Dana Shultz, a Bay Area (CA) attorney, is our guest blogger today. Have you included Social Media policies in your firm's or your client's Employee Handbook? According to Shultz, now's the time to make sure you have those policies in place.
"Prudent employers have known, for many years, the importance of Employee Handbooks in setting forth a company's personnel policies and operational procedures. However, the recent increase in the popularity of social media - LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, blogs and the like - has happened without many employers updating their Handbooks, sometimes with serious consequences for their businesses.
Policies governing mobile phones, computers, Internet access and e-mail no longer suffice. With social media, every employee - for better or for worse, intentionally or unintentionally - can become a spokesperson for the company.
You may have heard recent stories in the media regarding unauthorized videos from Domino's employees resulting in the closure of one of their restaurants. Alternatively, you may have read of the marketing VP who inadvertently caused significant ill-will from a client with a recent Tweet. Whether social media faux pas make national headlines or not, the potential problems, and benefits, of social media are worth examining.
The following are some of the areas where Handbooks typically need updating to meet the social media challenge:
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Defining what social media are
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Raising employees' awareness that when they use social media, they may be representing the company, either explicitly or implicitly, to the entire world
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Reminding employees that the company has the right and the obligation to manage its public image and its intellectual property
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Providing examples of social-media activities that require management approval, and those that are prohibited
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Recognizing that there are personal activities that an employer should not, and will not, restrict
Furthermore, as new social media policies are developed, they must integrate properly with a Handbook's other policies, such as those pertaining to confidentiality, expectations of privacy, avoiding conflicts of interest, and discipline.
If your Employee Handbook does not yet address social media, the time to act is now, before your employees' activities get too far out of hand."
P.S. If you'd like to read more perspectives and anecdotes about social media and employment policies, please visit my recent blog post (and, especially, the comments) at http://su.pr/9G17Yw. dana@danashultz.com
