Social Media – The Wild West for Employers and Employees

Similar to the Gold Rush, employers and employees are rushing for gold, but this time the gold is to establish a positive social media presence.  With this flood of companies and individuals participating in social media, now employers are trying to establish law and order with policies, but they do not want to interfere with National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) and an employee’s right to “water-cooler” talk.  The National Labor Relations Board has taken a hard look at this area and attempted to regulate.  See the Acting General Counsel Report.  Realizing the benefits, employers do not want to outlaw their employees from using social media, so instead they are now putting policies and training in place for employees. 

Why should a company have social media policies and training?  The policies and training will -

• help emphasize the importance of using company resources and time wisely,
• help protect employer and employee reputations; and,
• help protect confidential information and the company’s trade secrets. 

In the Human Resources Guide to Social Media Risks, Jesse Torres mentions 4 out of 5 companies with 100+ employees put social media in their 2011 budgets, but neglected to put a policy in place.  The exposure and risks are staggering since 91% of employees have smart phones.  Employees spend time on social media at work.  Some of this time is work-related while other is for personal reasons.  Social “Not”working is the phrase coined to describe the time lost by employees checking the various social networking sites such as Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, and LinkedIn.  In addition, employees are very casual and impulsive about what they post online.  Bottom line, there is a need for social media policies and training to help mitigate the risks for both the employer and the employees.

Social media policies and training must not ban employees from using social media, but instead teach employees how to use in the best interest of both the employee and employer.  We see example after example of employees fired over what they post –

• a Starbuck’s barista for her rant on MySpace,
• a teacher for her Facebook post calling her students germ bags; and,
• two Domino’s employees for a YouTube video that showed them contaminating the pizza ingredients.

Individuals are extremely spontaneous about what they post, so now is the time to educate employees on how to play it safe in this new frontier.  Employers should add a social media policy to their employee handbook.  Given the risk for exposure, communicate the social media policy via a training session for employees, and then review at least once a year due to the quickly changing nature.  Add social media training to the new-hire orientation and to the yearly mandatory training, just like diversity and anti-harassment training.  In conclusion, do rush for the gold, a positive social media presence, but in addition, mitigate the risks and implement proper social media policies and training.

For a Free HR Assessment contact:

Monica Z. Austin, MBA, SPHR
The Hopkins Group, LLC
Human Resources Business Solutions
214-537-7524
http://www.linkedin.com/in/monicazaustin
http://twitter.com/monicazaustin
maustin@hopkinshr.com