Staff networking woes
I am concerned about how much time some of my staff are spending on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
I have blocked access to the sites during working hours. Is there anything else I should be doing in order to protect my business?
With the proliferation of social networking, it is worth considering having a specially-drafted social media policy in place or publishing some provisions in your company handbook and on your intranet to ensure your staff have clear guidelines on what they can and cannot do.
It is not simply about the man-hours they may be wasting.
You also have to consider what damage they may be doing to your business's reputation. Clearly publicly bad-mouthing the boss or colleagues is unacceptable, but equally damaging could be online postings about company innovations, artwork and pending product launches.
Businesses simply cannot leave it to staff to blindly work out how they use social media without guidance, because any loss of control has the potential to create a viral minefield for damaging gossip, reputation issues and confidential intellectual property disclosures.
For more information on this or for adivce on reputation management and protecting your intellectual property, please contact: