Human resources and social networking

It is one of the ironies of our age – as privacy laws are tightening, people are posting more and more information about themselves and their lifestyles on social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook. So it is probably not surprising that employment law solicitors are hearing of an increasing number of cases that involve these popular websites.

It can be very tempting for an employer to check up on potential new employees when looking to fill a position in the company, if only to see if the new recruits would fit into the office dynamic.  However, an applicant who is then turned down because of their online profile could have a valid claim for discrimination. This is because of the nature of information that could be included in the profile, including the sex and sexual orientation of the applicant. These two factors are normally not revealed during the early stages of the recruitment process to avoid the possibility of such discrimination.

In addition, the age of the applicant could be considered particularly as it is a fact that the average users of social networking sites are members of the younger generation. Similarly, not all candidates will have social networking profiles. The employer therefore would be treating the applicants unequally. As people upload differing levels of information to their profiles, so any use of social networking sites in the selection procedure would be haphazard and almost certainly unfair.

What about your employees?

As an employer you are perfectly entitled to monitor what sites an employee visits on company computers both in and out of work hours and it is common to completely prohibit the use of certain sites, such as the social networking sites. However, reading personal e-mails and logging exactly what an employee is doing on the internet is almost certainly going too far and would be too costly in terms of man hours to properly police.

Finally, it is important for an employer to know what level of control they have over their employees commenting about the company on the internet.

Such commenting could include;

• Making libelous comments about the company on an internet message board.
• Mentioning confidential information, such as Client names or project titles, that the employer did not want made public.

Trying to monitor the internet for such comments would be practically impossible and certainly undesirable, but if such content comes to an employer’s attention it must be dealt with accordingly.

However, don’t forget that employees will usually be entitled to have a legitimate moan about their job.

Overall, the best solution for an employer would be to draw up a clear and transparent internet policy for their workplace, outlining exactly what is and is not allowed and explaining the level of monitoring that will be carried out.

If you have any questions about flexible working call Richard Nelson Employment Law Solicitors on 084 4804 4800 for specialist, professional and prompt advice. You can also visit the our specialist Employment Law website http://www.employmentlawhelp.co.uk