Social Media: Impacts in the workplace from an HR perspective. Faribault Area Chamber of Commerce HR Peer Group December 7, 2010

Transcription

1 Social Media: Impacts in the workplace from an HR perspective Faribault Area Chamber of Commerce HR Peer Group December 7, 2010

2 Social Media Entities Communication: Blogs: Blogger, ExpressionEngine, LiveJournal, Open Diary, TypePad, Vox, WordPress, Xanga Microblogging: FMyLife, Foursquare, Jaiku, Plurk, Posterous, Tumblr, Twitter, Qaiku, Yammer, Google Buzz Location-based social networks: Foursquare, Gowalla, Facebook places, The Hotlist Social networking: ASmallWorld,Cyworld, Facebook, Hi5, LinkedIn, MySpace, Orkut, Tagged, XING, Hyves Events: Eventful, The Hotlist, Meetup.com, Upcoming Information Aggregators: Netvibes, Twine (website) Online Advocacy and Fundraising: Causes, Kickstarter Collaboration/authority building: Wikis: PBworks, Wetpaint, Wikia, Wikimedia Social bookmarking (or social tagging): CiteULike, Delicious, Diigo, Google Reader, StumbleUpon, folkd Social news: Digg, Mixx, NowPublic, Reddit, Newsvine, MyWeboo Social navigation: Trapster, Waze Content Management Systems: Wordpress Document Managing and Editing Tools: Google Docs, Syncplicity, Docs.com, Dropbox Our main focus: Social networking: Facebook, LinkedIn, Reviews and opinions: Product reviews: epinions.com, MouthShut.com Business reviews: Customer Lobby, Yelp, Inc. Community Q&A: Askville, EHow, Stack Exchange, WikiAnswers, Yahoo! Answers MySpace

3 Current State 60% of executives say they have a right to know how employees portray themselves and their organizations in online social networks, but 53% of employees say their social networking pages are not an employer's concern. (63% of year old respondents) With the explosive growth of online social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter, rapidly blurring the lines between professional and private lives, these virtual communities have increased the potential of reputational risk for many organizations and their brands, said Sharon Allen, chairman of the board, Deloitte LLP. Only 17% of executives said they have programs in place to monitor and mitigate the possible risks related to the use of social networks. While the decision to post videos, pictures, thoughts, experiences and observations is personal, a single act can create far reaching ethical consequences for individuals as well as employers, Allen says. Therefore, it is important for executives to be mindful of the implications of this connected world and to elevate the discussion about the risks associated with it to the highest levels of leadership. 1/3 of employees say they never consider what their boss or customers might think before posting material online. This fact alone reinforces how vulnerable brands are as a result of the increased use of social networks, Allen says. As business leaders, it is critical that we continue to foster solid values-based cultures that encourage employees to behave ethically regardless of the venue. (The survey included more than 2,000 respondents.) Source: HR BLR May 19, Accessed 12/3/2010

4 Current State Many companies block access to the most common social networking sites on the company network, but that does not resolve the issue. 1. Employees have their own access via smart phones during the work day. 2. You may want employees to use some social networking tools, e.g., creating blogs in their field of expertise or industry to help with your company brand or recruiting efforts, recruiting on Linked In or other sites, etc. 3. Often times, blocking access only deals with the things an employee might do during work. It is easy to see that often what they do outside of work time, on personally owned equipment can create just as much concern. Your Logo

5 What if? 1. The productivity of a talented staff member at your web-based retail business decline markedly. You were not sure why, until a little reconnaissance revealed the reason: The employee was spending as much as 85 percent of the workday on social networking and media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and AIM Express. 2. An employee who works in research and development updates his Facebook status, bemoaning the fact that he has to cancel his weekend golf plans due to yet another project delay. Other Facebook users connect this with a highly anticipated product launch, and the company s stock price declines. 3. A salesperson posts a derogatory comment on Twitter about a prospective client s headquarters city as he lands there the day before a critical presentation. Someone forwards the tweet to the CEO, who cancels the meeting. accessed 12/6/2010

