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Employee Communications in the Social Media Age

September 28, 2007

Excerpted from Virginia Employment Law Letter and written by an attorney at the law firm of DiMuroGinsberg, P.C.

by Stephen J. Stine

Your employees' statements on behalf of your company matter — whether made by the CEO or a line employee — and can have significant ramifications on the company. In today's information-driven business arenas, what and how your employees communicate to the outside world require thoughtful examination.

Information about a company's services, financial health, and corporate structure is readily accessible to the public, which means your company's statements must take into account this level of accessibility and the impact those statements can have on public opinion. You also must consider the effect your employees' statements, whether official or not, will have on the public.

This article examines two modes of communication through which corporate information is released to the public: (1) traditional media and (2) blogging, the latest Internet phenomenon.

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Employee communications through traditional media channels
Even small to midsize companies, which often operate below the national media's radar, find it difficult to avoid media exposure entirely. Whether announcing the opening of a new office, a charity drive, or a product recall, you are well advised to remember a few salient guidelines for media coverage.

1. Permit only authorized statements. Official statements should be made by a trained spokesperson empowered to speak on behalf of the company and only if the situation warrants it. On the other hand, certain events may require less-formal interaction with the media. Either way, it's usually in your best interest to decide ahead of time who will make a media statement for the company, when and where it will be made, and what will be said, including how to handle potential questions.
   
2. Speak with one voice. If the press is interviewing various employees, ensure a unified message by providing your employees with what the company's official stance is. In other words, prepare your employees. For sensitive matters or when only senior management should be speaking for the company, provide your employees with the contact information for the internal communications person to whom all media inquiries must be directed. Also, specifically instruct the employees not to make comments of their own.
   
3. Don't speculate in an emergency situation. If your company is facing a crisis, everyone — the media, your own employees, and your investors — wants to know what to expect. Be honest about what you know and can discuss and what you don't know. Don't predict outcomes that are unknowable. Don't make promises that you can't guarantee. Stick to the facts you know, and highlight the company's attempts to solve the problem.
   
4. Show care and concern. Whether announcing good news or bad, don't forget your community, neighbors, investors, and employees. Often, a company's goodwill in the media and in the community is further developed or repaired by showing genuine concern and empathy for the lives of those the company affects.

While it's important to maintain good media relations, it's more important that the employer control its employees' disclosure of information to the media. With traditional media, the company has substantial control over the information made public — from how it's worded to how it's communicated. Press releases, published or aired interviews, and the like provide tangible proof of the company's message. Employers, however, are finding it much more difficult to control the latest Internet form of communication — blogging.

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Employee blogs
Online blogging by employees is exploding in today's workforce. According to recent studies, as much as five percent of the workforce blogs. It's likely many of your employees do, too, which can be good and bad news.

On the one hand, blogging has a unique potential for developing relationships with customers. It may provide creative outlets and sounding boards for thoughtful and driven employees.

In October 2005, Steve Crescenzo of The Ragan Report credited employee blogs with possessing "massive, almost unlimited potential to share knowledge, foster dialogue, market goods and services, and open two-way channels of communication."

In keeping with that optimistic outlook, Microsoft, Dell, Sun Microsystems, and other corporations encourage employees to blog as a way to bolster and personalize interaction with their customers. Blogs benefit companies by:

• providing efficient feedback mechanisms;
• providing potential customers with additional information on products or services;
• allowing more informal interactions between potential customers and your company's representatives;
• providing troubleshooting services for customers;
• allowing a virtual "think tank" for employees to present challenges to fellow coworkers for their assessment and comments; and
• encouraging innovative employees to share ideas or novel solutions.

On the other hand, employee blogs inevitably raise concerns because of the company's limited control over their content. The information about a company may not be positive if written by a disgruntled or former employee.

Imagine the damage of an employee blog frequented regularly by the public, in which employees air perceived injustices or poor business practices. Such communications would affect your credibility with your customers, and competitors may leverage the perceived "discord" to draw negative comparisons with your company.

Finally, it's not a stretch to imagine an employee who airs opinions on various issues that may be far removed from your company's position but may reflect poorly on the company. Or it might be a former or rogue employee who uses a blog for the unauthorized transfer of the company's proprietary information.

In evaluating current and former employee blogging, you should consider how and whether your company might monitor or even co-opt such websites. Monitoring — and even more so, controlling — content may reduce the risk of negative commentary, loss of confidential information, or openly stated employee disloyalty. Yet you may risk losing the spontaneity and "transparency" of blogging that employees and consumers enjoy.

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Blogging policies
Blog-related policies should balance regulating blog content and facilitating open dialogue. Employers might consider the following when developing a blog policy for their company:

• Assign personal responsibility. Blogging policies should emphasize the blogger's individual responsibility for its content. For example, IBM blogger policies inform users that "[b]logs, wikis and other forms of online discourse are individual interactions, not corporate communications. IBMers are personally responsible for their posts."
• Abide by existing rules. Blogging policies should be integrated with preexisting rules regarding employees' responsibilities. Refer to any policies contained in the employee handbook that apply.
• Require courteous and civil communications. Blogging policies should prohibit any obscene, defamatory, profane, libelous, threatening, harassing, abusive, hateful, or embarrassing material. Employers may adopt a blogging policy that permits posting of disagreements with your company as a way to facilitate debate over corporate strategies and decisions. If you do, the policy should prohibit libelous, slanderous, or personal attacks on coworkers or management, allowing only respectful discussion of the concerns regarding the company's actions or policies.
• Protect the company's secrets. Blogging policies must specifically prohibit discussion about or posting of the company's confidential and/or proprietary information (including nonapproved client lists) and non-public financial information.
• Blog with purpose. Blogging policies should emphasize the objectives of a sanctioned employee-run blog, such as solving problems, facilitating dialogue, opening new channels of commerce, or promoting knowledge.

Blogging is a recent phenomenon within the business world, and it remains to be seen what direction companies will take in attempting to regulate it. Blogging can be a valuable resource in meeting corporate objectives. But employers would be well advised to monitor its uses and set parameters for their employees.

The parameters should take into account all current corporate policies on publications and media relations as well as the prevailing libel laws in your state. When established correctly, blogging can facilitate the sharing of knowledge among your employees and foster an atmosphere of teamwork and innovative thinking.

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Copyright 2007 M. Lee Smith Publishers LLC. This article is an excerpt from VIRGINIA EMPLOYMENT LAW LETTER. VIRGINIA EMPLOYMENT LAW LETTER is a monthly publication provided as an educational service only to assist lay persons in recognizing potential problems in their labor and employment matters. It is not meant to be construed as legal advice. Readers in need of legal assistance should retain the services of competent counsel.