Subject / Social Media Policy
To / Institute of British Sign Language
By / Spire HR Solutions Limited
Date / June 2017
Status / Internal use only
Version / 1.0 / June 2017
Purpose
To define the company’s policy on Social Media and the effect it has on the business. These guidelines have been set out to assist and protect employees as an individual as well as the Company. They will help employees to meet regulatory and legal requirements as well as operating good practice.
Breaches of these guidelines will be taken very seriously and may result in disciplinary action, including possible termination of employment.
Scope
This policy applies to all employees of the Company.
What is Social Media?
Broadly, social media refers to any form of media that encourages online social interaction between users and content creators. Current leading examples of social media include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr and YouTube, and tools such as wikis and blogs.
The Company recognises that these are part of everyday life and recognises the benefits of these media tools as new opportunities for communication. However, we are also aware that these sites can become a negative forum for complaining or gossiping and care must be taken not to breach our confidentiality policy or offend anyone when using these services.
Legal Framework
The Company is committed to ensuring that all employees provide confidential services that meet the highest standards. All employees working on behalf of the Company are bound by a legal duty of confidence and other laws to protect the confidential information they have access to during the course of their work. Disclosure of confidential information on social media is likely to be a breach of a number of laws and professional codes of conduct, including:
- The Human Rights Act 1998
- Common law duty of confidentiality
- Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, and
- The Data Protection Act 1998
Employees should also be aware that other laws relating to libel, defamation, harassment and copyright may apply to information posted on social media.
Principles
Employees must be conscious at all times of the need to keep their personal and professional lives separate. They should not put themselves in a position where there is a conflict between their work for the Company and their social interests.
Employees must not engage in any activities involving social media which might bring the Company into disrepute.
Any personal views represented on any social medium must not be represented as views of the Company.
Employees must not discuss personal information about employees of the company and other professionals you interact with as part of your job on social media. These include but are not limited to Customer, Agencies, Contractors, Suppliers and End Clients.
Employees must not use social media and the internet in any way to attack, insult, abuse or defame colleagues, their family members, or other professionals associated with the Company. The Company’s bullying and harassment policy will apply in these cases.
Personal use of Social Media
Employees can make reference to where they work in their personal profile on Social Media sites, however it must be expressly clear that any views of the employee are their own views and not those of the company.
Information that employees have access to as part of their employment, including personal information about colleagues or contractors must not be discussed on their personal webspace.
Work email addresses and other official contact details must not be used for setting up personal social media accounts or to communicate through such media.
Employees must not edit online encyclopaedias such as Wikipedia in a personal capacity at work. This is because the source of the correction will be recorded as the company’s IP address and the intervention will, therefore, appear as if it comes from the company itself.
Institute of British Sign Language’ corporate logos must not be used or published on personal webspace.
The Company permits limited personal use of social media while at work. Please refer to the Company IT Policy for further details.
Caution is advised when inviting work colleagues or work associates to be ‘friends’ in personal social networking sites. Social networking sites blur the line between work and personal lives and it may be too difficult to maintain professional relationships if too much personal information is known in the workplace.
Employees should ensure that their security settings on social media sites are at the highest possible level.
It is important that personal blogs and tweets have clear disclaimers that the views expressed by the author are theirs alone and do not represent the views of the company.
Using Social Media on behalf of the Company
The official company social media sites are maintained by Michelle Jones (Service Manager) with support from Ella Saetta.
Use of these sites must be for business purposes only and they must not expose the company to unwelcome publicity or cause reputational damage.
Before setting up a new social media group or site approval is required from the Chief Executive.
All social media sites/groups affiliated with the Company must be appropriately labelled and must present a consistent visual identity in order to reflect the subject or theme of the site/group and to help audiences understand the site/group’s relationship to the Company.
When you collect business contacts in the course of your employment using Company Social Media Profiles, this contact information is the property of Institute of British Sign Language, regardless of where the details are stored.
Those responsible for Social Media on behalf of the company must at all times act in the best interest of the company when participating in or contributing content to social media sites.
Employees will be required to give up access to the Company’s Social Media Profiles when there is a breach of this policy or upon termination of employment, or if required by a change in the terms of your employment.
The Company deems any contacts connected through LinkedIn or any other Social Media medium during employment with the Company as Customers or potential customers of the Company and therefore the property of the Company.
It is therefore expected that when the employee leaves employment with the Company that the log in details are handed to the Company so that the Contacts in question can be deleted.
Breach of Policy
Any breach of this policy may lead to disciplinary action being taken against the employee involved in line with the company’s disciplinary procedure.
A breach of this policy leading to breaches of confidentiality, or defamation, or damage to the reputation of the company or any illegal acts or any acts that render the company liable to third parties may result in disciplinary action or dismissal.
The Company reserves the right the change, amend or revise these guidelines and procedures from time to time.
The policy itself is subject to annual review.
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