Benham Publishing Businesss Magazines February 2014 | Page 27

CoverFeature
“Getting your social strategy in place and ensuring
you have the right ‘spokespeople’ for your
business will create your own audience that you
can talk to as often as you like about whatever you
want and that’s the beauty of social media.

It is vital for employers
to put in place a clear
social media policy but,
in itself, this is not
enough. That policy has
to be properly explained
to employees so that they
are aware of its terms.
Every business is
different and has
particular needs and the
policy needs to be
written to meet those
needs.

“More and more employers are encouraging
employees to use social media to promote their
business but both employers and employees need
to be sure that they know what they can and
cannot do right from the outset.
“We have seen an increase in cases involving
social media over the past three years and the
problem is, the lines do get blurred.
“For all we are working on shifting sands, some
basic employment law principles do exist; an
employer needs to make sure that the actions of
an employee can be proved to damage the
business before they seek to dismiss them.
“Some cases are clear. Take a salesman who goes
onto social media to say that his company is
ripping people off. Clearly, that impacts on his
ability do his job and on the employer.
“But in some cases, the issues are more uncertain,
particularly when they relate to something that an
employee does on their own private platform.
“It is vital for employers to put in place a clear
social media policy but, in itself, this is not enough.
That policy has to be properly explained to
employees so that they are aware of its terms.
“Every business is different and has particular
needs and the policy needs to be written to meet
those needs.

Gareth Dando, Associate Solicitor at Ramsdens

“It should give examples of what is and is not
acceptable behaviour and set out the sanctions for
any breaches of it.”
According to the firm, legal issues that arise from
social media activities fall into five main areas:
• Soliciting customers by using social networks
such as LinkedIn.
• Who actually owns the information about
customers that may be held by employees on
their phones or tablets. A recent case shows
that courts may find that contacts in an
employee’s LinkedIn account belong to the
employer.
• Employers have the option of asking the court
to grant an injunction where former employees
attempt to try to misuse contact information
once they have left employment.
• Online bullying or discrimination.
• Damage to a business’s reputation caused by
something an employee posts on social media.
According to Gareth, clearly specified ground
rules will minimise the potential for problems.
He said “It is important for employers to deal with
issues reasonably. In unfair dismissal cases, for
example, the Tribunal will take into account factors
such as the employee’s previous disciplinary
record, whether the employee tried to remedy the
problem and apologised and what damage was
done to the business.

Sinead (Marketing Director) collecting silver award in October for ‘Best Use for Social Media’
having won gold the year before
“It is virtually impossible for an employer to try and
limit an employee’s use of social media outside of
the workplace, but where that use impacts on your
business you can exercise some limited control but
it is sensible to obtain some legal advice before
starting any disciplinary process.
“Employees’ may struggle to claim a right to a

private life under Human Rights Legislation if they
have posted something online. The Courts have
viewed this information as being in the public
domain.
“However if information is only available by
searching an employee’s online profile, this is
more likely to infringe the right to a private life.“

Winter 2013 CLOSEUP

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