Employees should be reminded that Social Networking Sites are a public forum and that there is no entitlement of privacy. As a result, employees have a duty to always act in a way that will encourage public trust and confidence. This extends to both personal and professional activities. They must be made aware that posting any financial, confidential, sensitive, or proprietary information about the company on any Social Networking Site is prohibited and enforced. While on company time, employees are expected to work on company related business. Therefore, it should be made crystal clear to employees that if they are found blogging, tweeting or posting on social networking sites on company time, they will be subject to disciplinary action up to and including termination.
All companies should adopt a Social Media Policy. Once your Social Media Policy is in place, ensure that your employees have read it by making it mandatory that they sign a copy of the policy itself and then keep it in their personnel files. Be sure to make your employees aware that the company may even take steps to monitor Social Networking, as employees are not anonymous when engaged in it, and as such may potentially take action if violations of the policy are identified.
For a copy of our free HR Social Media Policy, contact us.
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