What are your employees tweeting about you? by Tracy Powley

The latest survey by DLA Piper in People Management highlights an area that is posing a real problem for employers – the use and misuse of social networking sites.

Many employers seem confused by the boundaries they should be setting and how to deal with behaviour they deem as unacceptable

The survey highlights how torn employers are in their attitude to social networking sites. On the one hand use of these sites can offer a valuable way of promoting brand awareness and marketing the company. On the other, its use is fraught with the dangers of negative or defamatory comments being posted and the damage that can do.

But is it really that difficult?

We have been advocating a common sense approach for while now and are delighted to see that Acas takes this line in its newly published guidelines, urging employers to “draw on norms that apply in a non virtual setting.” In other words to “treat electronic behaviour as you would treat non electronic behaviour.”

The key of course is to have clear guidelines so people understand what is acceptable and what is not.
For example, it may be fine and indeed you may encourage your employees to network to fulfil business objectives, but it probably isn’t acceptable for people to load up holiday snaps on facebook in work time. 

Over a third of employers surveyed felt that they were exposed to risks posed by comments and information posted on social networking sites.  So here are some practical steps to help ensure your organisation is protected…
• have a dedicated social media policy
• communicate to everyone in the company so they understand the boundaries
• train your managers in how to deal with situations where they suspect someone has breached the policy

Our support around developing appropriate behaviour at work  will help on each of these steps.

Acas has some great guidelines on what a policy should cover, but as a brief overview consider
• The scope – what does the policy cover?
• What is acceptable and what is not
• Monitoring of employees activity on networking sites
• Consequences of breaching the policy (link to disciplinary procedures )

Don’t leave it until you have to deal with a disciplinary issue – taking preventative action could save you a lot of time and hassle.