Dec 03 2012

Social Media Guidelines: The Employer-Employee Divide

“It isn’t good news.”

By Jean Young, ISM Vice President

ISM first publically addressed the issue of a social media policy (an ever-changing guideline for employees communicating in the online world) in a well-attended webinar held last year. For ISM Senior VP Kathy Barton’s November 13 webinar on Social Media Communities, she asked me for an update. It isn’t good news.

• Gartner reports 60% of employers are monitoring – or planning to monitor – employee use of social media networking.

• A DLA Piper study reports one third of employers disciplined employees for social media postings.

The employer-employee divide reflects an unwillingness to spend the time and effort to establish workable guidelines. It is a two-way street but many corporate leaders are taking an easy way out with a ban or monitoring “solution”.

Providing guidance is the National Labor Relations Board’s escalating role in defining when an employer can and cannot “fire” an employee for social media behavior. Increasingly, legal is the advisor on what is or isn’t acceptable employee social media behavior.

But legal advice and banning/monitoring social media behavior will not solve the issue. Looking forward to 2013, corporate and organization leaders must focus on an employee base entrenched in social media networking. The challenge is to harness – through a team process – yes, I said team — the social media side of employees’ lives. This may already be happening. The Piper study had one piece of good news: 39% of employers are using social technologies for employee communication and engagement; 42% for recruitment; and 28% percent for team working.

Yes, they said “team”.

Tags: , , Posted by - jennifermq @ 9:55 am

Jun 28 2012

Employer Monitoring & “Shoulder” Surfing Complicate Role of Social Media Employee Guidelines to “Guide”

National Labor Relations Board Rulings Help Clarify What Employers Can and Cannot Do With Social Media Policies.

By: Jean Young, Vice President, ISM Inc.

Just when you thought tales of employers doing really dumb things re employees’ use of social media networking sites, Gartner reports employers are increasingly monitoring employee use of Facebook, YouTube and other social media networking sites. And, then you have “Shoulder” Surfing, whereby a management type literally looks over your shoulder to read your postings. Some companies are demanding workers or job applicants reveal passwords to their social media accounts but certain states, such as Maryland, ban the practice. Increasingly employers are finding ways to track employees’ online behavior.

With the country still trying to get out of a recession and jobs scarce, you would think both management and employees would not have the time for such shenanigans. Given the frequent horror stories on both sides, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Office of the General Counsel is providing some guidance. A report on seven recent NLRB rulings on employee-filed social media cases was published May 30. Only one was in favor of the employer; most cases hinged on an employer’s social media policy being “overbroad” and thus “unlawful” under the National Labor Relations Act.

In addition to these overbroad policies, ISM sees many large global companies with a proliferation of guidelines from varying departments, e.g. legal, HR, Communications — and these multiple guidelines are often in conflict with each other. Our work for a North American division of a global company with 40,000 employees uncovered six different sets of policies from various departments. This was hardly good news, but the worse news was that management was unaware of both the number of policies and the conflicting directions. Talk about a lawsuit in the making!

Our advice is the same as offered last year: Bring together the parties/departments who are or should be involved in employee social media behavior and work as a team to set overarching objectives. Then assign a team, including employee representatives, to prepare a manageable and reasonable Social Media Policy. It won’t hurt to bring in some experts and a good lawyer.

Tags: , , Posted by - jennifermq @ 10:15 am

Jan 16 2012

Generation Y’s Tell All On Facebook & Bosses Pay Attention

By Jean Young, Vice President, ISM, Inc.

It isn’t new news. Gen Y’ers – aged 18 to 29 – talk too much on social networking sites. According to a new study by Millennial Branding, based on mining the data of four million Gen Y Facebook profiles, the “youngsters” befriended an average of six coworkers, some including the boss. Eve Tahmincloglu, who writes the “Your Career” column for MSNBC.com, says the problem is the younger crowd reveals too much personal behavior and uses profanity, facts that do not appeal to many bosses. In addition, Human Resources and recruiting folks rely upon social networking sites to see how someone acts when there guard is down.

This study may not be news but the size of the study is staggering. What also interests me is of the 170 + postings to the “Your Career” column, not one referred to a Social Media Policy, company guidelines that cover online behavior at or about work. A policy that outlines what a company considers appropriate online conduct will help employees make decisions. For potential employees, guidelines (which can be requested) will let you know in advance what to expect.

Certainly, users of social networking sites, no matter the age, need to apply some common sense about online behavior. But, companies of all sizes also need to give guidance to employees as to what they consider acceptable online. That way, potential and present employees can make choices about where they want to work or, at least, know when keeping your mouth shut online may help you keep your job. Check out a recent Cisco worldwide study of how many Gen Y’ers are saying no to online restrictions.

Let me know your experiences with social networking behavior by clicking on my email address to send me your experiences.

Tags: , , Posted by - jennifermq @ 10:07 am

Jan 05 2012

Many Execs Have Little or No Input
on Social Media Policies They Implement

By Jean Young, Vice President, ISM, Inc.

