A SOLICITOR in Huddersfield has urged bosses to think carefully about whether or not to ban staff from using social networking sites at work.
Almost half of employers have banned their staff from accessing sites such as Facebook and Twitter during office hours, says a survey.
Gareth Dando, head of employment at Ramsdens Solicitors with offices in Huddersfield town centre, Edgerton, Elland, Holmfirth, Slaithwaite, Dewsbury, Mirfield, Elland and Halifax, said: “I can understand employers being concerned.
“You have the risk that employees will waste time on social media, or worse the employee says something that reflects badly on the employer.
“While some types of social media can be beneficial to a business, these risks make it imperative that each employer has a written social media employee policy in place.
“A complete ban will unnecessarily stifle potential commercial benefits, might be perceived as unreasonable by the employee and may mean the employer actually has less control of their online presence as employees become more secretive.”
A poll by software development firm HCL Technologies showed that 45% of employers are concerned that comments made on social media sites by employees could have an adverse effect on the reputation of their business.
But HCL chief executive Vineet Nayar said he was also against such a ban: “It is quite remarkable that in this day and age, many employers are still putting their employees’ interests as a low priority by not allowing them to use sites like Facebook.
“While we always advocate responsible use of social networks in the office, banning them outright will impact employees’ approach to work in a negative way, having a detrimental effect on the business as a whole.”
