At the start of this year we conducted a survey looking at the impact of social media in the workplace, employers' concerns and how they are dealing with the ever more blurred area of social media. We are delighted to announce that the research was revealed in an Irish Times article towards the end of the month, which you can read below. If you have any concerns regarding your company's social media policy and guidelines, feel free to get in touch.

Almost all Irish companies now use social media to promote their business, but just 19 per cent of them monitor usage despite concerns about it being used inappropriately by employees, a new study shows.
The survey reveals that 83 per cent of businesses have embraced platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, although only a third has restrictions in place.
According to The HR Department study of 420 small and medium-sized companies, 80 per cent of firms allow some or all of their staff to access social media sites for non-business purposes, even though 59 per cent aren’t sure of the benefits of doing so.
Some 57 per cent of firms surveyed said they worried about the impact of social media on productivity levels, while 41 per cent expressed concern about possible damage to their reputation.
Almost a quarter of companies who responded to the survey said they were afraid of confidential information being exposed on social media.
While businesses are concerned about employee use of Facebook, Twitter and other services, 73 per cent of Irish companies do not provide training on social media use and policy. In addition, a quarter of all businesses surveyed did not know what their social media policy covered.
Less than half felt their companies had enough experience to deal with HR issues relating to social media use, the study finds.
It also shows that 15 per cent of employers have had to take disciplinary action against an employee in relation to misuse of social media.
 
Copyright of The Irish Times Ltd.

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As more and more businesses become social, having a social media policy in place is just as important as a contract of employment or any other binding document. A solid social media policy can help employers manage their reputation, maintain and even boost productivity and avoid costly legal battles. They provide clarity to employees of what is deemed acceptable and what is not, providing recourse when unfavourable situations arise.
If you’re reading this post, then you get just how important it is and are looking for ways to improve your own social media policy.

A few weeks ago I blogged about the negative impact social media can have on employee productivity. To deal with the issue, I suggested introducing a social media policy. A lot of people have been in touch asking just what a social media policy should cover.

While every business is different and will have varying requirements, depending on their size, culture and so forth. There are some core elements every policy should include. HireRabbit and Hubspot have done a great job at compiling some of the best corporate social media policies, which you can read below. Have a look through them and pick the parts that seem most appropriate for your company.

Adapted from Hire Rabbit. You can read the full article here.

#1. Adidas:
First let’s take a look at how Adidas does things. As you may know, Adidas is one of the market giants in the sports apparel manufacturing industry. Adidas is a world-famous brand with offices and employees situated all around the globe. How exactly do they manage their employees’ social media ventures? Adidas takes a very encouraging but strict approach when it comes to their Social Media Guidelines. Here are some highlights from Adidas’ Social Media Policy:

1. Employees are allowed to associate themselves with the company when posting but they must clearly brand their online posts as personal and purely their own. The company should not be held liable for any repercussions the employees’ content may generate.
2. Content pertaining to sensitive company information (particularly those found within Adidas internal networks) should not be shared to the outside online community. Divulging information like the company’s design plans, internal operations and legal matters are prohibited.
3. Proper copyright and reference laws should be observed by employees when posting online.

#2. Best Buy:
For the second example, let’s take a look at the biggest multinational consumer electronics corporation in America: Best Buy. With a customer service system that relies heavily on the use of social media, Best Buy’s Social Media Policy is clear-cut and precise. Let’s browse through some key points:

1. Like Adidas, Best Buy also mandates its employees to freely disclose their affiliation with the company granted that disclaimers are set freeing the company from any intellectual investment in the post.
2. Dishonourable content such as racial, ethnic, sexual, religious, and physical disability slurs are not tolerated.
3. Employees are not allowed to disclose information that are financial, operational and legal in nature, as well as any information that pertains to clients and customers.

#3. Hewlett Packard (HP):HP is one of the biggest information technology corporations in the world. The company has an interesting take on blogging policies by enabling its employees to post content online via a blog embedded in their company website. These are some important points from the HP’s Blogging Code of Conduct:

1. HP promotes healthy and honest discourse with its readers.
2. The company reserves the right to edit or amend any misleading or inaccurate content depicted in blog posts. The company also reserves the right to delete blog posts violating the code of conduct.
3. HP values, respects, and upholds the intellectual property rights of its bloggers.

#4. GAP
Let’s now shake it up a little and move into the fashion industry. As one of the most recognizable fashion brands in the world, GAP also recognizes the need to moderate the use of social media amongst their employees within the work place. At a company conference last year, GAP handed out brochures to its employees depicting proper guidelines and decorum that had to be satisfied when partaking in social media. It was an interesting approach, as the brochure’s content was very conversational, but very straight-forward as well. Here are some excerpts:

1. “Some subjects can invite a flame war. Be careful discussing things where emotions run high (e.g. politics and religion) and show respect for others’ opinions.”
2. “Your job comes first. Unless you are an authorized Social Media Manager, don’t let social media affect your job performance.”
3. “If you #!%#@# up? Correct it immediately and be clear about what you’ve done to fix it. Contact the social media team if it’s a real doozy.”
4. “Don’t even think about it…. Talking about financial information, sales trends, strategies, forecasts, legal issues, future promotional activities. Giving out personal information about customers or employees. Posting confidential or non-public information. Responding to an offensive or negative post by a customer. There’s no winner in that game.”

