Two days ago, a member
of the team was browsing their Facebook feed and found a video of an
acquaintance. This individual worked at a local restaurant, and the footage
showed the individual and other members of the staff partying in the kitchen of
the restaurant after hours. During the course of the video, employees were
smoking marijuana, drinking alcohol, and dancing to loud music. Within a few
hours, the individual had removed the post and posted a status update lamenting
about being pressured to remove the post.
If left unchecked, situations
like these can lead to bad publicity for organizations and can even damage the
company’s reputation. Two weeks ago, we wrote about The Importance of Employee Vetting and Continuous Evaluation. Not every organization has access
to the same resources of a giant corporation to deal with the fallout of social
media debacles. However, a strong social media policy is a massive step in the
right direction. In order to have a robust policy, there are a few main things
organizations need to do along the employee timeline.
Add Social Media to Your Background Check Procedures
Presently, many
companies are adopting social media pre-employment screening as a part of their
comprehensive background check process. This allows organizations to assess
certain character traits vital to their organization and authenticate some resume
and application-based data by using open source information on social media sites.
It also helps assure due diligence on the part of employers during
the hiring process. However, it is pertinent to fully disclose the scope of the
background check process on authorization forms. The Society for Human Resource
Management has posted a good example of a standard authorization form
which may cover the scope of a comprehensive background check. It is important that
companies routinely update these forms and their hiring procedures to remain Fair
Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) compliant.
Make a Sound Social Media Policy
In addition to incorporating
social media to background check procedures, companies need to have a robust
social media policy in place. Social media policies and monitoring procedures
can help employers ensure that employees understand and acknowledge the full
scope of workplace monitoring and that employers apply the policy equally using
standardized procedures. This policy can cover a multitude of areas, including acceptable
employee use, business use, and investigative procedures. While businesses need to respect employees’ right to organize, there is still a lot of leeway
given to companies to create and enforce acceptable use policies. Attorney
Heidi Carpenter wrote a great set of guidelines employers should use when utilizing
social media in the workplace.
Follow Through
One major issue that
arises is employers’ laxity regarding policies and procedures. Employers need
to reinforce the policies by integrating them into the
larger company culture. In order to ensure compliance with company regulations, businesses also need to routinely
monitor their employees’ social media profiles and enforce the policies in a
nondiscriminatory manner. In doing so, companies can help
protect their reputation by hiring the right person and preventing situations
from getting out of hand.
Disclaimer: This blog post is for informational purposes and
should not be construed as giving legal advice. For legal advice regarding
social media policies and procedures, consult a legal professional.
