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THIS WEEK
Social Media Policies - What Should Yours Say?
ALSO IN THIS EDITION
Social Media Policies - What Should Yours Say?
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If you have employees, one of the key policies you need is a Social Media Policy to help guide them on what is acceptable behaviour online (and to help protect your company's reputation).
If you don't provide guidance, then employees will follow their own rules. Some employees will be great for your company – others interpretation of the rules could see your business "go viral" for all the wrong reasons.
All it takes is one bad blog post, one ratty You Tube video or one sarcastic Tweet and your business could hit the headlines in a bad way.
The impact of this can be devastating on a business. For example there was a case in Brisbane last year where one comment in social media went viral for a local restaurant. That restaurant is now out of business. Even for larger businesses, the impact on share prices and resale value is significant from a viral social media post.
I would go so far as to say, that managing your Social Media should be one of your top 2 risk management priorities for every business (managing potential fraud is number 1 in my experience).
So what should be in your social media policy? After checking out hundreds of policies (here's a page with links to a whole pile of great policies), the best practice ones have these in common.
They:
- Define what is social media (just to make it totally clear for employees). Social media includes social networking sites (Facebook, LinkedIn etc), micro-blogging sites (Twitter etc), video & photo sharing sites (Flickr & YoutTubes), weblogs (in all their forms), forums & discussion boards and online encyclopaedias.
- Include both employees and contractors. There is no point having your employees all complying to have a contractor working for your company "bagging you out" in the Social Media.
- Remind people about why this is important to your business.
- Ensure the company is not held liable for employee social media blunders.
- Link the policy to the discipline policy.
- Give guidance about what is OK to talk about (e.g.: things in the public domain)
- Are very clear on what can't be talked about including financial information (to reduce problems with insider trading), confidential information, legal proceedings, internal controversies, trademarked information & copyright information.
- Give general rules around circulation of posts, clarity of role within the company, how to be clear you are an employee, working on private blogs in company time and online shopping.
- Give useful behavioural expectations including spelling, grammar, respect, dealing with heated debate, complying with site terms & when to stay silent.
- Help cover there is no expectation to "friend" someone or accept a request if you don't want to.
- Discuss the impact of Social Media on work & when it is not OK to use Social Media.
- What to do with work related Social Media when you leave the company.
- What to do when you make a mistake in Social Media.
- A reminder of "think before you post".
These are current best practice – but this is a rapidly developing area of HR. Businesses need to regularly review their policies and practices to ensure they are detailed enough to cover specific issues within your workplace, but broad enough to cover all eventualities.
I recommend businesses attend regular industry seminars and monitor the media on this issue to stay abreast with current best practice. Remember, one wrong move in Social Media and the world suddenly knows your business.
If you would like to see a sample Social Media policy that covers all of these areas, check out this one contained in our Instant HR Policies & Procedures Manual.
| HR Tip of the Week: Updating Policies |
Every business updates their policies and procedures over time. It can be as simple as changing who authorises petty cash right through to totally changing how performance reviews are conducted. But communicating these changes to employees can be often hit and miss.
Here's a few tips to make sure your next change doesn't leave you in a legal minefield.
- Version control - Ensure each version has a unique number and the date of change is clearly visible on the document.
- Track your versions - You need to keep copies of each old version in your archives in case of a matter before Industrial Tribunals who may ask you to produce the policy in play at the time of an employee's commencement (for example). Keep these with your financial archives for your business (but unlike financial archives you want to retain them forever).
- Team briefings. Remember to brief every employee of the changes (including casuals). Keep an attendance sheet at each briefing and track down missing employees. It's guaranteed that the one who missed the briefing is the one who will get in trouble!
- Retraining. Regularly re-brief everyone on the contents of your policies & procedures.
- Keep it current. Manuals should be living documents. Ideally keep them online so only the most current version is available rather than print versions which may miss the odd update.
 If you have a small to medium sized business - creating an Employee Manual is the generally the last thing on your mind.
Even if you do want to write one, where do you start? That's where Instant HR Policies & Procedures comes in.
You see, for 25 years I worked as a senior HR practitioner. This manual contains all of my best HR policies, practices and procedures in template form.
All you need to do is search and replace ABCD with your company name (the templates are in Word form), read through each policy to work out if they apply to your company, tweak them to match and you are done. Of course like any company policy document, I recommend running them past your company lawyer to make sure any specific company structures or quirks are correctly reflected.
All the hard work is done. You will end up with policies to help you write position descriptions, recruit staff, manage performance, deal with a poor performer, manage your standard of dress, deal with sexual harassment & discrimination, and a whole lot more.
Check out the full details here
And we have just updated our Instant HR Policies Manual to take into account the new Fair Work Act for Australia as well as created a brand new Social Media policy to help you work with your staff on what should be the rules for social media in your workplace.
Read what some managers have to say about Instant HR Policies.
What I liked most about Instant HR Policies & Procedures is just that - Instant! These manuals are perfect for a small company just starting to get to grips with HR practices and the value they can add to the company.
It has a lot of information that could easily be overlooked. It is easily updated or customized to the company's requirements and is very easy to purchase.
Heidi Casey
Easy to use. Lots of information, with different options. It is great value for money and has everything a small-business needs.
Greg Mason
The policies and procedures manual had basically everything that our HR department needed to make a start. It also came with the form templates that complemented the policies and procedures perfectly.
Roslind Brown
... you have covered everything and it was very easy to adapt to our Company culture - also having an Australian focus was very useful as most of the other online versions available are US law based, although ironically I actually bought it for our US office and adapted it but have since used it for our Australian office as well.
Kristine Inkster
So, if you have a small or medium sized business, check out Instant HR Policies & Procedures. It will save you time, money and most importantly, it will help make your job a whole lot easier!
This post is another one exploring studies where scientists put to the test some common sayings. In this post we look at whether "weighty arguments" are more persuasive than "lightweight arguments".
exuberantly yours
Ingrid
Heart Harmony
PS: This week's Small Business Tips blog included a post about "Are your Employee Manuals Current "
Legal stuff: This newsletter is intended only a general guideline for Australian businesses. You should seek specific advice for your situation rather than relying only on this newsletter
Earnings disclaimer. Some of the content may include advertorial information, which means I may receive financial compensation for the products I recommend. But - unless I know and trust the product, I will not recommend it.
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