In this HRwisdom Blog post, we bring you the second half of our article on employment law and social media.

Employment Law and Social MediaThe post comes courtesy of Tim Capelin, a Partner based in the Sydney office of law firm Piper Alderman.

Tim has acted for leading organisations in most industry sectors including food and beverage, retail, health & hospitality, pharmaceutical, logistics, resources, construction, government, finance and insurance. He frequently presents on workplace law topics, is a regular contributor to industry and legal publications and is sought by the media for comment on workplace law issues.

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Over to Tim for the second half of his HRwisdom Blog update on employment law and social media . . .

When drafting a social media policy, the content should be organisation specific to a certain degree, but should address the following topics:

  • A definition of social media.
  • Your organisation’s view of and approach to social media.
  • Who is authorised to use social media as a representative of the organisation.
  • If authorised to represent the organisation within social media, what guidelines should be followed.
  • Whether non-authorised people are allowed to identify themselves as someone connected with the organisation when using social media in their private lives.
  • Whether access to social media will be allowed during work hours and if so, what limits should be followed.
  • How the organisation will monitor usage and what it will do with information gained from such monitoring.
  • The need to protect the organisation’s confidential information.
  • Whether employees have a positive obligation to inform the organisation if they become aware, even in their private use of social media, of comments made about the organisation.
  • Potential ramifications of breaching policy.
  • Who the policy applies to, namely does it only apply to employees or does it apply to all workplace participants.

Further to Tim’s excellent advice, HRwisdom always recommends that employers be proactive and plan ahead.

Such an approach is just smart business, particularly when it comes to the new world of social media.

[box type=”alert”]Have you attended one of our free daily online workplace law Employer Briefings yet? To attend, click here: Free Employment Law Briefing [/box]

To get in touch with Tim Capelin, you can find his contact details here: employment law advice Sydney.

HRwisdom