There has been a huge upswing in employees' use of networking media such as FaceboOK, LinkedIn, Twitter, Youtube etc.
Some of these sites present marketing opportunities for businesses,
but there can be down sides. The production hours lost can be serious.
Additionally, employees' use of the media to make disparaging remarks
about their employer creating negative perceptions can cause pain and
damage. Once posted on the internet, the comments are then in the public
domain. And there is the cost of internet bandwidth consumed.
If Employers fail to put a policy in place forbidding such behaviour
(in either the employment agreement or an employee handboOK) and bring
it to the Employee's attention, there will be weak justification for
taking disciplinary action against the employee concerned. Correct
procedure may not be enough. We recommend a policy and a sign off as
well.
A typical policy would contain at the least the following:
Set the Company's Overall Policy e.g. The Employer's
computers/devices for business use only otherwise written approval
required and the Employee must comply with all policies and procedures.
The Company's Position on:
Personal use of the Employer's computers, communications or mobile
storage devices, email, internet is prohibited, without the Employer's
prior written approval.
Connection of non-work devices to network
Statement that usage is monitored.
Software download policy statement
Restrictions on updating computer configurations
Unauthorised and/or inappropriate or illegal email /browsing/other communication /risk of introducing viruses etc
Passwords privacy policy
Unlawful copying, downloading, uploading, or file sharing any licenced or copyright protected software or material
While it is relatively OK for some employers to have their staff
checking their social accounts during office hours, there are specific
industries wherein this habit can impede overall productivity. For
example, if a person is working in the accounting department, it is
necessary to stay focused with balancing the calculations on an ongoing
basis. Having a divided attention can lead to lots of human errors and
compromise the integrity of financial statements. People who are working
in the technical support field should also be on the loOKout for new
issues and tickets that are forwarded to them, and so they should not be
checking any personal social media accounts during work hours. As a
general rule, the lunchbreak is a good time to log on to FaceboOK and
personal emails just to check for messages, but is never ethical to
aggressively use social accounts when in the office.
This article was originally published from: http://www.employers.co.nz
