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Many companies are jumping on the social media bandwagon because they see the advantages it has. But social media is a two-edged sword – it can be used to enhance a company’s reputation, but it can also be used to damage a reputation as well.

One example of the second case occurred recently when an employee gave a play-by-play account of a big layoff at a company, tweeting her firing while it was happening – from the company’s Twitter account. It created a PR mess for the company.

This shows the new challenges human resources faces in the age of social media. It means that companies need to take a hard look at their HR policies and social media policies, taking into account that any kind of conflict in the workplace can end up in the public domain very quickly. And it’s more likely to happen when you have employees who are using social media a lot.

But the fact is that conflicts are unavoidable, and, from time to time, companies do need to terminate people. So, given these facts, it is important for companies to develop some social media safeguards.

One thing to do is consolidate all of your social media accounts so that as few as possible know the password for them. There are also social media management tools available that act as a gatekeeper for the accounts. These tools enable you to cut off an employee’s access to all of your social media accounts by cutting off his or her access to your system.

You also need to have policies about what kinds of online behavior will result in termination. These policies need to be clearly spelled out, and you need to make sure that all employees know what these policies say.

Another thing to keep in mind is that social media is constantly evolving, and so the legal and regulatory guidelines dealing with it are changing as well, so you need to keep up with these changes.

Also, when dealing with the termination of an employee who has a large social media footprint, you need to have a standard communications plan to handle any public relations fallout, in the event that the termination gets coverage on social media.  

If you are looking for top-notch professionals in New York City, Winston Resources can find just what you need. Contact us today.


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