Should I monitor my employees?

Posted on November 4, 2008 by Tom

The firing of 13 employees of Virgin Atlantic because of facebook comments stir up the discussion if companies should start monitoring their employees.  There’s a big responsibility from the employees to be aware of the impact social media can have.  How widespread it may be, we’re still seeing the early stages of social media and knowledge of ethical behaviour is less widespread than we hoped it would be.

But as a company, where do you draw the line?  And what is acceptable online behaviour you can expect from your employees?

The first question is pretty easy from a manager’s point of view.  Everything that’s (undoubtely) negative about the company, its employees, customers or values.
The second question is a lot harder as there’s no real objective way of measuring or controlling it.  You have to act as a parent and teach your children how to behave online.  For a lot of companies there’s still a big learning curve which includes trial and error.  Employees and managers will make mistakes!  Thinking social media is just ‘another’ way of communicating and everybody knows how to do that is an illusion.  It’s a new form of communication with a new set of still to be written rules. 

So if you think monitoring is the solution, know that there’s no way you can monitor it all.  You have to hope the scare tactics work when you do find someone that crosses the line.  But will his punishment be fair enough?  Maybe it can have the opposite effect of what you’re trying to accomplish.  Maybe it’ll create a negative vibe in your company?

Try to follow trends.  Listen to early adopters.  Watch closely what your competitors do and don’t forget we’re still learning here.  There’s no adult, only kids on a huge playground and no-one to look after them.

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You may want to read:

• Social media: with great power comes great responsibility
• The (non)sense of corporate identities in social media
• 10 ways to convince your boss to go ’social media’