Deloitte’s 2009 Ethics & Workplace Survey addressed the issue of social networking, and specifically the risk of employees making comments online that can damage the company’s reputation. The survey revealed that although employers face a great risk to their reputations, most of them are not doing anything about it. On the flip side, it seems that many employees realize that bashing their employer online could damage their company’s reputation but they don’t care.
Specific survey results show that nearly 60% of supervisors believe that the risk to the company’s reputation through social networking sites needs to be addressed at the most senior level. Yet, only 17% actually have plans in place to address the risk and 15% say they have no plans in place.
On the employee side, 45% of employees say they regularly visit social networking sites four or more times per week. These sites include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, Youtube, and more. About 74% of employees believe it is easy to damage a brand’s reputation via such sites, and 15% of them said if their company did something that displeased them, they would comment about it online.
27% of employees surveyed indicated that they don’t consider the ethical costs of posting videos, photos or comments on the internet and more than a third don’t consider what their colleagues, supervisors or customers would think about their online commentary.
49% of employees said a company policy would not influence their behaviors online, and 53% said “social networking pages are none of an employer’s business.”
So what should employers do to minimize this risk?
There’s no simple answer to this question because of a whole host of legal issues that can muddy the waters - employees’ right to privacy and freedom of speech, to name just a few. While 49% of employees surveyed said a company policy would not influence their behaviors online, at the very least, you need to have some kind of policy in place that protects the company’s confidential and proprietary information. Employees are not permitted to disclose information that is not available to the public and would do harm to the company, especially if they are subject to a signed confidentiality agreement, so at a minimum, a policy to reinforce the protection of that information is essential. Besides that, it comes down to open communication with your employees about the importance of your brand and the reputation of your organization with the community, clients and vendors. Employees with a sense of pride and purpose are less likely to want to do damage to their own employer’s reputation and put their own job at risk.
