I trust my team, so do I really need a social media policy?
I remember at school it being drummed into us all “When you are out around town in your school uniform, if you do something wrong remember it not only reflects badly on you, but also on the school’s reputation because you are in our uniform”. That idea can be brought up to date and very relevant when we look at comments made on social media by employees. These can have negative impacts on the company they work for, potentially causing alienation from some of their target market, hence it is important to establish a social media policy at an early stage.
Why do I need a Social Media policy?
Social Media can be an effective tool for reaching many people with positive information about your company, in the hands of someone who is skilled in Social Media. However, there are people who frequent social media sites who are keen to use the sites for more malicious and sometimes criminal purposes. It is therefore important that employees going onto social media sites during work time is prohibited, if it is not necessary for the job they do.
But this is also a chance to work with your employees to educate them on the risks of social media in general and that there are people around who, sadly, do not care about the damage and stress they may cause. These people could illicit information that they could then use as leverage to obtain information about the staff member, the company, or your customers.
What does the policy need to cover?
You will need to ensure that employees realise they cannot, even in their own time make comments on social media regarding the company, their fellow employees, or your customers whether good or bad, or indeed how the company is run. If you discover such postings or they are drawn to your attention, then this is a serious breach of the employee relationship, and they may have to go down the route of disciplinary action.
Sometimes the questions being asked on their own may sound innocuous but put together they can be a cynical and targeted attempt to get confidential information. Staff should always be mindful of the fact that the internet is a public resource and think of the impact of what information they are posting. Inappropriate language or comments should never be used. It may seem astonishing, but I have seen a quote from someone who said; “I dare not let anyone at work see what I was posting online”!
All of this does of course include as well, all the standard internet safety rules concerning limiting the personal information people post and ensuring that they have many and frequently changed passwords across the various sites they use.
As you may realise as you have read through this, a social media policy is not just one of those policies “it’s good to have, but more than likely we will never use”. Hopefully, you will not have any problems, but by having a policy in place which clearly defines what is expected or allowed by the company ensures that there are no grey areas and the team fully understand what the consequences will be if there is an infringement of the policy especially as it could lead to possible disciplinary action and even dismissal for serious breaches. If you would prefer not to handle the drafting of a policy, please feel free to contact us. We are happy to handle ad hoc queries where people would like policies tailored specifically for their company.
