The National Relations Labor Board continues to keep social media in the forefront of employee relations labor news. As soon as your organization feels like they have created a sound social media policy, new case law comes into play and you may need to revise it yet again.
As you are creating (or recreating) your social media policy, remember these key elements:
- Identify the social media technologies, e.g., personal blogs, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube
- Address use of social media during working time
- Provide that there is no expectation of privacy while using the internet and that employee may monitor postings
- Remind employees that individuals are personally responsible for their commentary and can be held personally liable to commentary that is defamatory, obscene, proprietary, etc.
- Remind employees that they are not authorized to speak on behalf of the company (offer disclaimer: “the views expressed are my own and not those of the Company, or of any person or organization affiliated or doing business with the Company”)
- Forbid employees from using social media to harass or threaten
- Provides for discipline of employees up to and including termination