Managing employee social media issues in the workplace

Social media has become an innate part of everyday life for many, with employers often struggling to know how best to manage the need to protect their businesses with their staff’s right to “post” opinions and content on their own private media with employees posting content that they contend is their right, their free speech, but that has the potential to reflect badly on the business or even bring it into disrepute.

 The issue is not simple and will always turn on the facts in each case, but here are some key points to note when seeking to manage employee use of personal social media: -

• Send a clear signal about company expectations by having in place a comprehensive social media policy that makes it clear that, as well as social media activity in the workplace having the potential to result in disciplinary action if it breaches the policy, online content on private accounts that is deemed to be harmful (or potentially harmful) to the company’s reputation, or that is offensive or abusive, can also amount to misconduct or even gross misconduct.
•  Ensure employees understand that the things they post can reflect on the organisation that employs them and that this may be dealt with through the disciplinary procedure if they post about your company, operations, colleagues, customers, or suppliers in a negative manner.
•  Any policy should include a requirement for employees to make it clear in their social media postings that their views do not necessarily reflect the views of the company, to help safeguard against these issues.
•  Anti-harassment and anti-bullying policies should include references to social media to help your business protect staff from being subjected to online bullying, and therefore the company from potential vicarious liability for such actions, which can happen - especially if the act can be linked closely enough to the employment and you, as the employer, are found to have not done sufficient to protect against this.
•  Consider training and clearly communicating your expectations so that staff are always mindful of what they say online and how this might reflect on the organisation.

 Setting clear expectations and communicating these effectively to staff can often significantly reduce these types of incidences and can give you a process to follow to address non-compliance and, if necessary, discipline for example where the company has been brought into disrepute by something an employee has posted.

 Such rules should apply to both social media usage inside and outside work.

 How can you enforce breaches of the policy?

 Of course, whether you as an employer can enforce restrictions will always depend on the particular facts or circumstances in each case but having the framework in place will make it easier to do so.

 Being able to issue disciplinary sanctions for breaches of any social media policy will require:

•  clear evidence of the posts;
• evidence of their adverse impact, for example upon the business; and
• a fair disciplinary procedure that includes a valid appeal, to avoid claims.

Remember, also, a mere inference of adverse reputational damage is not evidence of ‘bringing the business into disrepute’ or of a potentially dismissible offence. To rely on that, there needs to be material evidence of harm to the business, such as evidence of loss of custom. 

 We can advise on any issues you may have around social media in the workplace as well as provide policies that work for your organisation and that cover all of this if you need – do contact the team if this is something you would like to enquire further about.