hello. Welcome to this session in which we're going to look at how to create a social media policy. Dismissal and discipline for abuse of social media has become a big issue in employment law. In some ways, it shouldn't be a big issue. It's just another reason. Another example of why people might be dismissed but has become a big issue because many employers haven't been prepared for it. Andi, as social media has grown so massively over recent years, of course, more and more employees have got social media accounts. But employers often have not been ready for some of the problems that might occur on hence, haven't put a policy in place explaining to employees what is and is no acceptable behavior on what we have seen from a number of rulings in the courts is that if an employee has never been told that certain behavior is unacceptable, then it can't be within the range of reasonable responses to dismiss that employee forever they have done. Maybe the best example of this is a case of Priests versus JD Weatherspoon, 2011 and in this case, Priest was a manager of a pub run by Weatherspoon she had to evict some customers on. Then she posted on her personal social media account rude comments about those customers. The comments were forwarded to the customer. You then complain to JD Weatherspoon, and she was dismissed. Now it was a fair dismissal, and the reason was that there is a very clear social media policy in place that set out what the employees could and couldn't do. Priests had received that policy. Indeed, she had signed a document to say that she had received that policy on what she had done was clearly in breach of that policy. Now, if an employee did something that was truly awful posted something really unacceptable on social media, it could potentially be argued that even if there was not a policy in place, this clearly amounted to gross misconduct, however, is going to be more difficult for an employer to argue it if there's not a social media policy in place. And therefore the simple answer is to get these policies written on communicated to all employees. So what needs to be in a social media policy? The first thing that needs to be considered is examples of what would be seen as unacceptable on bringing the company into disrepute. Because, really, the reason that the employer wants protection against employees posting things on social media is that it could be damaging what they paste. So, for example, in the case of Chris versus Apple Retail LTD. 2000 and 11 1 of the sales people in an Apple store posted derogatory comments about the Apple product on their personal Facebook page on this employee was found to have been fairly dismissed again. There was a social media policy in place in this organization on May clearly said that nothing derogatory about the company's products or services members never be posted. So when thinking about what needs to be in that policy in terms of of what the employees not allowed to do, there is a need to think about the nature of the business on what the business is trying to protect. So if the business is manufacturing and producing product, it may be that one of the things that the company wants to put in the policy is that there must never be anything posted that is derogatory about those products. If the employees are customer facing, it may be that the employee is never allowed to post anything that is derogatory about customer. If the employee is working with people, maybe in healthcare, then nothing should ever be posted that could identify a customer on identify their health problems. So, really, in deciding what it is that needs to go into that social media policy, it's a matter of thinking about what the business does on what the business is trying to protect on what brings one company in to disrepute will be different. For another, it could be really helpful to include in the policy some examples of behavior that would be seen as bringing the company into disrepute. But if this is done, it should be clearly stated that these are examples only on they are not a non exhaustive list. This is exactly the same as would be in a disciplinary policy when examples of gross misconduct to given. And the reason for this is that we can never predict everything that's an employee might do on if the list is seen to be exhaustive, then it won't cover that thing. That happens that nobody has ever imagined having then identified what is unacceptable, the employees also needs to be told in this policy what the company will access. And we have the recent case of Barbell sq vs Romania 2016 in which European Court of Human Rights have said that it's not a breach of privacy if the employer is accessing a work account. In this case, Bob Olesky Hood posted a lot of of personal messages on a company Yahoo Messenger account. So first of all, employees need to be made aware that anything that they post on a company Social Media account will be read by the company on here. It might be useful to have a separate policy for Internet and email use, or it might be useful to have one policy that covers everything again. It will depend on what the employer is doing. But what needs to be clear is whether the employee is going employer is going to look at a company email account. If it's a company email account sent from a company email address and on a company computer, then the employer has got the right to look at it, and indeed, if an employee was absent, it might be essential to go and look at that email account to catch up on correspondence with customers. But employees need to be told that not only with that account be accessed. But if there were a correspondence that seemed to be personal, the employer might access that now. It would not be acceptable to say that there was going to be any, UM, lawful access to any police, social media accounts or some sort of hacking into it. I would never be acceptable. But it should be made clear in the social media policy that an employer will look at anything that is forward it to them. And here employees need to be aware that if they have privacy settings, that means only their friends can see what they've posted. But it doesn't mean that their friends won't then forward that post to someone else. So my recommendation is that in the social media policy, privacy settings are addressed on specifically mentioned on. It is specifically said that having a privacy setting does not protect an employee against the employer, but by saying, Well, I try to stop anybody else seeing it. It also should be made clear to an employee that if they posted anything on social media, which the general public could access. Maybe just by logging into Facebook and putting in their name and seeing what the public post saw that those posts have to be considered public on have to be