Lora Bentley

Social networking is part of the new normal in business, according to Gartner. Understandably, not every company can go so far as, say, Zappos.com or Southwest Airlines in their enthusiasm. But it’s also not smart to ignore it. At some level, employee use of social networking tools should be addressed and a policy adopted.

In fact, just a couple of weeks ago, a friend noted that he had attended a seminar on social media in business and found it very helpful. One of the attorneys who presented that seminar is Mitzi Wyrick, from the Louisville offices of Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs. After looking at the slide deck my friend sent my way, I contacted Wyrick. Tuesday, I got the chance to speak with her.

Essentially, she said, employers have two choices when it comes to employee use of social networking tools on company time: They can ban it completely, or allow it and decide how they’re going to regulate it.

“In some ways I think it’s easier to treat social networking use the same way the company treats employee Internet use,” she told me. “If they’re allowed to use it, as long as they’re not using it excessively, social networking shouldn’t be any different.”

But there are certain things companies should be mindful of when creating their social networking policies. They want to protect their intellectual property, so employees shouldn’t be posting about things they’re working on, Wyrick said. Policies should also prohibit harrassment or discrimination against other employees, as well as posting “anything that would cast the company in a bad light.”

Once the policy is created, employers should communicate it to employees. Post it in the breakroom, include it in the employee handbook, distribute it separately in a memo or a letter. And have employees sign to acknowledge that they’ve received it and read it. That way, Wyrick said, you avoid situations later where an employee says he doesn’t understand why you’re disciplining him since he didn’t even know there was such a policy.

After the policy has been created and communicated, it must be consistently enforced. It does no good to have a policy if some violations have consequences and others do not. Not that someone has to devote all of his or her time to monitoring employee activity on different social networking sites. In fact, Wyrick said she wouldn’t recommend that. But once the company becomes aware of a post that violates company policies, it must be addressed in accordance with the policy. Then, the second (and third, fourth, etc.) time that kind of violation occurs, it must be addressed in the same way as the first.

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By David Holthaus
dholthaus@enquirer.com

Shoppers spent about $900 million Monday not by going to the mall but by pointing a computer mouse and clicking from the comfort of their desks. Undoubtedly, many of those sales on what retailers bill as Cyber Monday came from workplace computers on company time, raising the uncomfortable question: Was anyone actually working on Monday?

With online sales growing steadily each year, the Internet has become a regular venue for Christmas shopping for many. And the omnipresence of desktop computers has made it possible to shop without ever leaving the office.

Many are doing exactly that, found the Information Systems Audit and Control Association, an information technology trade group. Employees will spend on average, nearly two working days – 14.4 hours – shopping from a work computer this holiday season, its survey of more than 1,200 consumers found. Ten percent plan to spend at least 30 hours browsing the Web pages of retailers while at work.

That’s great news for online retailers such as Amazon, Macys.com and Bestbuy.com, but not so great for the companies those shoppers work for. A separate survey by the same group found that a quarter of information technology professionals estimate their company will lose $15,000 or more per employee in productivity during the holiday season.

Online shopping can also lead to viruses, spam and phishing attacks that can invade workplace computers.

“It’s unrealistic to think that companies can stop the use of work computers for online shopping,” said Robert Stroud, the trade group’s vice president.

That doesn’t mean they won’t try to keep a lid on all the cybershopping. But policies on personal use of the Internet at work generally vary by size of the employer, said Kelly Schoening, a lawyer with Crestview Hills-based law firm Dressman Benzinger Lavelle. “The smaller they are, the less likely they are to have a policy or the looser they are about it,” Schoening said.

Some large companies forbid any personal use of the Internet, and some have the technology and manpower to monitor employee Internet use, she said. “I have one client who monitors all usage,” she said. “I encourage employers to do it.”

But the policies of large employers vary. Procter & Gamble says it has no policy forbidding personal use of the Internet as long as it doesn’t interfere with productivity.

The region’s largest employer, University of Cincinnati, has a policy that states “university resources may only be used for official university business and not for personal gain or convenience.”

Most firms allow limited personal use on work computers during free time or before or after work, said Mary Spadaro, a manager with Employee Management Services, which handles human resources administration for other companies.

Some stretch that into company time, she said. “The reality is, employees are going to be on the Internet,” Spadaro said.

“Especially with small- to mid-sized companies, they don’t really monitor because they don’t have the resources,” she said.

One small company that does is Bottom Line Systems of Crescent Springs. The health care consulting firm uses Internet tracking software and can block Web sites, said Lynette Koenig, human resources manager. But it can only do that for about half of its 180 employees. The rest work offsite. “We’re pretty much on the honor system there,” she said.

Some employees may be counting on the cluelessness of their IT department. The trade group survey found that IT staffers estimated employees would spend only nine hours shopping on their work computers, 37 percent less than what the employees actually said they would spend.

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