Wednesday, 23 January 2013
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Sunday, 23 December 2012
Social media and the workplace: you need a policy
By Alana Jones, Senior
Partner with Jones Cassidy Jones Solicitors
Social media can be a
powerful tool for many businesses, enabling them to engage directly with their
customers and other stakeholders in an immediate, personal and targeted way.
This is to be welcomed and encouraged. But employers also need to be conscious
of the risks that social media can present.
For one, the personal use of
social media during working time impacts on productivity. Other more serious
risks include reputational damage, breach of confidentiality, breach of
security, defamatory comments, unlawful discrimination and the risk of cyber
bullying and harassment.
Indeed, an employee’s use of
social media may have serious legal repercussions for your business, and the
implementation of a social media policy is therefore a necessary risk management
tool.
But what should a social
media policy include?
Firstly, the policy should
address whether or not the use of social media is banned in the workplace. If
it is not banned, the policy should set out what access to social media is
allowed and when access is permitted. If access is to be restricted, the
precise restrictions must be stated. The policy should explain the employer’s
monitoring of the use of social media sites. Wholesale monitoring will not be
appropriate and should be in accordance with data protection principles.
There should also be clear
guidelines for interaction with social media at all times, since usage in
private time can also cause damage to a business. It is important for the policy to address the
non-disclosure of confidential information and to underline the necessity of
ensuring that the use of social media does not bring the employer into
disrepute.
The policy should also
instruct employees not to make any derogatory, false or discriminatory comments
about the business and its clients and employees. Employers can be held
vicariously liable for the actions of employees. It is incumbent upon an
employer to take reasonable steps to protect its workers against discrimination
and harassment from colleagues, even if this occurs outside the workplace and
outside working hours.
Perhaps the strongest message
needing conveyed by a social media policy is that employees should be mindful
that anything posted online via social media is likely to be available for
public consumption; there should be no expectation of privacy. If it would not
be appropriate to publish your comments in a newspaper, don’t post them online.
It is important the
employer’s social media policy warns that contravention of the policy may lead
to disciplinary action and potential dismissal. The case of Preece -v- JD
Wetherspoons involved the dismissal of a pub manager who made derogatory
comments on Facebook about two customers. The employer’s disciplinary policy
cited ‘bringing the company’s name into disrepute’ as an example of gross
misconduct, and the internet and email policy stated that disciplinary action
could be taken if blogging damaged the company’s reputation. Ms Preece
contended that her comments could only be viewed by 40-50 friends, but a
tribunal dismissed her claim of unfair dismissal, concluding that the
employer’s response was justified due to reputational damage.
In contrast, in Whitham - v -
Ventura, the tribunal upheld Ms Whitham’s unfair dismissal claim. She had
posted comments on Facebook criticising working conditions and colleagues. The
employer dismissed the employee as it was concerned about potential damage to
its relationship with its main client, but it had not sought the views of the
client, nor considered alternatives to dismissal, such as demotion. When
considering dismissal, the employer should consider carefully the specific
circumstances and the proportionality of the penalty.
The effective implementation
of the social media policy is key. This is likely to entail distribution and
display of the policy and the provision of training to ensure that it has been
explained and is understood. An employer who disciplines an employee for acting
in breach of a social media policy which has not been communicated effectively
is on shaky ground.
Finally, once you have your
social media policy in place, it is also essential to regularly review your
policy to check that it reflects the changes taking place in the fast-changing
social media world.
Jones Cassidy Jones is a
niche employment law firm based on Belfast’s Ormeau Road.
www.jcjsolicitors.co.uk
NI housing market explained
A fascinating and comprehensive insight into Northern Ireland's housing market in this presentation by our client Richard Ramsey (@ramseconomics on Twitter). Did you know that Northern Ireland is building fewer homes per capita than at any time since 1949? Or that the value of NI residential property transactions has fallen from £7billion per annum in 2007 to £1.26bn today? These are just a couple of the many nuggets in there.
Wednesday, 19 December 2012
13 NI journalists you might want to follow on Twitter in 2013
If you want a good spread of
NI news, views, business and politics, you could do worse than follow this lot.
There are, of course, lots of other good journalist tweeters. Let me know who you think should be on the list.
Tuesday, 18 December 2012
10 ways for small firms to enhance their PR and social media presence in 2013
Just some of the accessible
ways your small business can enhance its profile in 2013.
- Social media is becoming more and more a ‘visual’ experience; embrace it. Users expect it. Pinterest and Instagram are amongst the fastest growing social media platforms, and Facebook has become ‘the image appreciation society’. Look at how Barrack Obama uses infographics to deliver his message and ask how you can use imagery to do the same.
