The BusinessMakers Radio Show

Business Survival Tip: Social Networking in the Workplace

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Carl: Hello business owners this is Carl Kleimann from Odyssey One Source with another Business Survival Tip. Social networking websites like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace have become an integral part of American social life. Social interaction that was once reserved for evenings and weekends now takes place all day long on cell phones, PDAs and computers. While employers often see this as a threat to productivity and a drain on their network bandwidth, there are additional concerns that may not be as obvious.

Social networking poses a number of legal risks for employers. For example, an employee's posting of improper comments about co-workers on such sites could give rise to state or federal law claims of discrimination, harassment, or retaliation, as well as defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, or other state law torts. There have also been countless instances where an employer's financial or other confidential information has been shared among Facebook friends or Twitter followers. Imagine the consequences to your business if one of your employees posted strategic information or customer data that ended up in the hands of your competitors. And even after spending thousands of dollars in legal fees to stop this from happening, the horses are already "out of the barn" so to speak.

There are steps that you can take to reduce these risks. Many companies are adopting, and requiring their employees to sign and acknowledge, "Social networking policies" that restrict the time and manner in which employees can access such sites. Such a policy should also remind employees of their responsibility to comply with other company rules and policies, including confidentiality, privacy, anti-discrimination, and anti-harassment when using social networking sites or personal blogs. Clearly state your expectations regarding non-work related use of company time and property such as computers and company provided PDAs.

If you prefer a more aggressive approach, you can deploy relatively inexpensive technology such as a Web filter that allows you to block certain websites or limit your employees' access to certain times of the day. There are also tools available that allow you to monitor your employees' web activity. If you opt for these measures, you should apply them to all employees to avoid claims of discrimination and make certain that employees know that their web activity is subject to monitoring.

I am Carl Kleimann and this has been another Business Survival Tip by Odyssey One Source, ranked as the number one Professional Employer Organization three years running by the Black Book of Outsourcing. For more information on this and other issues affecting employers, please visit www.odysseyonesource.com.

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