Help with immigration laws.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently launched its own YouTube channel to broadcast news and information to the public, including information on immigration regs that affect employers.

DHS says it will use the site to publish videos of speeches, events, public service announcements and other items.

The agency also recently reorganized its Web site to highlight its five main objectives: counterterrorism, border security, enforcement of immigration laws, disaster preparedness and DHS unification.

Last year, musician Dave Carroll flew United Airlines to Nebraska for a one-week tour. Before liftoff, Carroll — along with several witnesses — saw luggage handlers haphazardly tossing around his $3,500 guitar.

Carroll later found the instrument had been severely damaged. He complained to United repeatedly, but the company refused to take responsibility or pay Carroll for the damage.

After nine months of trying get United’s attention, Carroll took his grievance public. His band wrote a song and filmed a music video titled “United Breaks Guitars,” in which Carroll tells the story of the broken guitar and the airline’s reaction — or lack thereof — to his complaints.

Bad news for United: The band put the video on YouTube where it quickly got the public’s attention. So far, the video has been watched over 3.6 million times and counting.

But Carroll won’t stop there. He claims he told the last United representative he spoke to about his plans for the song — as well as two additional songs and videos the band will produce in the future.

Once the complaint was heard by millions, the airline backtracked and offered Carroll reimbursement. But it’s too late — he refused and said he’s pushing ahead with the next two songs.

Protect your reputation

It’s scary news for companies, but stories like Carroll’s are becoming common. Employees, customers, clients and everyone else have multiple avenues they can use to complain to the public about anything the company does.

What’s it mean to HR? A damaged reputation can deal a big blow your company’s recruiting efforts — especially in a video like Carroll’s, which shows United’s employees as incompetent oafs. How would that look to someone interested in applying for a job?

How to help: Work with managers to stress to employees the importance of customer service in this day and age.

And to keep disgruntled employees from using the Web to vent, encourage managers to listen to complaints and seek out constructive criticism. Often, employees seek alternate ways to complain because they feel they have no other place to go.

“Please list any and all current personal or business Web sites, Web pages or memberships on any Internet-based chat rooms, social clubs or forums, to include, but not limited to: Facebook, Google, Yahoo, YouTube.com, MySpace, etc.”

Translation: If there are any embarrassing details about you on the Internet, we want to see the stuff.

Alas, the city’s leap into the Digital Age was not to be. When word of the new employment requirement got around, Bozeman officials took all sorts of flak for “trampling civil liberties” and “snooping on citizens.” Residents, the American Civil Liberties Union and a few outraged politicians got into the act.

A few days later, an embarrassed City Commission chopped the policy, saying, “We apologize for wandering down a road that violated basic rights of our citizens.”

The obvious moral of the story: Employers who ask for private Web info are also asking for trouble.