- Facebook has put in place new measures to limit how many of your page’s followers see your posts organically. You need to find ways around this. You can pay for key posts to be seen by all your followers. Even better – use creative images and ask your followers to share them.
- Use your smartphone to take some nice images for your blog. Make them quirky and build up a stock of them to use, and reuse. It will help set your blog apart from competitors’.
- If you have slide presentations, use Slideshare to share them. You can grab code from Slideshare and embed your presentations into your blog to help illustrate your blog posts.
- If you are a B2B business, make sure you have a LinkedIn page. More and more people are using LinkedIn, and new profile and page designs are helping. Business journalists are also increasingly moving to LinkedIn to research stories.
- Google Plus may not have become the Facebook-killer many thought it might be, and indeed many are walking away, but don’t forget that your Google search results will be influenced by your Google Plus activity. A strong presence on Google Plus can really boost your search results.
- Make sure your web presence works well on mobile – not just in terms of design, but also content. You need to be punchy and succinct in the mobile world. Brevity is essential.
- Doing something interesting? Record a short clip of yourself talking about it on your smartphone or tablet and email it with your press release to your local radio stations (or upload to Audioboo and email a link). Local radio stations are increasingly stretched and welcome good audio content provided to them. But make sure the recording is informative and isn’t ‘pluggy’.
- Are you launching a new product that needs demonstrating? Why not record a short, professional product demonstration video and upload to YouTube to provide to relevant blogs and news websites to use. Also send it to relevant journalists with your press release who might be convinced to write/report about the product by seeing it in action.
- Want to provide media with a series of photos? Why not use flickr rather than emailing lots of large files. Sign up and create a ‘set’ of your images and email a link with your press release inviting journalists to download them. (Check your licensing settings.)
Tuesday, 11 December 2012
Will we start 2013 with a bit more confidence?
By David McNellis, Director,
Lisney
It was hard to know which way
to turn last Wednesday as the UK Chancellor presented his Autumn Statement and
the Irish Government announced its Budget for 2013 on the same day.
South of the border it was a
new property tax that led the news agenda. This will see home owners taxed
0.18% of the value of a home, up to 1m euros. This was part of a fresh package
of spending cuts and tax rises worth billions.
In the UK, a further squeeze
on benefits was one of the main items in the Autumn Statement. This is expected
to hit Northern Ireland hardest because of the relatively larger proportion of
the population here claiming benefits.
On the positive side, there
was additional money for infrastructure which will lead to an additional
£130million for Northern Ireland in capital spending.
But, perhaps the most
significant aspect of the Autumn Statement was the revelation that austerity in
the UK will be extended to 2018 as the UK deficit now won’t be eradicated by
the Chancellor’s intended target date.
In the context of further
austerity measures in Ireland and the UK, it is clear that the Northern Ireland
economy faces significant challenges as economies that it relies heavily on for
trade face spending cuts. For this reason, 2013 promises to be another
challenging year for Northern Ireland, and the property sector. But will it be
as bad as 2012?
When we look at the
statistics available, it is clear that the problems in the Eurozone, the
indebtedness of many people in the local property sector, the unavailability of
finance, a lack of business confidence, and trends in the retail sector,
including a high level of administrations, have had a significant impact this
year.
The challenges of the retail
sector have been well covered. The percentage of vacant shops in Northern
Ireland is at 19% - that’s one in four shops lying empty. This was confirmed
recently by figures from the British Retail Consortium. This has increased
substantially on 2011, further widening the gap with the UK average of 11.4%.
Unprecedented levels of
retail administration and resulting store closures have had a major effect. The
high level of business rates in prime locations remains a major issue for
retailers. Demand remains thin, and even the discount retailers who were very
active will be taking fewer new stores as they are now well represented here.
The occupational office
market remains challenging and is not being helped by a weak short term outlook
in the UK and broader European economies. In many cases expansion or relocation
plans have been put on hold until the picture becomes clearer, but any active
demand that has arisen has tended to focus on the better quality stock and in
the stronger locations. Take-up of space remains very low, despite rents
remaining very competitive at around £12 per sq m. Take-up of office space in
Dublin is about six times that of Belfast.
The industrial sector also
remains in a very challenging place. There is little demand, with about 16% of
space in key industrial locations vacant. There is also a lack of supply due to
the lack of available finance and unattractive market, leading to little
development taking place. In the case of some prominent industrial buildings
that have been sold, the price achieved has been lower than the combined cost
of buying the land and building the unit. This scenario makes development
unviable.
When it comes to investment,
the continued illiquidity, lower occupational demand and investor caution has
led to drops in both rental and capital values throughout most types of
commercial property. This had led to much inactivity in the market place.
