Why Employers need a Social Media Policy
Everyone is talking about social media these days and no longer is it confined to the purely social. Many businesses are using it to promote themselves; good heavens, even lawyers are getting into it. But use of sites like Facebook, My Space, You Tube and micro-blogging sites like Twitter present multiple challenges to employers.
There have also been well publicised examples of employees being caught out by their status updates on Facebook – like the woman who complained that she hated her boss and called him a pervert, forgetting that he was one of her “friends” on Facebook. He read the comments and a beautiful friendship was ended. Other employees have pulled “sickies” and posted that onto Facebook. Bad move. Not only will the boss probably get to hear about it, the employee will become the laughing stock of the internet as millions of people all over the world receive the news of the indiscretion via round-robin emails.
On one level employers may not be persuaded of the merits of Web 2.0 and the plethora of seemingly time-wasting opportunities that it provides. There is a great risk that staff could become inefficient and unproductive in surfing Facebook all day, or watching video clips on YouTube and that must be particularly galling for those employers who see no business application for these new technologies. The temptation might be to come down hard on employees but that may provoke claims for constructive dismissal or unfair dismissal. In an environment where for some people, surfing Facebook is as natural as reading a newspaper or a novel, an outright ban on accessing social media may be unreasonable.
For enlightened employers who do see the benefits of Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and the humble blog, the challenges are increased. Not only is there the risk that some employees will take advantage to spend time promoting themselves rather than the business, they may post inappropriate comments on the web and severely damage the reputation of the business. Worse still, the employer may end up on the wrong end of an action for defamation. No longer is it enough just to have a policy covering access to websites and use of email (and don’t forget to include mobile phones and Blackberrys/iPhones in those policies).
In my view, employers face three challenges;
- Excessive use of social media leading to loss of productivity
2. Risk of reputational damage/unwanted litigation to the business
3. Avoiding inappropriate use/abuse of social media without upsetting employment relations
Employers need to develop a strategy for use of social media in their business. This should not only cover how the business intends to exploit web 2.0 for its own purposes, but also a policy governing how employees should use it, again not just for business purposes but also for private usage. Don’t forget that younger members of staff (“digital natives”) may be much more in tune with social media than older people. In order to avoid grievances or unwanted employment tribunal claims be consistent in applying the policy. As a solicitor who often advises employees, I frequently hear clients say that “Flossy was only given a written warning for the same thing” when they’ve been dismissed.
The policy needs to take account of how the business wants to exploit social media and a “one size fits all” model isn’t going to work. Instead the business needs to ask itself these sorts of questions;
- Do we want to use social media to promote the business?
- Who in the business will be responsible for using social media? Senior management or more junior staff?
- What guidelines do we want to set them (these will probably need to be more specific for more junior staff)? The guidelines will need to go beyond banning obscene or discriminatory comments and give guidance on how the business wishes to be perceived in the wider-world.
- How will usage be policed and what sanctions will be put in place for misuse or abuse?
- Will usage of the company’s computers be allowed for private use of Facebook, Twitter, etc? If so, will usage be restricted to lunch-breaks or before/after work? A complete ban may be unenforceable or risks causing ill-feeling.
It’s not an exhaustive list and I would be pleased to hear from anyone with additional questions that ought to be added on.
To be successful, all users will need to be “on message”. In turn this may mean getting all users to “brainstorm” to devise the “voice” of the business. Social media offers massive potential for businesses to communicate their message, develop their identity and build their brand. Having a successful social media policy is at the heart of getting that right.
I would welcome your comments on any of the above and if I can assist further please contact me on 0207 464 8433 or at michaelscutt@dalelangley.co.uk
Related posts:
Internet Usage, Miscellaneous Stuff, Practice & Procedure
employers, policy, social media, social media policy, social networking sites
[...] Why Employer’s need a social media policy [Jobsworth] [...]
It’s interesting to see you suggest controls for private use – not just at your point 5 (clearly the employer has a ‘right’ to control usage during working hours and otherwise on work equipment) but earlier.
Are you suggesting that it is reasonable for employers to set guidelines for employees’ out of work use (“but also for private usage.“) or am I simply reading too much in to a slightly ambiguous statement?
