Social Networking sites such as Facebook, Myspace and Bebo have seen an explosion in their popularity in the last 3 years. Their phenomenal growth has been unforeseen and the law has struggled to keep pace with this growth. Employers have also struggled to come to terms and harness the beast known as Social Networking. Will Cursham, a member of the Employment Team at Fraser Brown looks at how employers can deal with the opportunities and challenges and protect themselves from the potential threats posed by social networking.
Some 15 million people in the United Kingdom regularly use social networking sites. Indeed, in July 2007 Facebook claimed 34 million users, whilst Myspace claimed 61.3 million world wide users.
Will said: “Employers are becoming increasingly aware of the cost of social networking. Recent surveys have shown that these sites cost employers around £132 million per day in lost productivity and this amounts to a staggering £30.8 billion a year for UK business.
“Lost productivity is not the only danger that social networking poses to the employer. It is common for “groups” to be set up on the social networking sites, and some employers have suffered adverse publicity due to this.”
Managing the use of Social Networking at Work
Many employers seek to prevent their employees using the sites during work. Indeed, over 70% of UK organisations have banned access to social networking sites. However, some employers have faced a backlash after banning these sites, a notable example being the law firm Allen & Overy, which was forced into reversing its decision to ban the use of Facebook following a near mutiny from its employees.
The Trade Union Congress has called for employers to be reasonable when tackling the use of social networking. It suggests that banning social networking sites is not the only solution. For example, an employer could allow “corporate social networking”, but prevent “social networking”. However, if such a distinction is to be made, it must be clearly set out in the company’s policies.
IT and Email Policies
Research by security firm Clearswift found that 19% of companies questioned did not have a policy governing the appropriate use of the internet by employees. In fact, it is very important that employers do have such policies governing IT and internet use, and not just for the reasons set out here.
“Acceptable use” policies (often included in the employer’s Staff Handbook) can lay down the ground rules for the use of social networking websites. For example, they can define the distinction between corporate social networking and social networking- in other words, when the use of social networking sites is acceptable to the employer.
Will comments: “This can help reduce the impact on working hours, but employers are still left with the problem of employees posting derogatory comments about them. Whilst this danger can never be completely eradicated without eroding free speech, employers should consider including this sort of behaviour under the definitions of misconduct or gross misconduct in their contracts of employment and/or staff handbook.”
‘Can an employer use information on social networking sites?’
Some opportunistic employers have attempted to use personal data gleaned from social networking sites to check up on employees or potential employees. However, employers need to seek legal advice before taking such an approach as the use of information in this way could be a breach of the Data Protection Act 1998 and the employer could face a claim for compensation as well as allegations of discrimination.
Finally, there may actually be circumstances in which information on an employees profile or contact list may be the employer’s property and not the employee’s. A recent High Court decision has made it clear that digital information would be the property of the employer if it was created during the course of employment or if it was work related. In other words, if an employee created a contact list or an online profile during the course of employment then both the contacts and the profile may be the property of the employer, and might therefore be used by the employer without breaching Data Protection principles.
Will adds: “Again, it is good practice to inform employees that this is the case in the company IT and Email policy and of course it would be wise to seek legal advice before using this information.”
For more information about these issues, please contact the Fraser Brown Employment Team on 0115 947 1524.
For further information contact Kate Downs at Eden PR on 0115 852 4717 or at kate@edenpr.co.uk