The next couple of weeks will
be important in determining what the future holds for the Northern Ireland
economy, with an announcement expected following the Prime Minister’s
deliberations about Northern Ireland’s plea for powers to set its own
corporation tax rate. The hope is that the decision will be positive for
Northern Ireland and that we can begin the new year planning with a bit more
confidence about the years ahead.
Monday, 3 December 2012
Important Christmas shopping season well under way
By Richard Ramsey, Chief Economist, Northern Ireland, Ulster Bank
The festive season is fast
approaching with many of us bracing ourselves to hit the high street, both real
and virtual. Indeed, for some, that day or days may thankfully already be
behind us. After all, last week was ‘Cyber Monday’, which is traditionally one
of the busiest online shopping days of the year. The term ‘Cyber Monday,
originated in the United States and follows the annual Thanksgiving holiday and
of course ‘Black Friday’. The latter
fires the starting pistol for the Christmas shopping season and represents the
point at which retailers begin to make a profit, or start recording black ink
as opposed to red. Similarly, for Northern Ireland retailers, the Christmas
season will be ‘make or break’ for many businesses.
‘Black Friday’ and ‘Cyber
Monday’ are American traditions that have crossed the Atlantic to Europe and
the UK. Indeed, you may have already noticed that online retailers have been
filling up your email inbox with promotions and discounts. Online shopping has
grown in popularity in Northern Ireland and this trend is set to continue. You only have to go to Belfast’s Tomb Street
Post Office on a Saturday to witness the queues for parcel collections. Last
month it is estimated that Northern Ireland consumers spent £50 million on
online sales, an 11% increase on the November 2011 figure. Most of this £50
million will be going into tills beyond these shores.
Notwithstanding the
opportunities that ecommerce offers local retailers to grow their markets
outside Northern Ireland, the internet is a major and growing threat for local
retailers. When it comes to cost and convenience the internet wins hands down.
The computer screen provides the ultimate shop window for the frugal consumer
with no car parking or public transport fares required.
Arguably a bigger concern for
consumer sensitive sectors, however, is the deteriorating state of Northern
Ireland’s household finances. Christmas is an expensive time of the year at the
best of times. However, the cumulative impact of unemployment, inflation and pay
cuts / freezes is taking its toll on households. For example, last week a
survey revealed that 63% of Northern Ireland families struggle to meet their
childcare costs either throughout the year or at some point during it.
As a child, I can remember
receiving a £10 gift voucher from my aunt and uncle each Christmas. Initially I
was amazed at how many toys and sports goods this voucher could buy. As the years went by, and the £10 vouchers
kept coming, it became increasingly apparent that the £10 bought fewer and
fewer goods. In effect, my annual one-off income was static but the cost of
toys and sports goods continued to rise. Clearly an inflation-linked gift
voucher would have been the solution to this problem.
In a similar vein, this is
what has happened to households since the downturn. For many households their
gift vouchers (annual earnings) have been frozen for 4 years while the cost of
goods and services has risen. Meanwhile others have seen the value of their
gift vouchers reduced and the costs of goods rise. Finally, some individuals
have seen their gift vouchers increase in value but not as much as the price
increases in goods and services. Only the lucky few have seen annual earnings
outpace inflation.
Last month’s Annual Survey of
Hours & Earnings (ASHE) for 2012 alongside the official UK inflation
figures put some numbers on these earlier scenarios. Since the UK recession
officially began in Q2 2008, pay cuts and wage freezes have been commonplace
within the private sector in Northern Ireland. Meanwhile UK consumer prices
have increased by over 14% cumulatively between April 2008 and April 2012 (and
even more since). This compares with a
cumulative rise in median earnings (for all employees part-time &
full-time) of less than 3%. This represents a cut in real terms of 11%.
The overall figures conceal
significant differences between the private and public sectors. Indeed, the
median private sector wage in April 2012 was almost 3% lower than the
corresponding level in 2008 before inflation is taken into account. After inflation, Northern Ireland’s private
sector posted a real terms cut of almost 17%.
One contributory factor behind this fall is the shift from full-time to
part-time employment.
Full-time employees (all
sectors) have fared rather better over the four years to April 2012. Indeed,
the median public sector full-time employee wage managed to outpace inflation
with a cumulative rise of over 17%. This made for a real terms increase of just
over 3%. Meanwhile, the private sector median posted a real terms cut of over
10% in the four years to April 2012.
The squeeze on household
incomes from unemployment, inflation and tax rises has poured red ink over the
finances of many households in Northern Ireland. In turn, this explains why one in five retail
units are now vacant. With inflationary pressures expected to persist and
further tax rises in the pipeline, it will be some time yet before households
experience their own ‘Black Friday’.
That is, when their disposable incomes start to rise at a faster rate
than their costs.
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