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Does your company have a social media policy for employees?

by ECSoMe
2 replies
Hi there,

I recently started working social for a fairly large (2-3k employees) company.


Recently we had an issue where someone went on a public forum that wasn't really SoMe, and said something that could hurt the company. The thing is, if they had used some random username like "GoTigers" nobody here would have really cared. But his username could very easily be tied back to him if anyone took the time to look into it.



Now obviously neither I, nor the company, wants to or has any right to hinder his free speech. Having said that, I think it's fairly common for large companies to require their employees to act with a certain level of decorum when speaking in a public forum. Particularly when speaking about a topic that is related to their job.



Right now we have a policy that is vague and basically amounts to "use your best judgement". I'm just wondering, has anyone else come up against this type of issue? How did you handle it? What kind of guidelines does your companies policy lay out?


Thanks!
#company #employees #media #policy #social
  • Profile picture of the author wordsandthebees
    Most companies of any size will ask their employees to sign an NDA or confidentiality agreement which will have all sorts of clauses in there regarding what an employee says about the company. This will include verbal, by email and I assume that these days that includes social media too. As far as I understand, a confidentiality agreement is a pretty standard document so I'm surprised your company doesn't have one.

    If this is breached (by posting in forums, mis use of company email etc) the employee will be put through the disciplinary process.

    Unfortunately you can't take back words so once they're out there there's not much that can be done, however the employer should be rightfully punished if he or she has spoken out of turn.

    If the company doens't have a confidentiality agreement then more fool them and all they can do is address with the employee why he or she felt the need to speak that way. Sounds like they're in the wrong job to me!!
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    • Profile picture of the author markGustaff
      Originally Posted by wordsandthebees View Post

      . Sounds like they're in the wrong job to me!!
      Me too. The company must have quality employees!
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