Adapted from Hubspot. You can read the full article here.

#5. OracleOracle’s approach to social media is a little on the stricter side. Here are some of the highlights of Oracle's social media policy.

• Oracle appears to be of the ilk that using social media in the workplace is a hinderance to productivity because it could lead to too much personal use. Understandable? Yes. Too strict? Debatable. While it can be good to blur the line between personal and professional in social media, that balancing act isn't always appropriate in regulated industries.
• Employees must establish that all opinions are their own and not Oracle’s, but at the same time, distinguish that they are indeed employees of Oracle. Contradictory? No. Blog posts can increase brand exposure, but employees must be careful with what they say and how they say it, not divulging new features, products, and confidential information is key.

Read Oracle’s complete social media policy here.
#6. Ford

• Use your common sense.
• Beware of privacy issues.
• Play nice, and be honest.

Read their complete social media policy here.
As long as your employees understand what common sense is and how to use it, this policy is A-okay.#7. IBM

• Clear cut guidelines regarding what cannot be shared and how the company communicates.
• However, IBM also encourages “IBMers” to express themselves, let their voice shine, and demonstrate their skills and creativity on social media.
• Employees are encouraged to inspire discourse and share ideas via blogging and social media.

Read their full social media policy here.

In my next post I’ll be addressing the growing issue of cyber-bullying at work. Please take 3 minutes to complete our EXTREMELY short survey.

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David Bell is Managing Director of The HR Department, outsourced human resources specialists for Irish SMEs.
 
 
 
 

St. Patrick’s Day, our beloved national holiday, is upon us once again. For some employers it’s a chance to have a little fun and engage with staff. For others it’s an excuse to throw on the garish green cords their wife bought last Christmas. For most it’s a lottery, wondering which employee will be the first to ring-in sick the next day.
Here are some of my top tips on how to embrace the day, what to avoid and measures you can take to limit absenteeism the day after.
The Fun

• Go Green

Encourage everyone in the office to wear something green to work. It’ll also make for a cool team pic.

• Host a Traditional Lunch

And no I don’t mean handing out cans of Guinness to everyone. Why not give your staff a taste of some traditional Irish dishes such:

• Irish stew or Guinness Beef Stew – both are good
• Coddle – a type of sausage and bacon stew from Dublin
• Vegetable soup with a thick slice of brown bread and a knob of real butter
• Boxty – a bread made using potatoes and flour
• Colcannon – mashed spuds with kale and a heap of butter

• Spotifyrish

Compile a playlist of some of the best Irish music. They great thing about Ireland is that we’ve a huge selection to choose from, from The Corrs to U2.

• Freshen Things Up

Why not dress the communal areas in your office with fresh flowers and plants. Tulips come in a wide range of colours – ideal for getting an Irish theme going. Plants have been shown to boost staff morale and productivity too.

• Slainte

Why not make it a staff get-together? Most employees will be joining friends later that evening anyway. Arrange a St. Patrick’s Day tipple at the local so you can toast our snake banishing hero as a team.
 
The Bad

• Curb the Patriotism

Unless you work in Temple Bar, there’s no reason to have the Wolfetones and the Dubliners on full blast. It may be the 1916 Centenary but let’s not get overly patriotic.

• Costumes Are Not Cool

Wearing something green to work can be a bit of fun but you need to toe the line somewhere. Staff dressing up in complete costumes may come across as unprofessional or inappropriate.

• Everything in Moderation

Celebrating St. Patrick’s Day with staff after work is fine but remember, you have a duty of care to them while they’re out with you. When drink is involved any number of things can go wrong, from harassment to assault to personal injury. In short, enjoy the evening but make sure it’s in moderation and have a finishing time for the staff outing.
The Tardy
A survey carried out in 2014 revealed that almost a third of employers in Ireland expected some of their staff to call in sick on 18th March, and almost all Irish employers feared productivity would be down that day thanks to ‘Irish-flu’. I imagine that those figures have changed little in the past two years.
Here are some tips to reduce deter staff from bunking off work:

• Plan the week ahead. Setting strict deadlines for tasks to be completed.
• Remind those working on the 18th that you’ll need them on top form that day as you need to meet the deadlines set.
• Incentivise them by attaching rewards to the completion of certain goals. If they’re working towards something other than ticking another box, then there’s a better chance they’ll not let the St. Patrick’s Day revelry affect them.
• Be flexible – If it is feasible, offer the option of flexi-time to your staff, where they can start and finish an hour later.
• Where a heavier stance needs to be made, refer back to your company’s staff handbook and issue a notice to employees outlining what is deemed acceptable behaviour and what is no, along with information on sick leave entitlements for uncertified illness. The idea of not getting paid might be the motivation they need to drag themselves out of bed on Thursday morning.

