I am working with a fairly large and conservative client who is interested in monitoring their employee’s activity on ALL social media websites. We have worked out the rest of their Corporate Social Media Policies and this specific “monitoring” challenge is still unresolved. Although I am under NDA, they have agreed to let me crowd-source the question to see what the community has to say…
There are obviously issues of privacy and ethics here but these are just some ideas being tossed around:
> All other social media channels or platforms that any employee chooses to engage with must be disclosed to the organization
> All employee Twitter names and aliases need to be recorded by Human Resources and will be followed by the social media team
> All employees must “friend” or “connect” with master Facebook and LinkedIn accounts and understand their activity will be monitored there as well
> Google search alerts will also be set up for employee names
> All posting of company or client related materials on these platforms by an employee requires authorization from IT or direct supervisors
Would love your thoughts / insight!
Best regards,
Nathan + The Freesource Team
I think that’s mostly going too far. It’s one thing to set a corporate policy stating that no one is allowed to discuss the company online, but another to “friend” each and every employee and monitor their online presence. What would the company gain by the knowledge gleaned? It’s a no win situation for them. Unless their goal is to make every employee unhappy (mad) and then quit.
This sounds like a perfect way to drive away talent. Companies that adopt draconian policies like this will simply be unable to compete with less restrictive firms for talented employees.
Although on the other hand, some company has to be the test case for this kind of thing to set the example of how NOT to treat your employees with respect to social media. Fail away!
Wow. That is totally ridiculous. I say good luck with that. If they really have money to burn and time to waste on monitoring all this unnecessary stuff, then let them try it, they will give up within a month. Surely normal keyword brand monitoring should be enough (and normal) to allow them to find all the mentions, by employees or stakeholders, of their stuff and to respond if appropriate. Not to mention this will make the company look really bad to the whole social media world – which is much larger than they might think.
My first thought is what is your client so afraid of with social media? Do they monitor the employees’ personal email accounts, phone calls and friendships? Their lack of trust of their employees is amazing. What do they think the employees’ will do? Employees were stealing corporate secrets/information long before the Internet and social media.n Employees can still speak ill of the company or do something stupid (DUI arrest, dance at a wedding with a lamp shade on their head). The employer cannot control a friend posting on the friend’s Facebook page.
One person I know works for a defense contractor and he has been told he can participate but don not disclose the name of the organization. Primarily due to security concerns. Will that work for this client?
The simplest approach is to just bar the employees from participating in social media with a warning that the employer will periodically monitor the various social media outposts for the employees’ participant. THe monitoring could be a lt of work although I’m sure some vendor has a monitoring program to sell them. However they may want to review the latest demographics of who is using social media – the Boomers are using it as a way to connect with grandchildren, college friends.
I am sure you have used all of these arguments to change their position. Good luck
I can’t fathom those first four ideas. Will the HR or Social Media teams also accompany employees home for the weekend so they can monitor barbecues and shopping trips, too?
I’m going to make a few assumptions here because your post was (and I appreciate it) shorter than long. This doesn’t seem to be about controlling access to social media sites during the work day–a productivity topic. This seems to be about literally tracking what employees say or do when online. Further I can imagine a company like this already locks down all social networking sites inside the building, so again, we’re not sweating productivity, but activities pursued outside of the work hours.
It’s all absolutely crazy. What is your client afraid of? Corporate secrecy can be handled by NDAs. Corporate culture and moral should be handled by leadership. Playing Big Brother to your employees is no way to handle anything. How about a little trust or respect? It might earn it in return.
OMFG.
Items #1-3 are so intrusive that they would cause me to seek other employment.
Item #4 is borderline, since that info is public. Rigid rules would need to be drawn up to prevent abuse by the “social media team”.
Item #5 is the only one I can agree with.
I assume I also need to disclose which religious congregation I attend so that HR can come and see what I do there. I’m a Quaker, so it’s entirely possible that I’ll stand up and speak about my work on any given Sunday.
I’m also on my condo association board – here are the times and dates of our meetings so that my boss can come and listen in.
