The conciliation service has urged employers not to be ‘heavy-handed’ with staff who may have written something unprofessional on sites like Facebook as it can cause bad feeling among employees and negative publicity for the company.
Six out of 10 staff (55 per cent) now access social networks at work either via their computer or smartphone every day.
Acas has also warned employers about the risks of 'Googling' potential employees and using any personal information such as a person's political views of religion, gleaned from Twitter feeds or social network profiles, to influence recruitment decisions, as job candidates could accuse them of discrimination.
The guide has taken nine months to put together and has been written in response to what Acas is calling the growing problem of bosses not knowing how to manage the amount of time and content staff members are putting online via Facebook, Twitter and blogs.
John Taylor, Acas’s chief executive advised bosses to carefully asses the potential harm from an employee stepping out of line on social networks before deciding how to react.
“If an employer is too tough, they need to consider the potential impact of any negative publicity,” he said.
Bosses also need to must make it clear what online activity they scrutinize and why, according to the Acas guide.
“Heavy-handed monitoring can cause bad feeling and be time consuming. A manager wouldn't follow an employee down the pub to check on what he or she said to friends about their day at work. Just because they can do something like this online, doesn't mean they should,” Taylor added.
Interestingly Acas is encouraging employers to allow their staff to use social networks at work as "social media sites are increasingly a key part of business and marketing". This is despite a study from jobsite myjobgroup, which calculated that social media activity in the workplace costs the UK economy £14 billion a year in lost productivity last year.
Acas has advised bosses to draft their own social media policy in order to avoid staff confusion about what is and isn’t allowed online.
Taylor also cautioned employees about what information they publish online. “Online conduct should not differ from offline conduct. Employees should assume that everything they say on the internet could be made public, and should think whether they want their colleagues or boss to read it. They might not mean it, but what they post could end up being seen by billions of people worldwide.”
By Emma Barnett, taken from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/8734904/Employers-warned-about-snooping-on-staff-via-social-networks.html
Bosses also need to must make it clear what online activity they scrutinize and why, according to the Acas guide.
“Heavy-handed monitoring can cause bad feeling and be time consuming. A manager wouldn't follow an employee down the pub to check on what he or she said to friends about their day at work. Just because they can do something like this online, doesn't mean they should,” Taylor added.
Interestingly Acas is encouraging employers to allow their staff to use social networks at work as "social media sites are increasingly a key part of business and marketing". This is despite a study from jobsite myjobgroup, which calculated that social media activity in the workplace costs the UK economy £14 billion a year in lost productivity last year.
Acas has advised bosses to draft their own social media policy in order to avoid staff confusion about what is and isn’t allowed online.
Taylor also cautioned employees about what information they publish online. “Online conduct should not differ from offline conduct. Employees should assume that everything they say on the internet could be made public, and should think whether they want their colleagues or boss to read it. They might not mean it, but what they post could end up being seen by billions of people worldwide.”
By Emma Barnett, taken from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/8734904/Employers-warned-about-snooping-on-staff-via-social-networks.html
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