I recently followed up with a number of attendees of a successful ISM Social Media Policy Webinar held in November. The big surprise was the intense frustration I heard from the folks who were most directly impacted: marketing, IT, HR, and a slew of other people who have titles with “digital,” “social media” and “online” in them.

A large number of key managers had been completely overlooked during the formation of employee guidelines. This seems particularly true for large global corporations, which are wrestling with policies that will apply in multinational settings. One North American IT executive, for example, was “upset” with an “open policy” that gave little or no direction regarding online behavior at or about work. Meanwhile, a marketing executive faces the opposite challenge—trying to figure out how a subsidiary can offset a highly restrictive policy imposed by the 200,000-employee American-based parent.

Issues crop up early in the process. Many mid-management executives are being told to “come up with a social media policy” with little or no guidance, staffing support, or management involvement. The executive suite may know guidelines are needed, but not how to formulate them, handing it off to mid-management with “don’t bother us—just do it.”

The C-suite needs to be realistic about—and budget for—time, talent and investments needed to create and promote a thoughtful, evolving social media program. Ultimately, the goal is not only to control, but to encourage appropriate employee participation in social media—generating positive messaging and constructive social media engagement.

Please share your Social Media Policy experiences with me by clicking on my email address.

Tags: , , Posted by - jennifermq @ 10:12 am

Oct 14 2011

Employees Online: Lost in the Future

Corporate America spends a lot of time trying to figure out whom to reach with what message and in what medium. But, in all the talk about how to reach the consumer, the influencer and the decision maker, the lowly employee barely gets a nod. Unless, of course, an employee drops a bombshell about a boss or project on Facebook, Twitter or a personal blog. Then there is a big meeting with the legal, communications and HR folks, along with whoever else feels threatened. The results vary, but in most cases, the opportunity for a company’s employees to be your best internal and external communicators is long gone.

The few studies currently available on how companies handle employee conduct in the social networking environment are revealing. Robert Half Technology, an IT staffing company, interviewed 1,400 CIOs of U.S. companies and found 54 percent banned social networking while on the job. A Deloitte Ethics & Workplace Survey reports that sixty percent of 500 U.S. business executives surveyed said how their employees portrayed the company online was “their business” while 53 percent of the employees said “it was none of their business”. With recent rulings by the National Labor Relations Board in favor of a fired employee, the online landscape is getting even muddier.

The companies spending time and money on harnessing the power of its employees online are still in the minority. GE and IBM are two of the largest and most focused, continually bringing employees and management together to fine tune employee guidelines on everything from a personal blog to social media platforms. Devising communications behavior guidelines may sound draconian but employees want a company to do well so they can do well. When management engages employees in the process, there is a level of trust because there is trust.

Tags: , , Posted by - Jean Young @ 11:18 am

Sep 06 2011

Fun and Games with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)

A while ago I wrote that companies such as Virgin Atlantic, the Philadelphia Eagles, and Brixx restaurant fired employees for Facebook posts about the company or customers;  and, a Georgia teacher and New England Patriots cheerleader were fired for personal behavior posted on Facebook.  I opined that it’s critical to have a Social Media Policy that makes it clear what you expect from your employees online.

I still believe this is true, but now there’s a caveat – you have to be equally careful about what you don’t say in your Social Media Policy as what you do say.  The National Labor Relations Board (NRLB) has ruled on several cases where employees have been fired for what they said on their Facebook pages, and these rulings contain important information for employers.

A benchmark ruling was the case involving American Medical Response of Connecticut.  An employee was terminated after complaining that the company had asked her to participate in a disciplinary action without the union representatives she requested.  She wrote on her personal Facebook page, “Love how the company allows a 17 to be a supervisor,” referring to the employer’s code for a psychiatric patient, and called her boss a “scumbag as usual.” Her post drew favorable comments from her work colleagues. The company promptly fired her for violating the company’s blogging and Internet posting policy. The policy prohibited employees from “making disparaging, discriminating or defamatory comments when discussing the company or the employees’ supervisors, co-workers and/or competitors.”

The NLRB alleged that the employee’s termination violated section 8(a)(1) of the National Labor Relations Act, which prohibits an employer from interfering with, restraining, or coercing employees in the exercise of their rights guaranteed under 7 of the NLRA. Section 7 permits employees, regardless of whether they are represented by a union, to engage in protected concerted activities, which includes online discussion by more than one employee that’s in any way tied to working conditions, wages or other terms and conditions of employment.

What does this mean for employers?  The NLRB is pursuing employers with:

–      overbroad policies restricting employee’s social media use

–      employee discipline based on behavior discovered via unlawful surveillance, interrogations or threats

So, you need to make sure that your policy doesn’t try to limit employees’ discussion of wages, investigations or disciplinary action; or prohibit disparagement of the company or its management.  As much as you’d like to prevent employees from criticizing their manager or the CEO online, you can’t.  This is true whether or not your employees are unionized. So check your Social Media Policy, and make sure it doesn’t include these types of statements, or you risk attracting the attention of the NLRB – or losing the case if you try to enforce it.

Tags: , , Posted by - Kathy Barton @ 5:18 pm