In the U.S., a report was issued about the
protection of disparaging comments on
social media about employers.
Therefore, it is important to lay down
rules on the use of social media and
on the employees' online activities
regarding revealing information on the
company they work for, as well as the
sanctions for non-compliance. In the
best case, employees expressly consent
to such rules, implemented either as
policies or contractual provisions.
Such rules not only facilitate proving
whether or not an employee has broken
company rules, but are also valuable in
the event the employer intends to hold
the employee responsible for damages
the company or clients suffered due to
information spread via social media.
These rules may include, for example, if
and to what extent employees are allowed
to befriend business relations and
whether employees will have to create
separate accounts for business relations
and for solely personal contacts. It is
business accounts according to the
company guidelines. It can also be
included whether, and if so, which social
media can be used during work hours
and to what extent they may be used.
This will often depend on the position of
the employee and the type of company. A
sales manager of a software company will
be allowed more social media activity
than an accountant of a food wholesaler.
In this regard, it may be also taken into
consideration how often and to what
extent emails and telephone calls are
permitted for private purposes.
employer and employee are most
likely to still be active on the Internet.
At this stage, issues such as duty of
confidentiality and competition clauses
are very important. It must be clear
whether or not contacts with business
relations and business-related social
media and accounts will have to be
cancelled. It is also advisable to make
arrangements on whether LinkedIn
contacts will have to be deleted or
guidelines, for instance, in a competition
clause or a business relations clause.
That way you can control that no
business relations will be accepted as
Facebook friends, or that the employer
has a say in the management of a
LinkedIn account. Arrangements like
this can even be made if the above
mentioned clauses have not been agreed
upon, for instance in a special clause of
the employment agreement or they can
be included in the staff regulations.
deal with social media. After all, every
country, every company and every human
being is different from one another. A
social media policy has to be tailored to
fit the country, the company culture, the
image of a company, the sensitivity level
of information and safety aspects so that
all employees know the company's rules
and you can enforce them. It is advisable
to include such a policy as standard in
the staff regulations.