The number of companies that have taken disciplinary action against employees for conducting inappropriate behavior on social networking sites has doubled from 2012 to last year, according to a recent survey of more than 100 international companies conducted by Proskauer Rose.
The firm, which on April 29 released a new edition of its annual report called “Social Media in the Workplace Around the World 3.0,” said the misuse of social media among employees is skyrocketing up from previous surveys in 2011 and 2012 where approximately 31 and 35 percent (respectively) of some 250 multinational business respondents reported misuse to more than 70 percent in 2013, according to Proskauer data. The firm said the uptick in misuse is because social media platforms, such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and others, are currently used by nearly 90 percent of businesses.
“The more that people use social media for business, the more likely it is that there will be inappropriate conduct,” said Dan Ornstein, co-head of international labor and employment law group at Proskauer, in an LTN interview. Ornstein is based in London.
More than half (52 percent) of responding businesses said that social media use is an issue for their company, according to the Proskauer report, and more than three-quarters (81 percent) of companies say they expect the issue to increase in the future.
As a result, the number of businesses taking action to prevent an employee social media faux pas that could potentially cause a data breach has jumped about 20 percent since 2012, according to report data.
PREVENTING SOCIAL MEDIA GAFFES
Law firms, like corporations, suffer from social media gaffes and have taken measures to prevent them. Social media posts from attorneys at big firms have to go through a compliance process, to ensure that confidential client information is not mistakenly made public through an inappropriate post, Ornstein said.
However, Ornstein and industry professionals agree that more needs to be done to prevent social media misconduct in law firms and businesses to protect data.
“The most important thing that firms can do in order to mitigate risk is to initiate policies and procedures regarding this area and ensure that employees sign off on them,” said Eyal Iffergan, president and CEO of Hyperion Global Partners, to LTN. While 80 percent of firms have social media policies in place, according to Iffergan, many do not make their employees sign a document saying that they have read the rules and understand the potential pitfalls.
“This is a very important step,” said Iffergan. “It ensures the firm has a defensible position in the event a negative incident takes place.”
Firms should also offer employee training courses, which will help educate employees on the potential impacts that social media can have on careers and the firm in general, as well as tools to deal with a negative incident if one were to crop up, Iffergan said.