6 What if? 4. At the end of an employee charitable contribution initiative, a team leader posts a Great Job message on his personal facebook page. Employees who see the message have a reinforced feeling of how their coworkers and the company contribute to the community. 5. An employee with a critical but hard-to-find skillset learns of another opening in her department and uses her LinkedIn contacts to broadcast the opportunity to many others with that skill-set. 6. After going through an extended period of conflict at work and being fired, a former department head is still Linked to former employees, customers, and vendors. She reaches out to them on-line from time to time. accessed 12/6/2010

7 Recommendations Understand your organization s culture Have a policy that matches your culture Train on the policy, and consider your audience when designing training - some need to understand what it is before understanding how they can and cannot use it, and others have never lived in a world without it! Have Counsel review the policy Review and update the policy at least annually things are changing fast in this area! Have a plan for how you will deal with all those things that will come to your attention by unofficial means, of by formal complaint but did not occur at work

8 NLRB Opinion on Facebook Posting What Happened: An employee was asked by her supervisor to prepare an investigative report after a customer complained about her work. She requested representation from her union, Teamsters Local 443, but was denied. Later, the employee logged on to her home computer and posted a negative comment about the supervisor on her personal Facebook page. The remark drew supportive responses from her colleagues, and the employee responded by posting additional negative comments about the supervisor. The employee was suspended and later terminated for her remarks on Facebook and because such postings violated the company s internet policies. An NLRB investigation found that: 1) The employee s Facebook postings constituted protected concerted activity 2) The company s blogging and internet posting policy contained unlawful provisions, including: Prohibiting employees from making disparaging remarks when discussing the company or supervisors or prohibiting employees from depicting the company in any way over the internet without company permission. Advice for Employers 1) Be aware that while it may not be an invasion of privacy to access an employee's public social networking site, actions taken based on the information on the site may lead to liability under other legal theories. Some states have laws prohibiting employers from taking adverse action against an employee for engaging in legal activities while off-duty. An employer in a state with such a law may face liability if it takes adverse action against an employee because of the employee's legal activities shown on a social networking site. 2) If employees use social networking sites to discuss employment conditions, employers may be liable for an unfair labor practice if they appear to be interfering with those discussions. A hearing on the case is scheduled for January 25, Because this area of the law is so new, consult with legal counsel before taking adverse action against an employee because of on a social networking site. Source: HR BLR.com November 04, 2010 NLRB R Accessed 12/3/2010

9 What Should you Include? 1. Many of the issues involved belong in HR s responsibility (privacy, confidentiality, appropriate communication styles, productivity and time management), so don t leave it up to IT 2. Clarify your company s philosophy on social media and tie that philosophy to company values, such as honesty, integrity, and respect. 3. Who is allowed to use it and for what purposes? Which tools are covered by the policy? 4. Is there a department which owns or controls the formal company pages or presence? How does one get permission to do something official like use a logo on their industry blog, or etc.? 5. How much personal use is allowed at work? What are the penalties for inappropriate or excessive use? 6. Remind staff to follow existing rules and policies, and that they have responsibilities to customers, clients, co-workers, and the company. (Duty of Loyalty, Confidentiality, Code of Business Ethics, Non- Discrimination and Harassment policies, etc.) 7. Remind employees to comply with all laws, including making clear when they are speaking about their company or product, that they work for the company. They must also specify that they do not speak FOR the company. Authenticity and Transparency are critical! Do you require any specific disclaimers? You could require that they identify where they work, or disallow them from identifying it as a rule. 8. Remind employees that any of this done on company equipment belongs to the company. If it is done on the employee s personal equipment, you will still take action if it is merited. 9. Don t unreasonably restrict employee rights be careful! Source: Fistful of Talent June 15, Accessed 12/3/2010