An edge case where private mention of the employing company occurred to me last week – corporate sports teams etc may quite reasonably run some of their admin on social networking sites and even have a distinct web presence, without being officially / contractually linked with the employer.
Matthew
Thanks for the comment. When I wrote the piece you refer to I had in mind employees accessing social media in the office.
I don’t think employers can enforce guidelines on employees’ use of social media in their own (home) time and on their own computers, apart from saying that such usage shouldn’t bring the employer into disrepute. The example you mention would be a good application of this. I think the way to look at this is to treat any informal corporate activity, like a sports team, as an extension of the office environment. For example, if one member of the office football team made a racist comment on facebook or posted inappropriate photographs it is likely that that may engender bad publicity for the company and could lead to the offended employee suing the employer on the basis that it was vicariously liable.
What do you think?
Michael
Interesting post. The much publicised Vodafone incident over the weekend will doubtless be seized on by lawyers as an example of why social media policies or restrictions are necessary. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/twitter/7168310/Vodafone-suspends-employee-over-obscene-Twitter-update.html
My view (and I am not an employment lawyer) is that an employee who sent a Tweet like that outside of work hours which referenced his employer or was sent from an account which was clearly connected with the business would be guilty of misconduct regardless of whether a specific policy was in place. I don’t know whether you agree?
I actually think that Social Media policies do need to cover what employees do in their own time – to the extent that their social media use references or identifies their employer of their job.
Most organisations presumably have an internet use policy which sets out what you can and can’t do using their network – but given the wide use of mobile technology for Twitter clients etc. this isn’t really enough any more.
My personal view is that a social media policy sits as an extra layer on top of this and shoudl cover any platform or technology with the employer uses at any time – although I see it more as a set of relatively common sense guidelines rather than being too prescriptive. The main point as you say is to avoid anything which brings the employer into disrepute.
It will be interesting to see how this area develops as cases are heard in the tribunals / Courts.
Jon
Thanks for this great comment. It’s a very interesting situation. I didn’t see the original tweet but from the report in the Telegraph (which you kindly referred me to) it looks like the employee’s comments were completely unacceptable. Sexist and/or homophobic comments could lead to civil or even criminal claims and be very damaging to an employer. I agree with you that if the tweet/facebook update/blog post etc identified the employer directly then that must be a disciplinary matter, especially where the employer’s own computer systems are used even if outside formal office hours (but for many employees there is no longer a fixed 9 -5 routine anyway).
The harder area to cover is where the employee publishes something online that doesn’t immediately reference the employer, but comes out later on. Let’s say the Vodafone employee here had sent the tweets from his own twitter account from his own personal iPhone/Blackberry in his own time, but after an uproar he was “outed” as being a Vodafone employee – would that be a disciplinary offence? I think it probably would be but only because Vodafone has a massive reputation and it would damage them. To be safe they would need (and they may well have) a policy covering this sort of situation otherwise they might face a claim for unfair dismissal from the employee if they sacked him. If the employer was a very low profile outfit with no established brand then I would take a different view.
This is a similar sort of situation to the employee who takes cocaine on a recreational basis in a nightclub when off duty and gets busted. Similar reputational issues potentially arise for the employer, but if they don’t have a policy stating that any drug use will be considered a disciplinary matter they might have difficulty in defending a claim for unfair dismissal.
We’re also starting to get into the murky depths of “public interest” – does private conduct of the employee affect the employer? – that must be the test and the employer must take a reasonable (and reasoned) approach.
Hi Michael,
I recently left MSFT after 7 years – and Microsoft’s blog policy was famously “Blog Smart”. Seriously. That’s it.
The point of view was there was nothing unique in blogging or social media that wasn’t covered already in existing HR guidelines. Otherwise you face creating new policies everytime some new communication mechanism comes along, and doen’t make any sense to me.
Mark Bower (Connectegrity)´s last blog ..What does Knowledge Management mean to your firm?
Mark
Thanks for the comment. Did the policy work? My gut feeling on this is that it is a dangerous course for employers to follow, because you can’t always trust your employees to be smart. Having said that, I’d be interested to know what the company’s experience of it was.
KInd regards
Michael