First Reference Talks

Social media make it easy to create controversy, but smart practices can limit the risk

Monday, August 16th, 2010

Technology usually helps us function by making daily tasks easier, safer, more efficient, and so on. But sometimes a technology comes along that doesn’t simply improve the way we do something, it actually creates a new type of behaviour. I think this is the case with online social networking, which allows individuals to broadcast to mass audiences in a way that wasn’t available in the past. The question remains, however, as to whether this activity makes life any easier! Some have certainly found it just causes them trouble.

Tags: Canadian Football League, CFL, communications, discrimination, marketing, policy, racism, social media, social networking, social networking policy, technology, twitter
Posted in Human Resources, Internal Controls | Make a Comment »

Angry bloggers beware! – Your anonymity is not guaranteed

Monday, August 9th, 2010

Is your boss or co-worker getting on your nerves? Are you irritated with your neighbour? Do you feel like venting out by writing some nasty stuff about them on Twitter or on a blog? If you do it anonymously, no harm done, right?

Tags: anonymity, anonymous bloggers, anonymous comments, bloggers, Blogging, blogs, comments, cyber-libel, cyber-trail, cyberlibel, defamation, defamatory, defamatory comments, defamatory statements, disclosure, facebook, internet defamation, Internet protocol addresses, libellous, online defamation, reputation, social media, social networking, twitter, York University v. Ball Canada Enterprises et al
Posted in Human Resources, IT, Privacy and Security, Internal Controls, Privacy and Security | 2 Comments »

Facebook faces privacy questions… again

Thursday, July 8th, 2010

Over the past couple of years, Facebook has had run-ins with the Canadian Privacy Commissioner. And Canada’s not alone; privacy watchdogs in the United States and around the world have been critical of Facebook’s willingness to sacrifice users’ personal data in the name of social media…

Tags: facebook, privacy, privacy and risk management, privacy by design, Privacy Commissioner, privacy rights, social media, social networking, twitter
Posted in IT, Privacy and Security, Internal Controls | Make a Comment »

The new age of workplace gossip – TMI!

Monday, April 26th, 2010

I’ve discussed workplace gossip here before, and what bosses can do to prevent it or at least reduce the potential harm, but there are a couple of hyper-modern developments that I didn’t get into: reality television and the Internet. These two things have created a culture of “sharing”, for lack of a better word, that encourages people at play or work to divulge the most mundane and private details of their lives to others—the kind of information that one previously might only have shared with family or best friends.

Tags: employee relations, Employer liability, gossip, oversharing, personal information, privacy, social media
Posted in Human Resources, Human Rights, Privacy and Security | Make a Comment »

Employer liability and social media

Friday, April 9th, 2010

Recent case law and new technologies have raised the prospect of employer liability for the statements of employees on sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Tags: canadian employment law, employee handbook, Employer liability, policies and procedures, policy manual, social media, social media activities at work
Posted in Human Resources, Privacy and Security | 2 Comments »

Addiction to Farmville can get you fired

Wednesday, March 31st, 2010

I never understood the fascination to this Facebook application… a game called Farmville. Certain members of my family play it and some of my co-workers indulge in it. Most of the Facebook status updates or newsfeeds I see over my network involve someone looking for something or finding something in Farmville, and would like to share it with me. For example, “Christina was farming when she found a Wandering Stallion! Christina wants her friends to help the Wandering Stallion by giving him shelter for the night“.

Tags: discipline, duty to accommodate, facebook, facebook applications, farmville, policy and procedures, social media, social media activities at work, termination
Posted in Human Resources, Human Rights | Make a Comment »

Social responsibility, social media – can’t I just run my business how I used to? (Part 2)

Tuesday, December 1st, 2009

Of course, you can certainly still run your business as you always have, and wait to see if corporate social responsibility and social media turn out to be passing trends. What’s more, maybe you don’t want to be on the cutting edge of marketing strategy—or don’t need to be. It is absolutely up to you.

Tags: buzzwords, CSR, environment, facebook, governance, interns, marketing, productivity, social media, social networking, social responsibility, social web, strategy, students, twitter
Posted in Human Resources, IT, Privacy and Security, Internal Controls, Privacy and Security | Make a Comment »

Social responsibility, social media – can’t I just run my business how I used to? (Part 1)

Friday, November 27th, 2009

Do companies really need to implement and integrate social responsibility and social media strategies in order to succeed in today’s business world? These ideas didn’t even exist until relatively recently, and most businesses appeared to run smoothly before. But in the last couple of years, rarely a day has gone by without some mention in the news of companies taking on the role of social or environmental steward or engaging their customers and creating communities on the Internet. With all the talk, it seems businesses that don’t incorporate these strategies will look like obsolete outcasts, soon to disappear from the market.

