Published on Wednesday, Feb 20, 2008
Like never before, more and more people take to chronicling their activities, opinions and interests in weblogs. Personal blogging is slowly, but surely changing.
Though most of the stuff written on blogs is potentially harmless, it may so happen that an employee’s take on corporate life rubs the company the wrong way. Going public through blogs also opens up a wide breach as one can get carried away and make unintentional disclosures or comment on sensitive issues that are offensive and/or detrimental to company reputation.
In fact, a slew of cases are making headlines every day wherein employees are fired, or worse, sued for their blogs that criticise the company culture or go astray of corporate policy. The actions may be justified (employee blogs do reflect on the company), but there is no stopping the fallout with the public crying foul and even escalating it into customer boycotts!
Therefore, employers can no longer afford to simply pull the plug on or discipline employees at their whim and fancy.
With more and more companies scrambling to write their own blog policies, it seems prudent to put a lid on the conflict and chaos by setting down certain rules and guidelines on acceptable blogging behaviour.
Management should take to specifically defining parameters that not only serve as a basis for controlling blog-based mistakes, embarrassments and other damaging behaviour, but also provide a solid defence for any actions they may take.
Though most of the stuff written on blogs is potentially harmless, it may so happen that an employee’s take on corporate life rubs the company the wrong way. Going public through blogs also opens up a wide breach as one can get carried away and make unintentional disclosures or comment on sensitive issues that are offensive and/or detrimental to company reputation.
In fact, a slew of cases are making headlines every day wherein employees are fired, or worse, sued for their blogs that criticise the company culture or go astray of corporate policy. The actions may be justified (employee blogs do reflect on the company), but there is no stopping the fallout with the public crying foul and even escalating it into customer boycotts!
Therefore, employers can no longer afford to simply pull the plug on or discipline employees at their whim and fancy.
With more and more companies scrambling to write their own blog policies, it seems prudent to put a lid on the conflict and chaos by setting down certain rules and guidelines on acceptable blogging behaviour.
Management should take to specifically defining parameters that not only serve as a basis for controlling blog-based mistakes, embarrassments and other damaging behaviour, but also provide a solid defence for any actions they may take.
Drawing the lines
Companies can and should outline certain restrictions on employees’ personal weblog conduct. This can include but is not limited to:
• Not to oppose company speak and brand image.
• Not to violate rights and privacy of fellow employees; bosses, customers or business associates with personal comments.
• No colourful language, insults, discriminatory comments, obscene attacks, personal defamation or inflammatory subjects.
• Not to leak proprietary, financial or other confidential information like revenues, share prices or roadmaps.
• Not to spill the beans on yet-to-be-launched products, technical data or business transactions that are still to be finalised. Like Sun Microsystems states, ‘...its perfectly OK to talk about your work and have a dialogue with the community, but its not OK to publish the recipe for one of our secret sauces.’
• Not to create cross-company conflict by needlessly criticising other organisations or their products.
Apart from these express dos and don’ts, a company blog policy should require employees to follow the law, respect others and abide by existing corporate policies. By reminding them that they will be held personally liable for their blog’s contents, it can call on employee bloggers to be professional and exercise good judgement with well-thought out comments. Like software giant IBM sets out, ‘Blogs, wikis and other forms of online discourse are individual interactions, not corporate communications. IBMers are personally responsible for their posts.’
Also, advise workers to be factual by steering clear of exaggerations, guesswork and contrived conclusions.
Then again, companies can necessitate employees to include a disclaimer on their blogs stating that the views and opinions expressed are theirs alone and do not represent the company. Also ask staff to check with their managers for appropriateness, when uncertain about disclosing any information or concepts (even if it is the employee’s own creation).
Finally, clearly set out the legal liabilities and the ramifications on violating the blog policy. You can taper the tone by reminding them that though the views they express in the blogosphere are their own, it does reflect on the company!
A well-rounded view
While it has become essential to define what the company is willing to accept and what blog writers cannot get away with, employers should remember that unnecessary monitoring constraints will limit effective communication, engagement and learning. In fact, such online dialogue is a positive marketing tool that, if cultivated properly, can not only raise company visibility but also make a statement about corporate tolerance and freedom of expression. This valuable component helps the company become transparent and boosts morale. Therefore, instead of discouraging employees from blogging, management should only set out some limits that encourage safe and healthy behaviour when authoring a blog.
Incorporating some flexibility will establish the company as an enlightened place to work that trusts its employees and is willing to adjust accordingly. As authors, Shel Israel & Robert Scoble advice in their book, Naked Conversations - How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers, “Define the taboos in your company membrane. Then step back and let them say what they want. Yes, from time-to-time, some will be critical of company products or policies - and they’ll do it right out there in the open where your customers, competitors and the media can see it. And all of those people will see the openness and tolerance of your company culture!”
Hence, when it comes to blogging, spreading best practices across the organisation alone encourages positive communication and idea sharing.
Companies can and should outline certain restrictions on employees’ personal weblog conduct. This can include but is not limited to:
• Not to oppose company speak and brand image.
• Not to violate rights and privacy of fellow employees; bosses, customers or business associates with personal comments.
• No colourful language, insults, discriminatory comments, obscene attacks, personal defamation or inflammatory subjects.
• Not to leak proprietary, financial or other confidential information like revenues, share prices or roadmaps.
• Not to spill the beans on yet-to-be-launched products, technical data or business transactions that are still to be finalised. Like Sun Microsystems states, ‘...its perfectly OK to talk about your work and have a dialogue with the community, but its not OK to publish the recipe for one of our secret sauces.’
• Not to create cross-company conflict by needlessly criticising other organisations or their products.
Apart from these express dos and don’ts, a company blog policy should require employees to follow the law, respect others and abide by existing corporate policies. By reminding them that they will be held personally liable for their blog’s contents, it can call on employee bloggers to be professional and exercise good judgement with well-thought out comments. Like software giant IBM sets out, ‘Blogs, wikis and other forms of online discourse are individual interactions, not corporate communications. IBMers are personally responsible for their posts.’
Also, advise workers to be factual by steering clear of exaggerations, guesswork and contrived conclusions.
Then again, companies can necessitate employees to include a disclaimer on their blogs stating that the views and opinions expressed are theirs alone and do not represent the company. Also ask staff to check with their managers for appropriateness, when uncertain about disclosing any information or concepts (even if it is the employee’s own creation).
Finally, clearly set out the legal liabilities and the ramifications on violating the blog policy. You can taper the tone by reminding them that though the views they express in the blogosphere are their own, it does reflect on the company!
A well-rounded view
While it has become essential to define what the company is willing to accept and what blog writers cannot get away with, employers should remember that unnecessary monitoring constraints will limit effective communication, engagement and learning. In fact, such online dialogue is a positive marketing tool that, if cultivated properly, can not only raise company visibility but also make a statement about corporate tolerance and freedom of expression. This valuable component helps the company become transparent and boosts morale. Therefore, instead of discouraging employees from blogging, management should only set out some limits that encourage safe and healthy behaviour when authoring a blog.
Incorporating some flexibility will establish the company as an enlightened place to work that trusts its employees and is willing to adjust accordingly. As authors, Shel Israel & Robert Scoble advice in their book, Naked Conversations - How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers, “Define the taboos in your company membrane. Then step back and let them say what they want. Yes, from time-to-time, some will be critical of company products or policies - and they’ll do it right out there in the open where your customers, competitors and the media can see it. And all of those people will see the openness and tolerance of your company culture!”
Hence, when it comes to blogging, spreading best practices across the organisation alone encourages positive communication and idea sharing.
PAYAL CHANANIA
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