Social Media at Work

With the advent of social media, employers are looking for a better control. The field of human resources management is being tasked to play a bigger role as far as policy formulation is concerned. Effective policies will be able to govern the use of social media in an effective and  productive manner. If social media is not properly controlled some activities might come back to haunt employers. As shown in the recent past a raid in a suspected militants in West Bank by Israel soldiers  had to be cancelled because a soldier posted details of the raid on facebook. ( click here for article)
An incident like this shows why an effective social media policy is no longer an option for companies to have but a must. Employees might  inadvertently post company secrets or confidential information to these social media website.
The good news is that most employers have put some kind of social media policy in place. A survey conducted by The American Management Association and the ePolicy Institute  on their approach to digital media, shows that more than 60 percent of the companies had some social media policy in place. Like e-mail, employees’ social media creates a trail that could be used in litigation. (Click here for article)
In short the field of human resources management must be at the fore front in guiding companies on how to formulate effective policies that govern the use of social media in a productive manner that does not stifle genuine communications between family, friends and business partners but also ones that protect the company secrets, proprietary information and does not trample on privacy rights of individuals.