 
Wishing you a very happy St. Patrick’s Day!!
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David Bell is Managing Director of The HR Department, outsourced human resources specialists for Irish SMEs.
 
 

​Social media and smart technology pervade almost every element of our lives today. We check our phones for updates almost reflexively and we share some of the most intimate moments of our lives through a host of applications.
​
It’s not just our personal lives that have been effected by the rise of Facebook, Twitter and their ilk. At a highly positive level, social media continues to permeate into the business world as marketing teams endeavour to engage with their consumers, and industry experts – dare I tar myself with that brush – share their knowledge with the public.

While it might not grab the same headlines as the big, glamourous success stories, social media has a profoundly negative impact on productivity, not just for Irish businesses but right across the globe. At home, a survey by CPL in 2015 found that one in seven employees spends more than an hour a day on social media unrelated to work.
In real money terms, that means you’re paying those employees over €3,500 to play online, based on the median Irish salary of €28,500. Time wasting is a big concern for business owners. Research we conducted earlier this year revealed more than half (57%) of Irish SMEs worry about the cost it has on their business.

Taking Action
Unfortunately, there’s no easy fix to the problem. In the past bosses tried blocking certain websites on work devices. Sure, if you state in your social media policy that using a work device for personal purposes (during working hours) will be treated as misconduct, then you can enforce it, as was the case in Romania in 2015. Equally, from this case, the European Court ruled that employers can snoop – within reason – on their employees’ private correspondence.
However, the explosion of smart phones and tablets makes such practices next to impossible to monitor and enforce. All an employee, who doesn’t want you peaking over their digital shoulder, need do is bring their own personal device to work and stay of the company Wifi.
As employers, we must accept that like the proverbial watercooler, personal social media and online activity are just part and parcel of having staff. However, there are steps you can take to limit the amount of time wasted by staff.

1.Introduce a Social Media Policy
It might sound obvious, but research we conducted earlier this year found that less than a third (27%) of Irish SMEs have a social media policy. While it won’t eradicate the issue, it will at least provide a guideline for employees on what is considered acceptable by the company, what is not and the measures that will be taken where the policy is breached.
Your social media policy should go beyond just issues of inappropriate non-business use, including but not limited to:

• Content ownership
• Harassment
• Comments regarding the company, employer or employees
• Misuse of confidential information
• Data protection

Furthermore, such a document is crucial should you ever have to take disciplinery action against an employee. In fact, it could be argued that it was its social media policy that resulted in a favourable judgement for Scottish Canals in the UK from the Employment Appeals Tribunal last year, when they fired an employee for posting offensive comments on Facebook.

2.Challenge Staff
One of the biggest reasons given by employees for messing on social media during work is ‘boredom’ and ‘not feeling challenged’. Remedy this problem by making sure you’re giving staff enough work to keep them busy, that the work is worthwhile and they buy-in to the importance of the contribution they’re making.

3.Focus on Goals, Not Time
Shift the focus from being in the office from 9-5, to completing tasks within a specific time frame. As I mentioned, stopping employees from checking their personal accounts is virtually impossible. A goal oriented approach ensures they know what needs to be done and when it needs to be done by. Additionally, it will encourage employees to tick each task off the list if they know there’s some well-earned down time to be had at the end.
 
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David Bell is Managing Director of The HR Department, outsourced human resources specialists for Irish SMEs.

​Dysfunctional teams are the bane of many businesses. They dampen staff morale, drain company resources and kill productivity. It’s no wonder team building gets such a large slice of the HR budget.
It’s likely that even the greatest businesses, with the best will in the world, have at some stage or another run into trouble with a dysfunctional team. The most important thing is to address the issues head-on as early as possible. Believe it or not, to do this you don’t need to spend thousands on staff getaways and cheesy workshops.
Below are three very simple steps every business owner and team leader can action today to take their team from messed-up to magnificent.

1.Provide Clarity
Some of the most common reasons for a team not functioning well include things like a lack of direction, mistrust and a lack of involvement. These, in general, are all problems that can be overcome by providing greater clarity. That’s clarity in your vision and goals. Clarity in how those goals will be achieved. Clarity in the role each individual will play.
 
2.Accountability
Few things cause dissent in a team like someone not pulling their weight. Once each member of the team knows the part they play, they must take ownership of that element, and be held accountable for its success.
 
In the same way staff should be praised for their hard work, those that are slacking should also be called out and held accountable. Of course, such matters should be handled discretely, in an honest and frank manner, providing constructive criticism.
 
Performance reviews are an extremely useful in providing an opportunity to understand how the team is functioning and discuss the positives and negatives of an employee’s contribution at a one-to-one level.
 
3.Promote Collaboration
A productive team is one that works together to realise the ultimate goal, not a group of individuals in competition with each other to hit their personal targets. For team harmony and efficiency, leaders must shift the focus to team goals, where individuals, departments and even different regional offices, work towards an overarching goal that has been clearly defined.
 
Shared incentives can be particularly effective as they encourage team work and greater accountability. Just be sure everyone is committed to the task at the outset.
 
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David Bell is Managing Director of The HR Department, outsourced human resources specialists for Irish SMEs.