Remember when you were in school and got caught with gum? Didn’t you always try to pass it off to the teacher that you just had a cough drop in your mouth? Well, social media is the new Juicy Fruit, and employees everywhere are making excuses left and right as to why they are updating their statuses on company time. “I was networking,” being the most common, of course.
For most employers who have established a policy regarding social media, the use of company equipment and time has been their main concern. They don’t want employees wasting employer resources communicating with friends via the web when they should be working.
While most certainly understandable and very important, this really isn’t the biggest concern anymore. Not only do employers have to be concerned about time spent on the social media sites, they have to be concerned about the content of that time, both on and off the clock. Why, you ask? Aren’t those private, you say? Well, they are sort of private, except for the fact that they are being posted online for hundreds of millions of people to see in a written format that can be copied and forwarded throughout cyberspace for… infinity. Many employees do not recognize the impact their workplace related comments can have when they return to the workplace.
In order to reduce potential liability and limit the disciplinary issues (and drama!) in the workplace, it’s important that employers establish a policy regarding social networking. Managers and employees both need to understand that, when it comes to the workplace, social networking rants, raves, and professions of love (among other things) can lead to:
- Damage to the reputation of the company or brand name image
- Distribution of confidential information or proprietary property
- Harassment or discrimination claims
Can you imagine how the following scenarios would play out?
- An employee who was passed up for a promotion makes disparaging remarks about the person who received it, who happens to be a minority; friends join in for support; derogatory comments, jokes, and epitaphs ensue
- A manager who knows of an impending layoff that has not been announced discusses his worries and concerns
- An angry employee complains about reduced benefits and complains that all the money is going to the executives for a well respected community not-for-profit organization
- An employee excitedly tells her friends about her great raise and bonus
- The marketing manager of a popular product is tagged in a photograph using the product of a competitor
Also, employers need to remember that they can be found liable for failing to stop harassing behavior within social media among employees if they knew or “should have known” it was taking place.
Convinced that you need to establish a policy now? In addition to setting forth the rules about not accessing the sites during company work time, the policy should set the expectation that all company rules apply and extend to online behavior, including the harassment policy. The policy should also make it explicitly clear that there should be no expectation of privacy when it comes to what is posted on a public social networking site.
Then once the policy is in prepared, employers should:
1. Integrate the social media policy with policies addressing all areas of technology, including internet activity, blogging, text messaging, etc.;
2. Educate employees and managers on the policies and the potential consequences for violation; and
3. Actually enforce the policy.
Number three is definitely the hardest part, and no one is suggesting that you “friend” all of your employees to keep track of what they are doing. However, employers do need to act when they are made aware of activity that violates policy.
The simple reason is this – your friends will become their friends. In other words, your work colleagues, employees, and boss will be able to read whatever your social friends post about you and write on your wall, and they will be able to see whatever picture they decide to place there, too. So, not only do you have to be on your best behavior, but you have to make sure your old college buddies and ex-girlfriends are, too. Think you can do that?
If not, it might be best to remember the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, “It is is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.” Let’s make sure we stay smart with our work relationships – if social media is the key, take the time to set up a new profile, and keep it monitored closely.
Contact us to learn more! Give us a call at 877.753.0970. www.integrityhr.com.
