Corporate Social Networking Policy

David - more than happy to assist you in drafting and preparing guidance on this

Really interested to read the debate here, both from a legal perspective as well as that of an employer.

While most of the debate above relates to LI and specifically databases built by the employee (in the course of their work?) you are quite right to be thinking about developing a social media policy that covers this and other aspects also (such as Facebook, Youtube and Twitter).

Much of the attraction of social media is that it lets everyone - employees and non employees - become their own publisher, with instant access to a potentially very large online audience. What this means for employers is that they risk losing control over who says what, whether it might be about people who work for them, about competitors, or about the organisation itself. There is plenty of case law regarding this. And because publishing is instant, things written in the heat of the moment can't be taken back.

Harking back to LI, the 'recommend' feature is tantamount to a giving a reference. If you have a policy that only specified people within your organisation are allowed to give references, how do you deal with someone who gives a glowing recommendation to a former colleague, bearing your organisation's name?

There are so many nuances it's worth giving thought to a policy - to begin with, you might find that your policy is a little heavy handed or, on the other hand, vague. But at least it gives you a starting point to develop guidelines as you learn.

Social media law is changing every day, as if the phone hacking scandal and superinjunction fiasco is not enough to remind us.

Workplace Law will be publishing guidance in this area soon, and we are keen to continue to hear from members to help shape draft policy in this area.

Sue,
I have sent you a personal message on this topic.

This is intellectual property so you need to ensure your contracts and policies are clear. We have spent a great deal of time on this recently. You must ensure that your job specs state that the employee will be expected to develop their LI network as part of their position and connections, groups etc which are set up this way then remain your property.
Alternatively you could pay for them to have premium accounts then ownership is very clear.
In reality very few people use LI for anything other then work - it is not just a 'commercial facebook', and if employees are using their salaried time to develop these contacts you should be able to protect them so long as your policies are clear.

Am slightly puzzled here, many years ago there was the filo fax, where people used to store the same contact information which is being discussed in this Forum, I for one still have mine which is full of telephone details and contacts, plus I have my card case, which again which is full of cards from past contacts, this is part of my working life.
Now we have Blackberry and I phones where we store this information, and the internet with Linedin and now everyone is in a panic. If I leave can I expect my company to trawl through my card case and remove cards they do not want me to have or use or to ask me to see my private telephone and remove the telephone numbers I dont think so.
Its differant if you take a list of people deliberately with the intent to use them in a new venture or for a competitor, and I agree with Ross that the list is the property of the company.
Why is there a big panic, what has changed, in reality nothing just that technology has come into the big picture.

Thank you all very much for your responses, in particular from Martin and Ross - this certainly helps me. I completely understand that we need to foster a culture of engagement and loyaly, but sadly, in a sales environment, it is commonplace that employees move on and try to take as much data as possible so they can replicate some of their business with another employer. Post termination clauses are also difficult to enforce so we need to protect our company information from as many angles as possible.

His Sue. Many questions arise from this: do these client lists and contact information remain confidential given that they are in the public domain? Does this list of business contacts belong to the employee or the employer? If the employee, upon leaving his/her employment, accesses LinkedIn to contact any of these customers or clients, does that breach the post termination restraints within the employment contact?

Hays Specialist Recruitment (Holdings) Ltd –v- Ions considered some of these issues. Mr Ions argued that the information lost its confidentiality once it was made public. The Court held that although confidentiality had been lost, Hays could still request the contacts Mr Ions had taken whilst still an employee to be handed over.

I would recommend you impose controls on the use of LinkedIn ensuring that the employee is aware that the client and contact lists remain the property of the employer and imposing an obligation upon the employee to delete or return any information stored on sites such as LinkedIn following termination of the employment.

Hi Sue, The DPA would not accept this from any organisation to impose such control.

If a company wants its data held within its control then it must setup its own system for business contacts. It would also be part of each individual contract that commercial information that is gathered in the course of their work belongs to the organisation.

However, mnay people meet outside of the working domain on a leisure basis, this is now their time their friends and no company can lay down ownership rights.

It makes me wonder why companies are so frightened by their employees.

If the company is a good company to work for then retention of employees is very easy. I have worked for companies where the only movement of employees is through retirement or death.

These social sites are not a weapon against the employer and many companies are harnessing the power to promote a business and generate even more business.

If business wasn’t so cut throat these days then the employee wouldn’t feel like they need to do the things suggested as some kind of insurance policy for them.

Sue,

The clue is in your question - it is 'their' LinkedIn page. You can lay legitimate claim to client databases etc. as has been shown in precedent cases but to stop people gathering business contacts is edging towards restrictive practices.

I think you might do better to focus your efforts on creating a working environment that encourages employees to remain in the employ of your company rather than trying to impose draconian and virtually unenforceable rules.

Hi, I am trying to put together a policy specifically relating to corporate social networking, ie LinkedIn. My specific concern is that employees set up a Linkedin profile, gather their business contacts throughout the course of their employment with us, then leave and take this data with them. Is there any way of getting them to sign to say their linked in page belongs to the company etc? has anyone got any advice to protect us/