Introduction
It is pretty clear that the world is very up-to-date with their social media networks. Almost everyone who works in a firm is connected to social media whether they have one or someone close to them does. A controversial topic dealing with social media in the workplace is how much privacy should employees have? Some employers feel as though they have the right to know all about what employees are discussing on social networks, even if they are not discussing them during working hours. Lets dig deeper into the topic.Social Media Terms and Privacy Policies
There are pros and cons when social media and the workplace are connected. It is beneficial for employers to have access to social media networking sites while at work, but it also raises many questions by employers. Questions arise such as should an employer be able to have access to their employees social media accounts? In the previously written blog Social Media in the Form of Training, social media training programs are discussed. These social media training programs not only teach employees how to act with social media in the workplace, but they also teach employees the laws and regulations dealing with them. This is an important thing for employees to understand what is acceptable and not acceptable when it comes to sharing information about their employers and the company (Saper, 2013).
Certain rules apply when social media is entered into the workplace (Kryder, 2012):
- Every employee should read the terms and privacy policies for each networking site before they create an account. Most people scroll all the way down and accept these terms and policies without reading them. For employers' benefit they should read the policies in order to know how safe the networking site is. Some policies will indicate that information can be shared to third parties and if the terms are unread, the employee will have no clue of this. In order to feel safe and have less anxiety about their information being out in the open, reading these terms and policies will help.
- Before users start posting information, they should manage their account settings and make their page private. Controlling what others can and cannot see will help prevent others, including other firms, having access to employees information and inside scoop on what's happening in their workplace.
- Avoid over-sharing of information and be mindful of what is being put out there. Employees should no post photographs that can haunt them in their current workplace or one in the future. They should also beware of what they are posting concerning their current workplace, especially if its something negative. This could not only get the employee fired, but in the bigger picture, it could give the company a start to a bad reputation.
- Employees should know their audience and who will be viewing their posts and pictures. Also being cautious of what they put on their personal profiles, such as LinkedIn, because this is open to anyone who searches them, not just their contacts.
- Users should only post things that they are comfortable with the whole world to see. If users don't want their picture to be seen by thousands of people, they should use a fake photo or a quote as their picture. Also don't put personal information such as the users real and full name, address, or phone number.
- Establish different e-mail addresses for personal use and use of the workplace. For example, users shouldn't have e-mails about their incoming tweets sent to their work e-mail, that distracts them from getting their work done.
As shown in the bullet points above, users have to be extremely careful with what they post online. Some things should be private, such as users full name, phone number, and home address. There should be no reason for personal information to be out there for every and anyone to have access to. It is especially important for users to not post personal information about their employers and the companies they work for. This can cause trouble in the workplace if there is personal information leaked out about the company. Things also including if the company has terminated anyone and/or for what reason shouldn't be put out on social media, even if it was the terminated employees fault.
Federal Laws Concerning Social Media Privacy
In March of 2012, many employers were asking employees for their social networking passwords in order to have access to everything they do online. This was a way for employers to see how the employee acts outside of the workplace and if they are representing the company in an honorable way or trashing them to the world. As a result of employers wanting their employees passwords, various state and federal bills were aimed toward employers to stop them from being able to ask for employees passwords. Instead of candidates or employees handing their employer their passwords, they can respectfully ask if there is another way to give them the information they are seeking (Quast, 2012).Legal risks also go against employers who use certain tools incorrectly to recruit employees, including third parties and Googling candidates. It is known by Human Resource employees that they are not aloud to deny a candidate a position based on their looks, age, race, gender, national origin, disability, genetic information, or sexual orientation. Whether the employer found this information from a candidates resume or on a social media website doesn't matter. Employers simply cannot use any of this personal information against a candidate and the decision to hire them or not (Quast, 2012).
Unfortunately, law rights are far behind the emergence of technology and social media. For right now, laws only have developed concerning specific cases and cases about the broad aspects, such as personal email accounts, social media accounts, and smart phones at work, have yet to be developed. It is also important to note that employers cannot use candidates information to or against their benefit even though it is out there for them to publicly see (Quast, 2012).
Company Social Media Accounts, Who Owns Them?
When employees leave their current workplace and have access to many company social media accounts, questions arise as to who those social media accounts now belong to. Ownership of these accounts include having all of the customer contacts as well as keeping the page active in their hands. When an employee leaves and keeps the companies' social media site in his/her ownership they are the only ones who have access to the site and password. This leaves the employer with no access to the companies site as well as no access to their current clients. This can cause the owner of the companies site to transfer the clients from their previous workplace to their new one, causing trouble to the previous company. This issue is especially important to those companies who use social media as a way of marketing and advertising their products or business (Quast, 2013).Having ownership of these social media networks is so important because of the clients. The whole purpose of the accounts is to brand the company and connect with many different clients. Not to mention the time and money it takes to build these networking sites, promote a brand, develop an industry expertise, and sharing content is invaluable and cannot be recouped easily (Quast, 2013).
To avoid questions on who owns the companies' social media networking sites, an agreement should be made as soon as the employee who takes care of these sites is hired. This way, if that employee is terminated or leaves voluntarily, they cannot fight for access and ownership of these sites. If an agreement wasn't made in the beginning of the employees hire and an argument of who has ownership arises, a lawsuit will most likely solve the problem. In order to determine who to give ownership of the site and all its contacts, the employees are asked the following information (Quast, 2013):
- Who set up the social media site for the company and directed the content
- When the accounts were set up (before or after employee was hired)
- Who had access to the accounts and passwords
- Whether and how the sites were associated with the employer's name or brand
- The value of the followers, fans, and connections
Conclusion/Take Away Points
Although social media is very important to have in the workplace and can build awareness to a company and their brand, it is tricky in how it should be used, what should be shared, and by whom. Employees should be taught in training programs what to share and what not to share on their personal social media webpages. Along with what their sharing, users should set their profiles to private and keep notice of who is following them and what they are able to view on their personal pages. Personal information such as the employees full name, birth date and age, race, color, address, natural origin, and more shouldn't be posted on their social media webpages. If for any reason they are, employers cannot use these personal traits against employees in the process of hiring new employees'. To protect employers and the overall company, agreements should be issued in the beginning of an employees' hire regarding who takes ownership of the companies social media websites if that employee is terminated or leaves voluntarily. If there was no agreement in the beginning of employment, lawsuits will have to be addressed in order to find out who will keep the companies websites along with all the companies contacts and clients.References:
Kryder, Cyndy. (2012) Social media and privacy issues: a matter of common sense. Retrieved from Galegroup.com
Quast, Lisa. (5/28/2012) Social media, passwords, and the hiring process: Privacy and other legal rights. Retrieved from www.Forbes.com
Quast, Lisa. (2/18/2013) Company social media accounts -- who owns those twitter followers? Retrieved from www.Forbes.com2
