Should your company monitor your social media and/or internal posts?
What we found about organizations’ policies around employees’ social media and internal posts.
Is your social media presence the same as your professional one? Should companies assume yes? And what about employee message boards ... should political dialogue be allowed?
As more organizations turn to employees to evangelize their company news – using social media – the lines between personal and professional forum posting become increasingly blurred. (Especially on LinkedIn, as it looks increasingly like a long-form Instagram feed on most days...)
We wanted to understand how companies – especially ahead of a contentious U.S. presidential election – were approaching policies on employee social media use, as well as employees’ posts on internal message boards (e.g., Slack). So we surveyed communications leaders about their organizations’ internal policies, and here’s what we found:
Overarching findings:
Overwhelmingly, organizations don’t have policies around political posts – either internally or externally. Instead, most companies rely on “use good judgment” and/or point to the organization’s Code of Conduct. And, interestingly, most communications leaders are OK with this approach.
Where policies do exist, they are increasingly about employees’ social presence vs. internal posts.
Let’s dig in …
Most companies (68%) have policies around their employees’ social media use. And for the most part, they tie back to companies’ Code of Conduct policies and focus on standard social media platforms (LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok). Several respondents with policies relied heavily on employees making “sure you clarify that opinions are your own.” And very few were overtly prescriptive around what could/couldn’t be posted on employees’ social accounts.
Among organizations that don’t have policies for employee social media use, there’s a sense that that should change. One respondent referred to their lack of defined social media policy “wild, it is 2024!” as being “long overdue.” The lack of clarity means that in instances when problematic employee posts are flagged internally, leaders don’t have clarity on what they can/should do. “As a communications leader, I think not having a social media policy definitely opens us up to big issues,” one respondent wrote.
Most companies struggle to monitor and enforce social media policies. Even with a large percentage of organizations having policies in place, few respondents believed they had the right auditing mechanisms in place. Turns out most organizations don’t want to assign company resources to monitoring whether colleagues are posting problematic things internally or externally.
Only 36% of organizations have a policy around what can be posted on internal company channels. Given how much organizations rely on internal message boards (like Slack or Teams), we wanted to understand if there were parameters around what employees could post – and in an election year, if there were any guidelines about political posts. Turns out, almost two-thirds of respondents have no policies around internal forum posts. And among those that do have guidelines, most don’t have any rules around posting political content. Instead, they rely on a more ‘common sense’ approach. “Our election year guidelines include expectations around political discussions at work, including forums,” one respondent said. “Keep conversations respectful; do not disrupt ability to get work done; if a co-worker indicates not interested in discussing, respect and drop.”
And despite there being a mix of policies and how they are communicated, most leaders generally feel good about their approach to internal policies. Respondents reported that most issues around internal company posts are best handled directly between the employee and their manager, relying on company guidelines as needed. One response, though, noted these general guidelines do create a lot of gray area, referring to constant monitoring and the tension of protecting free speech versus people’s feelings.
Recommendations:
So what is the best approach to giving (or not giving) social media and employee internal post guidelines? Here’s what we’ve found:
Codify a policy for internal and external posts. Look - we all want to believe that employees are thoughtful actors around what they share on Slack and LinkedIn, but that isn’t always the case. Having a clear policy around what’s acceptable – and, more importantly, what isn’t – will save a lot of headaches when an issue comes up around whether a post is problematic or not.
Consider having a very simple - ‘views are my own’ - requirement for social posts. This was the most common approach to organizations’ policies around social media posts, and was viewed the most favorably by respondents. It gives employees the space to have their own lives – outside of the work-o-sphere – but doesn’t risk the company’s reputation if posts are problematic.
Your policy should reflect your company culture. If your organization has been explicitly nonpartisan, your policies around internal and external posts should reflect that. If your organization has been clear about its stance on social issues (e.g., LGBTQ rights), your policy should make clear that posts that violate this stance will be in violation of internal rules.
If you have policies in place, get clear on how you audit and what you do next. Is there a place employees can submit problematic social or internal posts for review? Are you asking employees to take down posts? Are you pulling in HR and legal? Understand what the approach is – before issues arise.
Communicate what your policies are. Sounds obvious, we know, but interestingly many respondents noted that they weren’t even sure where to find their social or internal post policies. Consider using onboarding and once-a-year reminders to resurface these policies around pivotal moments (e.g., a month out from the election) so that no employee is surprised when they learn they’ve violated the policy.
