What do football players and your employees have in common?
Football is my favorite sport, and I always get excited for the start of football at all levels. As the pro-football pre-season draws to a close and the regular season is about to begin, there are number of notable players who are holdouts. Many of these players are under contract but felt that they ‘out-performed’ their existing contract. In discussing the hold-outs, sport analysts described many of these star athletes as ‘great players once they get on the field’. These ‘star’ athletes could best be described as head cases in the locker room and off the field, but tremendous on the field. The problem is that you get the whole player, not just the one on Sunday.
The challenge sports teams have with these ‘head case’ athletes is one that employers are seeing more and more with social media. Our work lives and personal lives have long been merging together, but until now, the merging has largely been felt by the employee, not the employer. People check blackberries or take conference calls by the pool while on vacation. Laptops and GoToMyPc means that work doesn’t end when one leaves the office.
With social media, employers are feeling the impact of this merging of work and personal lives. What employees post on their facebook page, or tweet can represent the company. Companies have grown up with a rigid command and control process over external communications. Social networking is destroying that control.
The first reaction is to ban all social conversations by employees and try to apply the same command and control to the new media, but thankfully more companies are taking a more sensible approach. Companies are recognizing that social networking isn’t going away, and a well educated employee team is better than a scared employee team.
Pharmaceutical giant Roche acknowledged this opportunity in their recently published social media policy as reported in MedAdNews. Rather than a bullet list of ‘actions that can get your fired’, Roche approached it as a conversation with employees. The conversation advised employees on the potential risks and suggested people understand the implications of their conversations online. Some quotes:
“Mind the global audience. Even if you are posting on a “local” platform, the information may be accessed globally. This is particularly important in our regulated business. While your message may be accurate in some parts of the world, it could be inaccurate or violate regulations in others.”
Lastly, they acknowledged to employees the merging I speak of when they stated “Be conscious about mixing your personal and business lives. There is no separation for others between your personal and your business profiles within social media.”
Social networking provides a great opportunity for employees to add depth and credibility to conversations about your brand. These conversations can also tell the world what kind of people work for your brand.
How does your company deal with this merging? Let me know!
