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Category: General

When your employees go too far on social media…

Published by Mike Kujawski on March 29, 2014

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I recently did some work for a client that involved looking into recent Canadian legal cases dealing with employees that have been either fired or reprimanded for their conduct on social media platforms.  I ended up using some of these cases as examples in an internal training program I developed for employees on “responsible digital engagement”. I thought I’d share a few of them with you today.

All five of these cases reinforce my firm belief that every employee of a modern organization should take the following five tips to heart:

  1. Read your existing policies related to values and ethics (especially if you don’t have any official social media engagement guidelines/policies in place).
  2. Be aware that employers can legally monitor your online behaviour on public channels 24/7. If it’s not your employer doing so, then some stranger likely is.
  3. Work under the assumption that all of your posts are public, even so-called “private” ones.
  4. If you wouldn’t be comfortable saying something in a packed room of people, don’t say it online.
  5. Use caution and good judgement. If you’re even slightly unsure as to whether or not something is kosher to post about, ask your HR rep or supervisor.
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The shift to BYOD

Published by Mike Kujawski on September 24, 2013

BYOD

BYOD: Bring your own device (BYOD) refers to the policy of permitting employees to bring personally owned mobile devices (laptops, tablets, and smart phones) to their workplace, and use those devices to access privileged company information and applications – Wikipedia, 2013

Recent statistics indicate that:

  • “38% of companies expect to stop providing devices to staff by 2016” – Gartner, 2013
  • “75% of employees in high growth markets such as Brazil and Russia and 44% in developed markets are already using their own devices at work” – Logicalis, 2013
  • “44% of job seekers view an organization more positively if it supports their device” – Information Week, 2013

It’s been happening for years however around 2012 there came a turning point. Essentially, people realized how much more they could do on their personal devices than on their work devices. In most cases this was no fault of technology, but rather a result of the strict IT blocks, rules and restrictions that were put in place to protect data and to block porn (among other things).

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