Usage of social media sites such as Facebook, Linked-In and Twitter is positively encouraged by many HR payroll teams amongst their staff as a valuable business networking, marketing and recruitment method. Obversely, there have also been increasing amounts of cases of disciplinary action taken against employees for not only using social media during work time, but also outside of business premises and time.
It might be expected that staff should be disciplined for using their employers’ computers during working time for chatting to friends and family and conducting their social lives online. There have been other cases of team members receiving warnings for being caught doing so from their home computers whilst off work sick, posting inappropriate content about their jobs and employers during their own time from home and even using software at work to navigate their way around blocks on social media sites put on their computers.
Whilst social media usage for work purposes is at the discretion of every individual HR payroll team, some companies and organisations have now decided to tackle the matter head on by issuing their staff with clear written guidelines about their own specific policies. These include the Olympic Delivery Authority, who have written to all of their staff to clarify that, whist they acknowledge that social media sites can offer business benefits, that usage can also create security risks to their own IT systems. Thus, they have compromised by allowing their staff to use social media during their lunchtimes, but no publishing of content relating to the organisation is permitted.
At Moorepay, we are a leading HR payroll expert and, as the popularity of social media continues to grow, we are accordingly asked an increasing amount of questions by our clients about appropriate usage by their staff. We offer common sense advice that can be built in to company’s policies or disciplinary guidelines for contravention either inside or outside the workplace.