Social networking has literally exploded over the past few years. Names such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and many others are becoming common household names. Many companies encourage their employees to use such sites to increase the employees’ networking community. Many companies are finding, however, that employees may say too much on social networking sites – like criticizing a supervisor, engaging in on-line bullying of a co-worker, disclosing a trade secret, etc.

Can you or should you discipline? Courts and regulatory agencies are just beginning to address these important issues. The National Labor Relations Board has agreed to consider whether an employer appropriately terminated an employee for criticizing her supervisor on Facebook. On the other hand, can you use such sites for your own purposes like checking out an applicant’s profile to see if there are any discrepancies in the resume the applicant submitted to your company? Attend this webinar to understand what are the legal issues that can come up if the social networking problem is not handled properly?   What the regulatory agencies are saying about it? How to write a policy addressing this problem?

Agenda:

• What is social networking and why is it an employment/labor law issue?
• How your use of social networking in the recruiting process can lead to a discrimination lawsuit.
• Why your employees’ use of social networking – both on and off duty is a human resource concern.
• How your handling of a social networking problem can lead to a discrimination claim.
• How your failure to handle a social networking problem can lead to other legal problems such as potential violations of HIPAA, an harassment claim, or even a violation of SEC regulations.
• What the NLRB is saying about employees’ social networking.
• Do employees have any privacy rights in what they say on social networking sites?
• State laws regulating employer use of employees’ social networking
• How to write a policy addressing social networking concerns.

WHO WILL BENEFIT?

• Human resource professionals.
• Supervisors.
• Human resource generalists.
• In-house counsel.