I’m a regular at Moe’s Place – I’m usually there Thursday for happy hour, and then Friday for a late night bender after I get finished working at that hell-hole. I’ll buy the HR spy ONE drink.
Set the corporate DVR for my public access show – it runs Wednesday night at 11:30.
Seriously – this employer is trying to intrude deeply into my out-of-work time and space. The company should set firm policies about doing personal stuff on work time, and if you want to monitor my computer at work, feel free. You can also set and promote policies about how I may speak about my employer outside of work. But the policy above goes to preemptive enforcement assistance – the company is assuming that employees will violate that policy and wants to catch them at it. Telling your employees “we don’t trust you” is not the way to win their maximum effort on your behalf.
If the company put the effort that they seem to intend to exert in social network monitoring of their staff into making sure that their staff are happy, motivated and committed to the company’s mission, they would have far less to worry about in terms of employees speaking ill of them on the interwebs. This policy will kill morale (though if management even thinks that this policy is necessary or a good idea, I can’t imagine that morale is very high in the first place), create deep mistrust between employer and employee, and do little or nothing to support the company’s reputation. The first person terminated under this policy, or who leaves voluntarily because of it will spread news of its existence far and wide as soon as they are free from the policy’s constraints. This will have a far more deleterious effect on the company’s reputation than any minor employee grumbling that might slip out in a less-carefully monitored environment.
If this policy came down from my current employer, I would comply, and then begin vigorously looking for other employment, without using social media channels. This company should calculate what they plan to spend on enforcement of this policy, and the also plan to spend at least double or treble that amount on recruitment and training of new hires to fill vacancies.
As it happens, my employer has no such policy, but I am connected on Linked In to my boss and the CEO as well as most of my colleagues. Those of us with Twitter accounts are all mutual followers, and I am a fan of both of my company’s Facebook fan pages. And nobody even asked me to.
Are they gonna moniter all of the credit purchases too??? It’s one thing to google a potential employee. After all, it seems like a good idea in conjunction with a background check. And to be fair, if you don’t want everyone in the world to be able to read something on a particular website, then you shouldn’t post it. But to actively FORCE people to volunteer these social networks, blogs, etc, seems a huge invasion of privacy, and a colossal waste of time and money. Especially since a lot of people on facebook can make their profile viewable by only a select group of people. Search away boss, if you really care what I did over the weekend away from work, but frankly, I would think most supervisors would be happy to leave their employees private lives alone, and hopefully those employees would leave their private life out of their professional life too. Most workplace computers these days filter out social networks anyway, so employees can’t access them from work. As an actor, I keep my online presence pretty banal anyway, since anything posted online is there forever. But not everybody does that. What about dating sites? Do our supervisors at work need to know about our sexual/romantic exploits too???
Only that last suggestion is valid. The goal (I hope) is to control the brand image and ensure the proper message/response is being discussed in social media outlets. Notify the employees that all mentions of the company and client related materials is being monitored. Provide direction with guidelines that address how and when to these topics can be discussed via social media, should they choose to do so. Finally, set and communicate the course of action should those guidelines not be regarded/met appropriately.
The rest are a bit of an invasion of privacy, in my opinion. Just as you wouldn’t ‘register’ all of your in-person friends, relatives, neighbors, and every social activity you attend. (government security positions excluded, obviously)
Absolutely ridiculous for all the reasons already listed by other commenters. Frankly, stuff like this just makes me sad. Since when does social media mean that employers have the right to own and control what employees do in their personal lives?
Thank you everyone so far for your insight – social media brings out the good and bad doesn’t it!
So far, all the comments from my post confirm what most people on the management team are weary of which is driving “talent” away. The other side of the room doesn’t know how to handle the sales rep who is using Twitter for business during the week and Twitter for pleasure on the weeknights (or weekend). Obviously multiple accounts could be created but the company sees the individual employee as part of their brand and that creating two twitter accounts does NOT separate the employee from the brand even when they are at home on personal time (remember when you could just go home and not be socially connected to the company?)
Needless to say (and just playing devil’s advocate) it is easier for us on the “employee” side to scream UNFAIR then it is to take on the burden of the real liability this company is now forced to deal with as the personal and professional lives of their employees mashup – something they believe could really jeopardize some of their major client relationships.
