8/3/2019 Three Major Social Media Policy Pitfalls to Avoid

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Three Major Social Media Policy Pitfalls to Avoid

This week, we learned of yet another firing of an employee for ranting about the customers he had totolerate at his local Starbucks on a social media site. Starbucks isnt the only company coping with the use ofsocial media by its staff, and this is one of those thorny issues where the technology is clearly moving at net

speed, and the law is slowly coming around at its usual snails pace. Organizations of all sizes are usingsocial media tools to promote their products and services, yet their efforts are sometimes thwarted byemployees airing the firms dirty laundry publicly via the use of these same sites.

Tony Bingham, President of ASTD National, commented recently that just like the old 38 Special song-socialmedia policies should be written so as to Hold On Loosely, but dont let go. A very appropriate metaphorfor how organizations can balance protecting their brands, yet not discourage the use of- or even worse,infringe on the free-speech rights of their employees. While we all await the long-arm of the law to clearthings up, there are three major gaffes you want to avoid as an organization when crafting your social mediapolicy.

There are many perspectives of what can and cannot be includedin a well-crafted social media policy, but Id like to review three of

the major pitfalls that companies are making. First and foremost,overly-broad, vague, or policies encompassing too wide an arrayof behaviors are not holding up in courts or in National LaborRelations Board (NLRB) decisions. In one recent example of this,an employee was terminated from a hospital for talking badlyabout the hospital- which was, of course, against the institutionssocial media policy (see pg. 19 of the NLRB GCs Memo here).Without a standard or clear definition as to what talking bad

about or criticizing the organization means- the NLRB is erringon the side of employees in these cases. Any social media policythat does not clearly define these broad terms or limit theirdefinition in a way that excludes protected National Labor

Relations Act (NLRA) Section 7 activity will likely not pass the proverbial smell test, and should be correctedimmediately.

Secondly, policies that infringe on employees right to engage in concerted activities for the purpose ofcollective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection should be corrected. These behaviors includeemployees discussing amongst themselves their wages, work hours, other terms and conditions of theiremployment, up to and including criticisms by coworkers of the companys performance and are protectedunder section 7 of the NLRA. While a companys Pavlovian response might be to quickly terminate anemployee for criticizing the organization in a social media forum, they would be well advised to review theirsocial media policy with counsel before doing so to ensure the employees rights will not be violated as aresult. A well-crafted policy is especially conscious of these rights, and is worded in accordance with itsprinciple.

Lastly, social media policies should reflect the culture and values of the organization, and be written so as tonot alienate the very talent companies are attempting to recruit via these same social media channels! Manyof the policies we are encountering in the workplace are so hideously written that a talented, high-potentialcandidate might read them and run in the opposite direction. Gen Y now entering the workforce has grownup with this technology, and even developed a very powerful, vast and carefully crafted network of resourcesthey can tap into when faced with a challenge. If your employer brand is communicating how innovative yourorganization is, and these high-potential candidates are arriving at your workplace and finding your policyoverly restrictive of their ability to draw upon these resourcesyou are creating a huge disconnect with theimage you are working so hard to cultivate. Policies written in legalese by your legal team, and notdeveloped in conjunction with your Human Resources leader to be aligned with the organizations talentmanagement strategy will keep you out of the courtroom but may also keep you out of a high-potential

market talent market.

_______________________________________________________________________________

-Alex Santos

Alex is a co-founder and Mana in Member of Collabor8 Learnin , LLC, an instructional desi n and

http://collabor8learning.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/NLRB-GC-Office-Memo-Social-Media.pdfhttp://youtu.be/vJtf7R_oVawhttp://collabor8learning.com/blog/pitfalls/http://www.linkedin.com/in/iteachhttp://collabor8learning.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/NLRB-GC-Office-Memo-Social-Media.pdfhttp://youtu.be/vJtf7R_oVawhttp://youtu.be/MUTrJW-0xtchttp://collabor8learning.com/blog/pitfalls/

8/3/2019 Three Major Social Media Policy Pitfalls to Avoid

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performance management consultancy. His firm collaborates with organizations to enhance the way theydevelop their people. To learn more about Collabor8 Learning, click here.

Alex can be reached at 786-512-1069, alex@collabor8learning.com or via Twitter@collabor8alex.

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