Today’s managers and human resource professionals have an entirely new area of employee behavior to contend with – Social Media.  Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and SnapChat are just a handful of the many social media platforms in which employees engage.  As a result, many conversations and opinions that once would have been voiced only to a small group and behind closed doors are now being shared on the internet for all to see.  Furthermore, social media networks have expanded from just personal friends to co-workers.  As a result, these “personal” posts are now being shared throughout the workplace.

So what is the employer to do when an employee drops a bomb on social media that other employees find offensive?  Even worse can be the impact if a customer sees the offensive post and threatens to leave.  One thing companies can do is terminate the employee, as ABC did to Roseanne Barr earlier in 2018.  However, this is not an option for all companies as some states have passed laws that protect their employees from retaliation for many of their social media posts.  Also, regardless of the actions a company may take, once a post is public its negative impact on employee morale and relationships with customers and vendors may not be easy to repair.

To address this growing issue, many companies are adopting social media policies and adding them to their employee handbooks.  These new policies cover start with the recruiting process and today 70% of companies perform some sort of online screening of candidates, with 51% reviewing social media websites.  As a result, 54% stated that they have opted to not offer employment to candidates whose social media presence raised concerns.  The policies also cover acceptable posts during employment, covering both business and personal topics. 

If your company does not yet have a social media policy, you should strongly consider implementing one before you experience the negative consequences from an employee post.  Of course, drafting a policy that addresses all potential issues, their consequences and complying with federal and state regulations is not an easy task.  That is where Total Team Solutions can help.  Total Team Solutions has been providing human resource advisory services to small businesses for more than 30 years, allowing owners to focus on running and growing their company without the distractions of administrative issues such as these.  For more information on how Total Team Solutions can assist your small business, contact John Morlock at jmorlock@ttspro.com or call him 800-836-9678, ext. 5.