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Managing Employment & Legal Issues with Social Media

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May 13, 2010
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Social media
has taken Indianapolis staffing companies, executive headhunters and most anyone in Central Indiana jobs by storm. Sites such as Facebook, Linkedin, You Tube and Twitter offer employers, employees and job seekers opportunities to network, advertise and promote themselves and has become one of the biggest hiring trends to advertise Central Indiana jobs and Indianapolis job openings. It allows job seekers to explore job opportunities in Indianapolis easier than ever before. While this is a huge benefit to reach a large audience very quickly, social media has created a number of employment and employment law issues. 
 

Issues around trade secrets, confidentiality, harassment, discrimination, job listings/OFCCP, background checks, and state laws that protect leisure-time activities have employers scrambling to create social media policies. 

 

Employers walk a fine line between banning social media and encouraging it to promote the company. Banning it creates resentment and invites violations. Encouraging it is not intended to encourage spending the majority of company time on these sites. That’s why companies are finding Social Media Policies vital to set guidelines in place.

 

When writing a policy, it is important to be very clear on the boundaries around social networking and to clearly spell out what to think about when engaging in social forums. Three great companies to model a company policy from are Kodak, Intel and IBM.

 

Employees also need to be aware of the risk of jeopardizing their careers when using social media. There are countless stories of employees being terminated for divulging confidential company information, non-productivity or for making disparaging comments about their employer.  Check out Top 10 Stupid Things That Will Ruin Social Media for Everyone at Your Company. My personal favorite is employees who update their Facebook status every 10 minutes while at work. Remember, social media is just that: MEDIA!

Developing appropriate and specific guidelines, and communicating them to ensure employees understand the rules, can help make cyberspace less stressful for everyone.

 
 

 

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