Should they ban Twitter use altogether? Or should they let their employees embrace it and go hands off (in which case they think their time will be spent apologizing to multi-million dollar clients they have lost that their sales rep was on personal time when they tweeted some off-color tweet). Something in the middle with training and documented polices seems to make the most sense to me!
Thanks again for your insight!
Cheers,
Nathan
While I understand the company’s fear about what will be said about them online, this is just about the most Big Brother approach I’ve ever heard of.
Not only will these types of policies drive away talent as described compellingly above, but word will inevitably get out that they have such policies and then create the same public perception problem that Horizon Realty has for suing someone over a tweet (http://www.dailytech.com/Horizon+Reality+Sues+Tenant+Over+Moldy+Twitter+Post/article15837.htm)
I would equate #3 with essentially forcing an employee to open up what is considered a private place. This could be illegal or open them up to some serious liability (see Houston Restaurant’s case: http://www.philly.com/philly/business/technology/062609_password_protected.html). Even if forcing disclosure of social media presences isn’t illegal, it still seems unnecessary.
I would think the company would want to focus on listening for their name – monitor and respond to anything posted anywhere public about the brand’s identity. I just don’t see the value in such comprehensive monitoring of employees’ digital identities.
I did attend an interesting roundtable on employment law and social networking, and your client’s proposed policies actually inspired me to post my notes – especially because of the Houston Restaurants case. You can check it out here: http://kgilnack.wordpress.com/2009/07/31/social-media-employer-liabilities/
@Nathan I feel like you, the client, and their customers are all starting from the premise that a personal Twitter account used for business and pleasure is a bad thing, and I don’t see why that is universally the case.
Why not just set up some common sense policies around what is appropriate to to Tweet so that if these important accounts are watching his feed, they might get some insight into what he does outside of the office, without anything offensive?
I’d hope as their consultant you’ve explained that this perception doesn’t need to be a reality “in which case they think their time will be spent apologizing to multi-million dollar clients they have lost that their sales rep was on personal time when they tweeted some off-color tweet.”
In general I’ve found the most successful business Twitter accounts are the ones that also personalize the person behind it. You won’t get as much interest if you cut out the personal commentary. What kind of off color comments are we talking about here?
I’m not easily ipmressed. . . but that’s impressing me!
Is the quality of their products and service so low that losing big-dollar clients over employees’ personal-time tweets is a well-founded fear? Part of the social media revolution is that it does break down some of those barriers between professional and personal life. But that’s because people are interested in engaging with one another through these media on a more personal level – even if someone turns out to be not exactly who you thought they were, you might unfollow them, or even ask for a new sales rep, but I’m unlikely to ascribe one person’s misbehavior to an entire company. Are you really going to go to the trouble of finding and vetting a new vendor for a multi-million contract because of your sales rep’s tweet? All the “bad business tweet” horror stories I’ve heard are about personal ramifications – not getting a job, say, rather than bigger B2B-type problems.
Making employees aware of the concerns and bringing them on the team so that they’re conscious of the possible ramifications on their livelihood would be a good start.
As an example – I follow a couple of the Zappos execs on Twitter. They tweet A LOT about partying and drinking and carrying on. It’s not my thing, and I’m pretty sure that Tony Hsiu and I would not be great friends in real life. But as it happens, I was aware of Zappos before I started following them on twitter, and had bought lots of shoes online from a few different vendors, but not them. I didn’t make my first Zappos purchase until after I was following them on Twitter. I appreciate their company philosophy of transparency, and the way they treat their employees. I overlooked the unsavory drunkenness of their executives and made a purchase. Anecdotal sample of one, and all that, but worth considering, I think.
Nathan,
Edelman’s (PR/advertising) has an Online Behavior Policies & Procedures that may address your client’s concerns. The policy tells employees are responsible for any activity conducted with Edelman email address, domain or assets. Honor terms of employment agreement and client contracts. Disclose true identity & affiliation with Edelman and client you may be serving. Respect privacy of colleagues & opinions of others. Get approval from supervisor before writing about client, known competitor or otherwise responding on client’s behalf. Avoid personal attacks, online fights & hostile personalities. Identify copyrighted & borrowed material. Evaluate your contribution & truthfulness before posting. Follow rules of Edelman’s Employee Handbook. DOn’t use your personal online relationships or company’s network to influence polls, ranking, or web traffic (astroturfing) . Etc.
