Employees have access to social networks, so how do you manage your risks?
 According to research by Manpower only about 10% of European companies have a formal social networking policy. Whilst this may seem to be at odds with the research previous reported on that suggested more than half of companies block social networking sites, it actually isn't. Denying access and having a clear policy on how employees should treat Facebook et al is entirely different and they are not mutually exclusive. Employees have access at home, remember.
Whether access is permitted or blocked, firms still face both reputational and commercial risks. Employees may post inappropriate content, trade secrets or make other claims and statements that could come back to hurt. As such the firm has a duty to its stakeholders to ensure all staff are aware of their responsibilities when discussing work related matters online. This is not to say a policy should ban work related chat outright, just that care needs to be exercised.
Attribution is a good starting point. Employees should not be attributing their private comments to their employer without the firm's permission. This is particularly the case where the employee is making bold claims or accusations about the performance of products or services. It could be that well intentioned post opens up the company to a variety of risks, from regulatory to legal and everything in between. That post may even end up being repeated over and over as an example of "how that company treats its customers."
Employees also need to take care when discussing what they did at work. It might seem harmless to mention who they saw and where they had your meetings, but all of this information could compromise sales and confidentiality. Even talking about "that new product" they're working on could give competitors sufficient warning to take action and counter any winning strategy that may be in development. (Worth noting that smart companies are already monitoring the social web for these slips).
Multimedia, whether audio, still photo or video is another area of concern. All sorts of damage can be done by the well meaning employee who takes a photo of their desk, or their mates larking around, and discloses sales figures, customer data, client sales performance. Most call centres now ban mobile phones, but does that extend to the areas outside of where calls are made?
These risks - and there are more - need to be managed through the use of a policy that is carefully constructed and rolled out to employees. It needs to be done in a sensitive way as you are going to be asking your staff to moderate their behaviour on what is their own time. It also needs to be monitored and - where necessary - steps taken to deal with those who compromise the business.
This is not to say that firms should not engage with the social web, that blogs about working at the company, or that a ban should be enforced. Firms must, however, take steps to protect themselves and that has to start with the employees.
Previously on this blog...
the global leader in Contact Center Consolidation 2.0
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A dozen beautiful images of Saturn
Wired presents a dozen of the best images from the Cassini mission
Setting up shop in a new country: beyond the website
Building a website for multiple languages is not just about translation. It is a critical business decision that has to be taken carefully.
Why call centre staff deserve your respect
If call centre staff set the first impression for your business, why do we treat them so badly?
Becoming a Specialist? A hard decision to make ...
Specialising requires hard strategic decisions to be made about your business.
When good people move on
Losing a member of staff to another company is not necessarily a bad thing
The quest for quality in Agile Software Development
Why quality assurance remains a central part of project management, regardless of the use of Agile methods
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