Managing the Facebook frenzy

How do you manage your employees' use of social media sites - in and out of work? Employment Lawyer Julia Shallcrass explains all.

If you're not a Fan of Facebook at work, or want to know what the Twitter is all about, this one is for you.

Let's face it. Not all publicity is good publicity. Just ask News of the World after it hit the headlines for becoming the scandalous story that it would no longer publish. Business reputation can be made or slayed on the internet. Social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Google+ can release information that is private and confidential to your business in the click of a mouse.

Gone are the days when employees moaned about our jobs to a few good friends at the bar. That is now considered anti-social behaviour. For those of us who spend time in cyber-space, our friends are virtually endless. We may be inclined to share our latest sequel of Horrible Bosses with 700 of our closest friends on Facebook. Then wonder how we lost our jobs.

As numbers of Facebook users continue to soar over 800 million worldwide, businesses must control confidentiality and protect their reputation on the internet.

If you are an employer, you need to manage risks that come with staff posting remarks on social media sites. Ensure that you have policies in place to control the use of these sites. You may take disciplinary action if you think staff members have breached confidentiality, employment agreements or workplace policies, or if you think they have brought your company into disrepute.

Trust and confidence

Trust and confidence is part of the two-way 'good faith' obligations between employers and employees that lies at the heart of the Employment Relations Act 2000. As an employer, you are entitled to have trust and confidence that your staff are not wasting valuable work time, nor bringing your business into disrepute.

Social networking at work

Browsing websites, blogs, social networking and online pages can lighten the workday, but don't do anything to lighten the workload. You can easily obtain information about how much time your staff members spend on personal email and internet usage through monitoring the internet.

To preserve productivity and internet resources, you can put up firewalls to fiercely guard some sites, and make it difficult to "blog on the job". Be aware of links that your employees can save at home to download their social media sites from behind your company's firewall. Otherwise, you might find staff updating their Facebook status with posts such as: "@ work but not doing anything and getting paid for it LOL".

Misconduct outside of work

Remember that trust and confidence in an employment relationship can be lost when your employee brings your business into disrepute - even when your employee's conduct occurs outside of the workplace. 

Let's take a look at a case where an employee's humour was found to be more inflammatory than funny. A government employee described herself on her Facebook page as a 'very expensive paperweight', 'highly competent in the art of time wastage, blame shifting and stationary [sic] theft'. Some might consider Ms Tania Dickinson's comments refreshingly honest but her employer took these humorous comments seriously. Keep in mind that Ms Dickinson was also facing criminal charges for arson - not the best look for a Prisoner Reintegration Case Manager. 

The Ministry of Social Development dismissed Ms Dickinson for its erosion of trust and confidence resulting from Ms Dickinson's Facebook comments and her recent charges for arson. The Employment Relations Authority considered that Ms Dickinson's Facebook entries were "derogatory of the public service" and "disparaging". While the Facebook entries were not enough in themselves to justify her dismissal, the Authority found that her employer was justified in dismissing her given her "past behaviour" and employment "history with the Ministry". You can see the full case here

The above case shows that you can pursue disciplinary action against employees who misuse social media - particularly when they may have breached their employment agreements or workplace policies.

Social media policy

To set appropriate standards for your staff, establish social media or internet policies within your company. Provide your staff with an opportunity to comment on these policies and follow up with training on standards and procedures. Your social media or internet policy should:

* Define your company's expectations, and clarify what is acceptable within and outside of working hours;
* State whether you allow staff to use social media sites during working hours;
* Prohibit the use of company intellectual property and confidential information on-line;
* State whether your company keeps tabs on employee use of social media sites;
* Require your staff to disclose if they regularly post blogs;
* Require any work-related complaints to be addressed at work, and not on-line;
* State potential outcomes if breached, including disciplinary action that could possibly result in dismissal.

Training tips for employees

While employees might be encouraged to "Get better work stories", be careful how you share work stories, or your employer might wind up "getting better employees". If you are an employee, then you represent your company, and shouldn't criticise management or clients. Nor should you see social media as the perfect platform to spread gossip. Use your discretion, set privacy settings on social media sites and follow workplace policies.

Staff use of social media

While there are risks in uncontrolled blogging, social media and networking can be highly effective for promoting your business and brand. You might even encourage staff to blog, tweet, and upload newsfeeds on Facebook during working hours.

See you on Facebook

Julia Shallcrass
Senior Solicitor
Janet Copeland Law

Julia.Shallcrass@jclaw.co.nz
Phone (03) 450 1817
www.jclaw.co.nz

Webinar "Managing Social Networking"

Find out more about "Managing Social Networking" at our upcoming webinar on 23 November 2011. Click here to find out more information and register for our webinar series: http://jclaw.co.nz/files/20111103142630-1320283590-0.pdf