I think they need to have a little more faith in their employees. The employees, especially sales reps should be sensitive to their clients’ and prospects’ personalities and cultures. A sales rep doesn’t want to lose his/her job or client for a stupid comment online. There are lots of horror stories of being losing jobs and clients from online behavior but these people probably did stupid things in person too. Use this as an opportunity to train their employees in the many positive and business-friendly aspects of social media. Teach them the best ways to use the different tools (Twitter, Facebook, LInkedIn, Flickr, blogs, etc.)
Also using a quick Google and/or Twitter search our client may find many of their clients online using social media very effectively. Here’s a presentation on the extent Fortune 100 companies are using social media. http://www.slideshare.net/guest338fbe/b-m-social-media-fortune-100?from=email&type=share_slideshow&subtype=slideshow_thumb
Good luck. I don’t think your client will be successful in holding back the tide of business and social media.
I agree with the majority. This is MAJOR corporate quicksand. Call Tony Hsieh at Zappos right away. This company needs serious help. I totally respect Nathan’s rep, but someone has seriously failed in explaining social media to the brass if this is even on the table. Its way more than wrong.
Hey Nathan,
Ask everyone to create a Friedfeed account and syndicate their online activities in one place. ( you can track all their activities in one place). If you like my idea, send me a mail.
Thanks,
Wicky
Hi Nathan & team,
You client should be aware that in some parts of the world (in my part for instance) monitoring all web use of an employee is illegal and they could face some serious legal battles originating from unions, civil rights organizations etc…
I am currently writing the guidelines for our group of companies and have been involved with this topic since 2005…
From experience I can tell (and have seen some research on the topic) that in about 99% of the time a company with clear social media guidelines does not face any issues whatsoever with employees using these tools…
It all comes down to clearly describing what is common sense and what is over the top… and link the social media guidelines to the business conduct guidelines already in place.
Does your client have a clear email policy ?
A clear telephone policy ?
A well understood snail mail or copy machine policy ?
The best thing to do is to ask the employees of this company what they consider done and not done on the web through social media… List the things they would consider a breach in confidentiality or wrong use of company IT assets and you’ll see, they will cover almost all the restrictions your guidelines would impose..
Your client should trust their employees, they hired them so I would guess they are pretty intelligent and grown up people.
Good luck !
I guess you don’t need another naysayer. But consider that you are laying out a real challenge to the disgrunted in your organization. A challenge that the company can’t win. It is easy to get an untraceable alias and use a clearly recognizable alias of the company and let their now motivated fury fly.
I suppose this all came about because of some specific event. I assume it was embarrassing for the company.
I think a better way to handle this is to do facilitated sessions on the issue — the need for privacy of the employees, the growing use of social media, how off handed remarks can cause great damage to the company and to the all the jobs in the company.
Then I would ask for volunteers (seed a few if you must) to form a task group and come up with a social media plan.
The path your proceeding down does not empower employees, seems heavy handed and will destroy moral. Worse, it won’t work.
A perfect policy if the client company is THE Company (CIA), NSA, KGB or other Antisocial Networking enterprise.
Otherwise this is arrogant, controlling, foolish and self-defeating. It proceeds from a premise that employees are fundamentally a problem, and it will completely succeed in creating that as the operative reality of the firm.
Advise them to drink the Kool-Aid; then let us know how that works out . . .
Those requirements would not be enforceable in the US. How could you? Termination if I don’t reveal my Second Life (social network) or Twitter name to the company?
Kind of flies in the face of what makes social networking so successful – an open and sharing network.
Good luck with it and certainly an interesting concern that many companies face.
Nathan:
How did this end up?
(Personally I think it is a terrible idea to monitor everything. Set good policies and react to the outliers.)
Just curious.
TO’B
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