People tend to share more of themselves on Facebook than they should. It’s not uncommon for employees to post things like, “My job stinks….I need to find a new position quick!” or “My company makes billions of dollars a year and they can’t even pay their employees a livable wage!”. These are actually fairly tame examples of what employees often post on Facebook about their company which illustrates why human resource managers should have a Facebook policy prohibiting any mention of the company on employee profiles.
Oftentimes, employees post things on Facebook with the best of intentions. For example, an individual may post information about a promotion or sale on Facebook with the hope of helping the company gain greater exposure throughout Thailand. What these individuals often don’t realize is that the company has likely invested lots of money and time to launch a promotion according to a very specific plan and their post on Facebook may have ruined any chance of the promotion being successful. Furthermore, the employee may provide incorrect information that puts the company in a very difficult situation.
One reason companies often have Social Media Marketing Managers is so everything that is posted online follows a scripted strategy reviewed by the company. Everything from what pictures are posted to when comments are submitted are very calculated as the company wants to maintain control over their image. What companies fear is being associated with all the comments and people that an employee may be connected to through their Facebook account. For instance, an employee posts a positive comment about a product within their timeline right after making inappropriate comments about women. Soon afterwards, the company is dealing with bad publicity as a result of the employee’s bad judgement.
There is a proper time and place for company marketing activities and employee Facebook profiles are not the right place. It is estimated based on university studies that less than ten percent of companies in Thailand have a written employee Facebook policy. Unfortunately, the same studies estimate that over seventy percent of Thai professionals make references to their place of employment on their Facebook page. This means there are millions of employees in Bangkok that are potentially exposing their companies to all of their “dirty laundry”.
Here are some examples of employees using really bad judgement:
In looking at a sample of just a few posts, its clear that sometimes managers make the mistake of responding to an employee’s online comments. This only makes a bad situation even worse. So here are a few policies that Bangkok companies should consider implementing in the workplace:
- Develop and implement a Facebook Compliance Policy. This will help protect the company against embarrassing posts, the disclosure of proprietary information, internal office cyberbullying, discrimination and harassment.
- Consistent and clear communication and enforcement of the policy so all Thai professionals have a complete and full understanding of the policy.
- Policy should establish who is allowed to use Facebook while in the office and for what purpose.
- Insure the company’s Facebook page requires the company to approve of all comments left by visitors before they are publicly visible.
- Make Facebook compliance part of employee orientation so that everyone knows the policies from day one.
- Monitor employee Facebook pages to insure individuals are following company guidelines.
- Prohibit any unauthorized posting of photos that include the office, employees, individuals wearing company uniforms, products, etc.
- Make sure employees refrain from any discussion of any work activities, customers, fellow employees, products or services.
Finally, communicate to employees that the Facebook policy is meant to protect both the company and the employees. Since any authorized discussion of company matters could result in immediate termination and possible litigation, the consistent reinforcement of the policy is part of standard safety work procedures.
