Do you really need a social-networking policy for employees?
June 5, 2009 by Jim GiulianoPosted in: Behavior, Communication, Discipline, Free speech, Special Report, policies
Maybe you haven’t encountered any problems with employee posts on Facebook, MySpace and the like. The question is: Should you wait till you have a problem?
Consider the numbers — and the odds that your organization will have a problem:
- About half of all adults in the U.S. have a Facebook or MySpace account.
- The number of people using Twitter has grown by 1,300% in the past 12 months.
So it’s a pretty good bet that some of your employees using those sites at some time or another, and for who-knows-what.
Further, a study by Deloitte of 2,000 workers nationwide showed:
- 74% of employees who responded said they were aware that such sites make it “easier” to damage an employer’s reputation.
- 53% said their networking pages weren’t an employer’s business; that number rose to 63% for employees in the 18-to-34 age bracket.
- 17% said their companies had policies regarding posts to social-networking sites.
It’s another matter altogether whether you have the time and resources to monitor employee activity — at work or at home — on such sites and how postings might affect your company’s reputation.
Still, you can have in place a simple policy that gives you the authority to take steps should you somehow uncover a damaging entry. And having a policy removes the “I didn’t know” excuse if an employee does post something damaging.
So, what should a policy look like? Generally, the less complicated the better. In fact, yours can boil down to two main parts:
- Establish that employees have no right to absolute privacy when they post on a social-networking site. And it doesn’t matter where they connect from. If it’s on the site, it can be read. And it can be used as grounds to discipline an employee.
- Remind them that the policy extends to instances of harassment, discrimination and any other behaviors that are barred by law or company policy.
Don’t forget to note that the company has no desire to play Internet cop or keep employees from enjoying social-networking sites. The policy is in place to protect the company and its employees, not to prevent people from using the Web sites in usual, harmless ways.
Here’s an example of one company social-networking policy.
June 8th, 2009 at 11:15 am
I’m sorry but I’m having a tough time with this one. A social-networking site if for that – social networking. I would not be on one of those sites looking for information about a company and I would certainly take anything posted on one of those sites with a grain of salt. I understand the whole defamation issue but in regards to companies establishng such a policy I still feel this smacks too much of “Big Brother”. That being said, if an individual is being threatened or harassed that should be addressed in a much more proactive manner.
June 8th, 2009 at 11:29 am
I think there are pros and cons to having a social-networking policy. An employee should not be punished for making a remark about their job, or complaining about their manager etc… However, employees should be aware of what they say that could be damaging to their company. If you think about it, anything you say on a social-networking post that could lose your company business puts your job in jeopardy whether a manager reads that post or not. Out social-networking policy is fairly simple: Don’t post anything that you wouldn’t say in front of the director.
June 8th, 2009 at 11:39 am
What’s one more policy……….8-)
June 8th, 2009 at 11:51 am
I definitely agree with the concept of a Social Networking policy. More and more, people are turning to social media to share ideas and thoughts and opinions – this definately includes places to work and do business. Think of any medium to large company and search their name on Facebook. Chances are you will find a facebook group dedicated to it. In our day and age, we can’t stop people from collaborating and sharing on line. I say the pressure is on the company, not to dictate what your employees say about you, but rather to assume they will say something and make your company a great place to work so they will have good things to say when they do.
June 8th, 2009 at 11:57 am
Your article does not address the problems that a California company might run into for punishing off-duty activity. You would have to show direct impact on the company or its reputation or a conflict with or damaging reflection on job classification of the posting individual (i.e. a deputy DA doing criminal defense work on the side; or an off-duty police officer selling marijuana). Snooping to find potentially embarassing material seems questionable at best.
The concept of a simple but broad policy is OK, but the practicalities of enforcing equally and uniformally are not so clear. If the posting threatens an employee, most of us have policies that already address violence and defamation. I may be wrong, but it seems that for Twittering – that would almost be a prima facie case for misuse of company resourses, as Twitter is a moment-by-moment recounting of activities. If your employee is Twittering – they are using company resources during the workday throughout the workday. Otherwise – it is not a Twitter, it is posting.
June 8th, 2009 at 1:25 pm
We’ve discussed this one in various other formats before. It goes to the issue of what you are paying people to do when they are “at work”. If part of someone’s job is to social network, great – if not then a policy is probably in order. Twittering is as John mentions a pretty obvious one unless the person is doing it on their own cell-phone. Then what? They could be social networking on their own phone and IMing. How do you distinguish Facebook or MySpace from Plaxo and LinkedIn? Electronics are making it increasingly complicated to manage the traditional work space and protect the company along the way.
June 10th, 2009 at 11:30 am
This does seem a bit too much like Big Brother watching over. When does an employer go snooping about on someone’s networking page? Do they do it on company time? When they’re at home? That’s a reason I wouldn’t “friend” an employer or a company page.
June 25th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
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