Preventing employees causing damage on social media

Social media has opened the floodgates for anyone to have their say online. When done unhindered, a post from an employee can unwittingly impact on your business reputation, brand and bottom line.

Comments could be from an employee about a news article about your business or they could be done by an employee in their own personal time on an unrelated post but expressing views that you find to be unacceptable or derogatory.

This situation is often a lose-lose for all involved. The employee often has unintentionally caused damaged and their job is in danger. The employer has no choice but to take issue employee’s behaviour and impact on their productivity.

As an employer, the best approach to avoid this is to have preventative measures to avoid this kind of damage both for your business and your employee.

As they say prevention is better than cure and it starts with having:

1. A well written social media policy — A good policy will have very clear examples of what is, and, what isn’t acceptable. In plain language, it should explain what the process is where an employee has crossed the line. Your policy should not stop social media use but encourage your work place values in using social media. Working with a lawyer to develop your policy from our proven policies is the best starting point to avoid it going too far and discriminating against employees.
2. Training — a social media policy is one part of the equation and its equally as important that your staff are trained about and aware of what is acceptable, and what isn’t acceptable. For example, you should train them that posts outside work on personal accounts can still be a breach of your policy and impact the business. Staff should also be aware that social media posts can be discrimination or amount to bullying, and an employee can be responsible in some instances.
3. Employment contracts — incorporate new social media policies and procedures as part of your contracts.
4. Reinforcing the message and your policy as it comes up in daily life — There is nothing like a real world example that you can give to your employees to say this is what I’ve seen and this is what is or isn’t acceptable.

It is true that if your business has the right things in place employees can be held to account for behaviour that is detrimental to your business. However sometimes the damage can already be done and preventative measures are always better for business continuity and productivity than having to discipline or lose employees.

OFRM's business lawyers can assist you with setting up policies and processes to manage the risk of the legalities of your social media accounts. Contact Lachlan Edwards on 0427 916 442 or Siobhan Liston on 03 5445 1067.