Title: Social Media 101: Get a Policy | Blog.SHRM.org
Headings: Social Media 101: Get a Policy
Social Media 101: Get a Policy
Considerations
Don’t Overreach
Social Screening
Inform employees as to whether they need approval before posting information and identify whom they should get approval from.
More to Do
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Content: Make sure the social media policy is consistent with and works in tandem with the handbook, and that it covers postings on social media platforms or technologies that already exist as well as those that have yet to be created. Don’t Overreach
Be careful not to infringe on the employee’s right to engage in what the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) calls "concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection." For example, "the NLRB has had a problem with companies that say you are not allowed to disclose confidential information without defining what is ‘confidential information,’ " says Michael Schmidt, an attorney with Cozen O’Connor’s labor and employment group and author of the Social Media Employment Law Blog. "Some companies consider salary and wage information confidential, and the NLRB has said employees can talk about wages—so a company would be overreaching by prohibiting employees from discussing wage-related information," Schmidt says. Under the National Labor Relations Act, Meyer explains, "employees have the right to engage in protected concerted activity. In a nutshell, when two or more employees discuss the terms and conditions of employment in a way that’s designed or intended to effect change ... they have the right to do that." Social Screening
A policy should cover whether employers can use social media to screen candidates or employees and the inherent risks involved. The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) unveiled research in 2013 showing that 57 percent of companies do not have a policy relating to screening potential employees’ social networking sites. Of those that do have a policy, 21 percent prohibit the use of the sites and 21 percent allow use. SHRM research from 2011 revealed that most HR professionals (66 percent) do not conduct online searches about candidates or employees or sift through their social media sites.