Social Media Policy Survey

The Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics and the Health Care Compliance Association recently conducted a survey of their respective members to determine how many had a policy to address employees’ use of social networking websites outside of work. About 50 percent of those responding do not have a policy for employees’ online activity outside of work, while only 10 percent have a policy specifically addressing social networks, and 34 percent have a general policy for online activity that also addresses social networks, the survey found. Another 6 percent of respondents did not know whether their company or organization had a policy.

The interesting thing about the survey is that one-fourth of the survey participants had already disciplined an employee for improper activities on Facebook, Twitter, or similar sites. About 32 percent of the responders said they had a “passive” monitoring system, under which action is taken only when the company is “apprised of an issue.” The legal term for that policy is “closing the barn door after the horse has left.” Seems like a better idea to have a policy before a problem arises. If only to avoid this.