Feature insight - the role of social media
What’s not to like?
Liam Grime, legal consultant, and Emma O’Leary, consultant in employment law, at ELAS, discuss the potential implications of employees’ activity on social media and offer policy advice
S ocial media! You can’t avoid it. Sure, you might say that you’re taking a break from Instagram for the weekend, or that you’re logging off from Facebook for a month, but they always drag you back. In 2018, Facebook has 2.23 billion registered users, Instagram has 1 billion and Twitter has 336 million, so the likelihood is that a majority of your employees are logged in. They’re probably using Instagram to document their Saturday evening, Twitter to @ their favourite celebrity, and maybe even Pintrest to show off their latest interior inspirations. So, with such a massive online footprint, how do you stop them from damaging the pristine image of your company? Drunken tweets, letting off steam in rants on Facebook and potentially uploading a risque photo online could happen to anyone at your company; but how can you be expected to control everything they do online, or should you even be expected to? You aren’t allowed to have access to your employees’ social accounts, but if they’re openly representing your company, you do get to have a say. It’s down to you to decide whether you want employees sharing where they work and who they work for. Although employers are unlikely to be held liable for the opinions or views expressed by their employees, it is not impossible. It would depend on the nature of what was written or said and whether this is a view shared by both employer and employee.
It is highly possible, however, that the views or opinions of employees can bring an employer’s reputation in to disrepute. Therefore, employers should take preventative measures to ensure that their employees understand how they are expected to behave when expressing themselves on social media. One way to do this would be to introduce a social media policy which stipulates that employees are prohibited from displaying any opinions or views relating to the company, its clients or its workforce. Stating that a breach of this policy is a disciplinary offence, and one that could even amount to gross misconduct dependent on the severity of the breach, should deter employees from doing so and help ensure that the employer doesn’t feel the side effects of a careless employee’s social media activity. Social media can be a great tool for the promotion of business and interacting with clients, but it can be a negative weapon in the wrong hands. Employees who just don’t think or are disgruntled can be a danger to your business when they abuse social media. Whether they go on an offensive rant on Twitter or expressing views that go against company values in any way... ...must always be mindful of
update their Facebook status to call their manager some choice names – if these posts can in any way be linked to your organisation, there is a reputational risk for you and your business. We recommend that all companies should have a social media policy in place. Some might even want to consider specialist social media training, particularly if their employees are in the public eye e.g. actors or sporting organisations. A social media policy should highlight that staff who engage in social networking – even whilst they are off duty and off the premises – must always be mindful of expressing views that go against company values in any way. When these staff members are famous, they will, of course, have a large following on social media, meaning anything they post will very quickly be spread across a wide audience. Should they post anything on their social media which is in any way offensive or controversial then the reputational damage to all associated can be extensive, particularly when it gets picked up by the national media and becomes front page news. No matter what industry you are in, staff should be encouraged to refrain from posting controversial opinions on social media. They should also resolve complaints with their managers or human resources function rather than venting through social media as any such comments could be defamatory and damaging to the business. They should be aware that failure to observe the policy could result in disciplinary action and even termination of employment. n
41
Issue 46 | December 2018 / January 2019
| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward |
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker