Response to article: Helping Workers understand and follow social media policies

Social Media policies are used by a number of companies as a remedy to manage and deal with all social media issues and challenges. However, many companies employ social media policies as a check box rather than it being a strategic document to guide both the employer and employees on the expectations and conduct required when interacting on these platforms.

The article written by Kimberly, Gordon and Michelle in 2016 addresses two fundamental issues that companies should take into account in order to effectively deploy a social media policy in their organisation. The first point being that companies should ensure that their social media policy is correctly drafted to protect them in all aspects of management and risk exposures relating to social media i.e. the policy should not be written in a way that seeks to infringe legally protected rights of their employees such as freedom of expression. However it must deal firmly with any act or negative content that may compromise the organisation in the public and its potential customers.

Secondly, companies should ensure that proper training and awareness is rolled out to educate employees on all expectations and consequences thereof. The study by Schmidt and O’Connor in 2015 indicates that many workers who gets terminated as a result of their social media post, were unaware of the consequences of their act. Therefore, companies have a responsibility to roll out programs and trainings (i.e. face to face training, Video learning and online questionnaires) to ensure that employees are fully aware of their actions and expected conduct when interacting on social media platforms.

The writers of the article pointed out very clearly the role employer should play, to effectively enforce a social media policy. However, the writers only talk about posts that are deemed inappropriate about company. Which is an incomplete approach because at times employees make posts that are not about the company but contrary to social norms or offensive to the human rights of other people. In such cases the company still has to act against the employees, especially if their posts have a potential to compromise the company reputationally or financially. For example, the case of Penney Sparrow, where she posted racist comments on Facebook. Those comments had nothing to do with the company she worked for, however she was release from her duties in order to protect the reputation of Jawitz properties.

It is in light of the above background, that companies should take a proactive stance by consulting attorneys to ensure that the company’s social media policy is consistent with state laws and regulations. Additionally, the company should also ensure that they can hold their employees accountable on the bases of the social media training and awareness programs they deploy.

For reference on the article, refer to: http://0-ac.els-cdn.com.innopac.wits.ac.za/S0007681315001470/1-s2.0-S0007681315001470-main.pdf?_tid=812a8bda-1a2d-11e6-9300-00000aacb360&acdnat=1463269522_a0c42b4d0e38e53f2b8159351e45ac6e