considered something that the employer might see. So, as I say, it might be that there is best for the company toe have to policies here, one for social media on one for email and Internet. But whether it's dealt with those two policies or one policy, it needs to be made very clear to the employee what monitoring the employer might do and therefore what might be seen of all that they have posted. It also should be made very clear in the policy that the employees must never post anything that is confidential information and that this should not be posted with or without privacy settings. But as we know, information is only confidential. If the employee has been told that the information is confidential on, therefore, it's important maybe to go back to the employment contracts, to look at the confidentiality clause it is in those contracts and to make sure that that is still up to date and relevant. Our employees, aware of what is confidential on this isn't just secrets about pricing or secrets about new developments, but it's reminding them that any information about customer about a client is confidential and should not be discuss more widely. But in the social media policy, it is recommended that that whole issue of confidentiality is addressed. Maybe employees are referred back to their contracts of employment, but that what that company sees is being confidential is very clearly stated. For those employees who were customer facing, it should be made clear that that should never be a naming of a customer on that. There should be no unacceptable engagement on social media with customers. What is unacceptable engagement again? It really will depend on the nature of the business. So if we have a situation where the employees are teachers, Andi therefore, if you like the customers of the Children that their teaching, it could be that the rule is that teachers Andi, their pupils don't engage in any conversation stations on social media on really, for the protections the teacher against allegations of anything improper that would definitely be recommended in a health care setting. It might be appropriate to say that any worker any employee is no allowed to engage with any patients on social media again is a matter for the employer to think about their organization on what they see as acceptable and unacceptable. Another issue is branding. If the company has a logo, is that employees ever allowed to post that logo on their site? They might want on Facebook to to comment about the fact that they work for the employer. Hopefully, they're very proud to work for the employer. But are they actually allowed to use a company logo or any other branding now? So far, we have primarily been talking about the employee's personal social media account. But of course, many employers, if not all, have their own social media presence. So it is quite possible, for example, that an organization has their own Facebook account. And, of course, that is being managed and updated by some employees on, so that should also be addressed in the policy again. It might be something that an employer wants to deal with in a separate policy, so there may be a social media policy for personal use on a social media policy for company use. That doesn't matter. However it's done, it's got to be addressed. And the things that need considering here are who is allowed to make a post, whether there has to be some authorization or some second checking of a post before it is made. If there is any particular language that must be used. If there are any restraints on what can be posted on may be a useful rule toe. Having the policy is, if you're not sure whether the poster don't post it, there might also be and need to identify a certain topics or certain areas that the company does not want to dress on their social media page. And it's also always worth reminding, and please that nothing must be posted that could be potentially seen as discriminatory or offensive in some way, but then needs to be an issue about when social media can be accessed. A lot of individuals who your who are employees use social media a lot during the day, so is it acceptable for employees to access social media during the working day? Is it acceptable for them to be using social media on a company computer during our unpaid lunch break when they're still in the office, but they're not actually working. What does the employer want to be allowing and not allowing care does need to be taken about the yeast off social media. During the working day, there has been various research that has come up with some quite frightening statistics about how much time employees waste on personal Internet, email and social media usage during working time. So an employer might well want to put a rule in place that says it's simply not allowed. But using social media on company property like computers and mobile phones might be more difficult, particularly if an employee is issued with a laptop that there is really accepted that they use for both company and personal use. And maybe they take it home with them each night as well. Again is a matter of coming back to think about the particular company and the needs off that particular company on what works for that and what doesn't. Then when the policy has been written, there's a need to ensure some regular reviewing off it. Social media moves on rapidly new issues arise, and therefore it is worth having, at least on an annual review of the policy, to see if it's still fit for purpose to see if anything has happened during that year. That means, Ah, revision to the social media policy might be useful on what is the social media policy has been written. It's important that employees are made aware of what it contains, because if it's just filed away on the Internet or in the rule book, and employees aren't aware of it and then they breach, it will be very difficult for the employer to argue that they have reached it. If they didn't know that it existed, it is recommended that when the policy is still in a draft stage, it's circulated to employees to gain any comments on any feedback on this can be very useful and then from there. Once the policy is put in place, all employees should be made aware of it should be made aware of what the policy contains on where they can access it if they want to go through it in more detail. So the key message from this is that all companies must have a social media policy. But there is not one policy that fits all before writing the policy, the employer has got to think about what they're trying to protect, what the issues are that their particular company faces and then make sure that those are addressed in the policy.
Webinar - Creating A Social Media Policy - For HR Practitioners
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