This week’s debate was quite an interesting one as it deal with the use of social media by employers in monitoring of employees.  My point of view is that every employee needs to know the policy of the organization they work for. If an organization’s policy requires them to monitor employees outside of regular work hours, then it would be acceptable for such employers to view public social media account of their employees. Take military personnel for example, they are required to abide by certain codes of conduct regardless of if they are on duty or not. If a superior officer comes across a social media post where a subordinate is in violation of military policy, that superior officer is required to act on such information.

The important thing is for employers to ensure that all employees read and understand the company policy. All employees should also be required to sign a document stating that they have read the policy and will abide by it.  That way, an employee is not taken by surprise if their employer acts on information gotten from social media for example. What would be wrong is an employer using social media as a human resource tool without first notifying and obtaining consent from employees.

Monitoring of employees while using company owned equipment is another dimension on its own. This is because most organizations consider any data accessed or stored on company equipment to be company policy. More often than not employees are notified of monitoring activities on company resources such as emails and internet connection. Most of the organizations I have worked for have some statement regarding monitoring in their acceptable use policy which I have been required to sign in every instance.