This article was produced by Olswang LLP, which joined with CMS on 1 May 2017.
Social media usage in the workplace has exploded in recent years. However, in addition to the benefits for businesses, social media poses a number of challenges for employers.
For example, employers may fear reputational damage arising from employees’ apparently offensive or derogatory statements on publicly accessible social media feeds. Individuals will be keen to protect their freedom of expression, but it can be difficult for employers and employees to distinguish between comments that are connected to work and those that are private and personal.
Other possible issues for employers include:
- Accusations of bias and discrimination claims during recruitment, if the would-be employer reviews an applicant’s presence on social media.
- Loss of productivity as a result of employees spending their working day browsing their social media accounts.
- Issues following termination of employment, such as ‘ownership’ of business contacts on employees’ personal social network accounts (e.g. LinkedIn) and communication with and exploitation of such contacts.
Recent case law underlines the importance of having a staff policy that clearly sets out rules and expectations regarding employees’ interactions on social media, and which states that the employer may initiate disciplinary action against employees who do not conduct themselves in accordance with the policy.
These issues were covered in more detail in a recent article by Catherine Taylor, Anna Cope and Rob Briggs, published in the September 2015 edition of the International Bar Association Employment & Industrial Relations Law Newsletter. The article is available here.
