IMI Employment expert Sally-Anne Hodder
Complicated communications
IMI is promoting the Professional Register with a 'selfie' competition on Facebook and Twitter this month. To help it along we have asked all our staff to take a little time out of their busy day to post a selfie themselves and share it with their friends on social networks. Not so long ago encouraging staff to use social media during working hours would have been frowned upon, but now it is pervasive in and out of the workplace. Some employers still fear that employees posts could hurt their business, but think controlling social media use is a bit like trying to get a grip of a wet bar of soap.
There is an issue for employees too. Posting comments on social media in your own time does not guarantee your employer won't take a dim view of what you've published. You could still be disciplined or even dismissed if your comments are considered to be detrimental to your employers business interests. The disclaimers you often see on people's on-line profiles like "all views my own" are worthless as a defence, particularly if you have made it clear, or even implied, who it is you work for.
Employees are vulnerable
Recent tribunal cases have also shown employees are vulnerable to disciplinary action, even if the messages are unrelated to work issues. Twitter provides open access for everyone to view what you've published, so your boss can still claim it has reflected badly on their enterprise. You may argue this infringes your right to free expression but this doesn't cut any ice. You're free to say what you want online if it doesn't break the law, but your employer is equally free to sack you too.
It's not completely cut and dried for either side. Law covering social media and employment is evolving constantly, so to be on the safe side I recommend that businesses introduce a social media policy. Consult your employees while your composing it, so everyone knows exactly where they stand, and you could avoid problems later on.
Social media policy
Some things to include in a social media policy are:
- Inform employees what issues you consider controversial and likely to impact on the business and your customers.
- Identify what kinds of language or online behaviour the business considers to be offensive and or inappropriate for employees to use.
- Encourage employees to use privacy settings to protect their messages from being viewed by your current and potential customers.
- Be clear about the use of personal social media accounts during working hours, particularly if they using your business Facebook and Twitter accounts as part of their job.
- Establish a clear procedure for dealing with misuse of social media by employees.
If you have any comments or questions on this issue any other employment matter please contact me:
Email: randr@theimi.org.uk
Twitter: #SallySays @the_IMI