for that job.

What About Recruiting on the Internet
More and more employers are going beyond background checks and are using the Internet—and especially social networking sites—as a fertile ground for recruiting.

Millions of Americans—from newly minted college graduates to baby boomers and seniors—have logged into social networking websites, created personal profiles, posted their résumés and job experience, and shared their networks of colleagues and friends.

If you learn the rules (both written and unwritten) for navigating these sites, you can locate extremely qualified candidates for your workforce and position your organization as a friendly place for job seekers.

Practical Human Resource Tips, News & Advice — http://hrdailyadvisor.blr.com.