Tags: buzzwords, competitiveness, CSR, environment, innovation, marketing, productivity, social media, social responsibility, social web
Posted in Human Resources, IT, Privacy and Security, Internal Controls, Privacy and Security | Make a Comment »

Social media = time management? (Part 3)

Tuesday, November 10th, 2009

Connected employees are ambassadors for their employers. Some employers might find this frightening, but it is also inevitable. Some companies will worry about the message that their employees are spreading across their social networks and the Internet, and complain about their inability to control it; but others would pay good money for employees who are so engaged that they will work at all hours and act as corporate social media ambassadors at all times.

Tags: employment standards, facebook, Generation Y, IT controls, productivity, social media, social networking, web 2.0
Posted in Human Resources, IT, Privacy and Security, Internal Controls, Privacy and Security | 1 Comment »

Social media = time management? (Part 2)

Wednesday, November 4th, 2009

Social media are new, and their value is not entirely clear, especially to businesses that are doing just fine as they are, thank you very much. Heck, it’s even possible that blogs, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other Web 2.0 and social networking services will turn out to be passing fads, in which case, maybe companies that ignore them will have the last laugh on the matter. I don’t know about that, but I will say this: the generation that grew up on the Internet and began to enter the labour market over the last decade is unlikely to want to shift to a way of doing things that doesn’t involve the Internet and its associated applications and gadgets. And their children—well, who can say how connected they’ll be. It would take an extremely authoritarian approach to return to the workplace of our parents, and likely an approach that looks backward rather than ahead. But enough of prediction, let’s talk about some interesting stuff!

Tags: employment standards, facebook, Generation Y, hours of work, LinkedIn, productivity, social media, social networking, twitter, web 2.0
Posted in Human Resources, IT, Privacy and Security, Internal Controls, Privacy and Security | Make a Comment »

Textual harassment: A new liability concern?

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009

With this whole text-messaging explosion, a new epidemic called “textual harassment” has emerged. I recently read a couple of articles dealing with this new liability concern for employers: textual-sexual harassment. Of course this warning comes from the United States—according to a recent US Justice Department report to Congress, 23 percent of stalking or harassment is happening via text messages. The problem has become so large in the US that 46 states have anti-stalking laws that refer to electronic forms of communication. However… since US lawsuits that involve texting and harassing behaviours are increasing, Canadian employers should beware!

Tags: bullying, canadian employment law, common law, cyberbullying, cyberstalking, discrimination, employment law, employment standard, employment standards, harassment, HR issues, Human Resources, human rights, occupational health and safety, sexual harassment, social media, text messages, texting, textual harassment
Posted in Health and Safety, Human Resources, Human Rights | 2 Comments »

Social media = time management? (Part 1)

Wednesday, October 28th, 2009

To a casual observer, it might appear that time management has fallen to the wayside at many workplaces today: employees work well beyond their scheduled hours, including while on lunch breaks, during leisure time and social events and even on vacation. But with proper scheduling, time management should prevent work from expanding beyond regular work hours—as was the case before the Internet age. Instead, in the “knowledge economy”, where the smart phone rules, scheduled work hours have become nearly meaningless.

Tags: cellphone use, facebook, hours of work, IT controls, productivity, social media, social networking, social web, time management, twitter, web 2.0
Posted in Human Resources, IT, Privacy and Security, Internal Controls, Privacy and Security | Make a Comment »

Is social media recruiting a discrimination land mine?

Monday, October 19th, 2009

Here’s a question about an issue that is becoming increasingly relevant:

By using social networking sites—such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn—to search for and recruit employees, are employers discriminating against groups that are less likely to use those services?

Tags: canadian employment law, discrimination, employment, facebook, hiring, human rights, LinkedIn, recruiting, social, social media, social networking, twitter
Posted in Human Resources, Human Rights, Recruiting and Hiring | 3 Comments »

Social media in the workplace: Oh what to do!? (part 2)

Monday, October 5th, 2009

Some companies have applied traditional methods to the problem of social media at work: the soft approach attempts to monitor and regulate via policies; and the hard approach simply slams the door on employee access and use with a heavy hand. Neither of these works particularly well. The former will almost certainly lead to employee confusion and efforts—either intentional or not—to circumvent the policy, and the latter will likely result in discontented employees finding other ways to work around the blockade. In addition, both are difficult, if not impossible, to enforce fully; and attempts to bypass or evade controls could even lead to damage of physical or virtual IT resources.

Tags: communications, content filtering, employee conduct, facebook, IM, instant messaging, policy, social media, social networking, twitter, web 2.0
Posted in Human Resources, IT, Privacy and Security, Internal Controls, Privacy and Security | 3 Comments »