10 Accept or Reject: The Boss as Friend on Facebook? For those unfamiliar with Facebook, accepting someone as a friend on the social networking site typically allows that person to keep tabs on you by reading your Facebook page, leaving comments (and reading others' comments), viewing your photos, and following other updates. 48 percent of bosses feel either very or somewhat uncomfortable About the same portion said they'd be just as uncomfortable if their boss asked to be their friend on Facebook. (Survey included 150 randomly selected senior executives at the nation's 1,000 largest companies.) Source: HR Strange But True! September 01, 2009 OfficeTeam. accessed 12/3/2010

11 Facebook Survival Strategies Use privacy settings and create different friend lists to control how--and with whom--information is shared. Individuals should classify their professional contacts into a work' list and limit what personal details this group can view. 1. You're tagged in an embarrassing photo. Untag yourself and change your privacy settings so photos are viewable only by your close friends. 2. You're friended by someone you don't want to connect with. It might be best to accept friend requests from colleagues to avoid slighting them, but add them to a work list and adjust your privacy settings so you can effectively separate your job from your personal life. 3. You want to join various groups. You should join groups that interest you. But if you have colleagues in your network and don't want them to see the groups you join, remember to adjust your application settings. 4. You would like to be a fan of certain pages. Becoming a fan of pages on Facebook is visible to anyone who can view your profile, so you should avoid becoming a fan of any page you are uncomfortable sharing with coworkers or business contacts in your network. 5. You love quizzes. Stop and think for a moment before taking online quizzes and posting the results to your Facebook page -- unless you want professional contacts to know which Gilligan's Island character you most resemble. 6. Time Tags: Remember everything on Facebook is time tagged, so don t do it when you are supposed to be doing something else 7. Your friends can hurt you: If one of your friends sends an compromising photo or post out without your permission, it can do a lot of damage. Source: HR Strange But True! September 01, 2009 OfficeTeam. accessed 12/3/2010

12 Your Corporate social networking application of choice: A Public Site or Private software behind your firewall? Private applications seem to fit better for more structured companies Nestle, Dow Chemical - Protects proprietary information, limits exposure to viruses, etc. - Higher costs, but can be obtained from Lawson Software, Select Minds, et al, or can develop your own - Can limit contacts, too no former employees, retirees, or interested candidates Public Sites may work fine for more open company cultures

13 Resources No Membership Required Sample policies and actual policies from various organizations Fistful of Talent (Blog) Membership Based SHRM.org HR BLR.com Slide format courtesy of SlideScoop.com via Microsoft Office Online

14 5 Sites Where Employees Rant about Job/Boss Ranting: discourse that is excessive or unrestrained -- that certainly describes some of the content of these sites. Jobvent.com: Home page says Inside information about the jobs and employers we love--and hate. And for newbie research, Jobvent is the website for people who are about to start a new job, and want to see what other people think of working there. Posts Top 10 I Love My Job ratings--and Top 10 I Hate My Job ratings. Hateboss.com: Home page says The Online Community for Venting Job Frustrations! We Don't Judge. Oh, Oh--has ads for employment attorneys! Bossbitching.com/ : Home page says Boss Bitching is a user-driven social content website that allows anonymous postings of stories about bosses and a way to comment. Readers can rate stories as: 1) Boss Is a P****, 2) Sounds bad, 3) Stop Complaining! Workrant.com/: Home page says Stressed at work? Thinking I hate my job,' I hate my boss,' or I hate my co-workers'? You need a Workrant! Rant away all your work rage -- anonymously -- and ease the frustration. Let's employees post their rants on FaceBook. Caution: site also lets employees post videos. Rantasaurus-rex.com/ : Home page says Your Daily Rant and Sarcasm Fix. Site gives advice and takes donations to help fund it becoming a print media. Readers can give comments, their own advice, and Blogger's Choice Awards. Source: HR Strange But True July 29, Sites Where Employees Rant about Job/Boss Accessed 12/3/2010

15 THANK YOU!