In the light of further historical offensive tweets, most recently by England cricket players, what are the key steps for employers to take to handle the use of social media by employees?
The content of employee’s social media posts should clearly be a concern for employers. Past or present offensive social media posts by employees can potentially lead to employers being held liable for their employees’ actions as well as serious reputational damage and adverse publicity.
So what can be done to reduce and/or prevent these social media mistakes from happening? The first and main step should be to implement a detailed and effective social media policy. The policy should clearly set out what is and what is not deemed acceptable and provide guidelines for responsible use of social media. For example, this may include a requirement for an employee to make it clear in a social media posting or in their profile that they are speaking on their own behalf and their views are their own.
Employers should also consider to what extent the business wishes to monitor, intercept and review employees’ social media use on its IT systems. Take into account that any monitoring should be proportionate and employees should be provided with details regarding the business purpose of the monitoring and how it will be carried out.
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