HRM Report: Resolving Issues in BeautyCo's Social Media Policy

This report provides an executive summary of a social media policy for BeautyCo, a company in the cosmetic industry. It addresses critical issues such as employee privacy rights, prevention of bullying and harassment, and maintaining the company's reputation. The report offers solutions to these problems, including enforcing privacy for employee access details, setting clear guidelines for social media usage, and formulating frameworks for addressing cyberbullying. Recommendations are provided to ensure the successful implementation of the social media policy, such as prudent research on employee privacy laws, careful proofreading of online content, and the use of gender-neutral communication. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of social media policies in addressing electronic communications and safeguarding employee rights and the company's reputation.

Running head: Human Resource Management
Human Resource Management

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Executive Summary
The social media policy is a code of conduct for the corporates which provides the guidelines to
the employees who post the content on the internet as a part of their job or as an individual. The
objectives of the social media policy are to the set a framework for the proper behavior of the
employees. It makes sure that the posts of the employees does not expose to the company to
public harassment and legal problems. Therefore, this report suggests the resolution of the issues
confronted by BeautyCo pertaining to right of the employees to privacy, preventing bullying and
harassment at the workplace and maintaining the reputation of the company. As an HR
professional, I believe that the resolution of these issues would certainly help in the successful
implementation of the social media policy for the company.

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Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Problems confronted by BeautyCO.............................................................................................................3
Right of the employees to privacy on the workplace..............................................................................3
Solution to the problem..........................................................................................................................3
Maintaining the reputation of the company...........................................................................................4
Solution to the problem..........................................................................................................................4
Prevention of bullying and harassment at the workplace.......................................................................4
Solution to the problem..........................................................................................................................5
Recommendations on how it will help in the successful implementation of the social media policy in the
company......................................................................................................................................................5
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................6
Referencing.................................................................................................................................................7

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Introduction
The social media policy of the company is the best way to ensure that the employees
know how to act on the various channels of social media. It can also safeguard the company from
legal or security issues. A social media policy is an important component of the HR policies of
the company. It provides the guidelines regarding how the company and its employees should
execute their tactics online (Ball, 2010).
They help to safeguard the reputation of the company and motivate the employees to
share the messages of the company in a responsible manner. So, the purpose of the report is to
highlight and resolve the issues confronted by BeautyCo, a company operating in the cosmetic
industry pertaining to the right of the employees to privacy, maintaining the reputation of the
company and prevention of bullying and harassment at the workplace. As an HR professional, I
would recommend the resolutions for the issues so that the social media policy can be effectively
implemented in the company.
Problems confronted by BeautyCO.
Right of the employees to privacy on the workplace
The privacy rights of the employees comprise of the personal information and activities
of the employees at work. Employees have a number of responsibilities on the workplace. One of
them is to obey the lawful and reasonable directions. The reports of the Workplace Relations
Tribunal of Australia i.e. Fair Work Commission show that the use of social media in bullying
behaviors has created challenges for the commission (Phair, 2017).

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The most common issue confronted by the employees is the disclosure of their private
facts by the employer. The employer publicly discloses the embarrassing facts about the
employees to the audience without her/his permission. Sometimes the employers or the
colleagues post photographs or specific statements on the social media that may give a valid
misappropriation claim without obtaining the consent of the employee.
Solution to the problem
The solution to the problem lies in enforcing the need of privacy associated with the
access details of the employees. It includes the username and password details of the employees.
The employees should be told that they should not disclose the access details to any other person.
The parameter regarding their usage of what exactly they can post or what they could not be
specifically stated to them (Magro, 2012).
The employers may have valid business interests in videotaping the employees but they
should only videotape them in open or public areas in which there is less or no expectation of the
privacy. The employer should also give a notice to their employees that they are being
videotaped (Voshel & Wesala, 2015).
Maintaining the reputation of the company
When there is frustration or irritation amongst the employees about the company, they
may take it to the social media account for expressing the views on the situation. They may also
post photos or comments on their accounts through they can be identified as the employees of the
company. It may affect the public reputation of the company (Tsitsi Chikandiwa, Contogiannis
& Jembere, 2013).

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Solution to the problem
The solution to the problem lies in setting clear rules, guidelines, and actions to ensure
that the staff should be on the same page while dealing with the issues of social media. By
creating the policy on social media for the organization, the risk of treating the reputation of the
company by the employees would be minimized (Mergel, 2013).
Therefore, the clear guidelines should be set in this regard. It should indicate the methods
in which the employees interact with the connections they have made through work and the kind
of communication they do about the company. It would surely prevent the risk of spoiling the
reputation of the company.
It should be followed by ensuring that everyone in the company is aware of the
regulations and any changes made in this regard. The circulations of the rules would motivate the
staff for escalating the online activities of their colleagues if they are deemed unacceptable. The
company should possess the essential resources for monitoring the activities of the staff in this
regard (Dijkmans, Kerkhof & Beukeboom, 2015).
It must make sure that the standards are not compromised and Google alerts must be set
to supervise the communications being done about the company. If anything jeopardizes the
reputation of the company then it should be responded in a timely and suitable manner.
Prevention of bullying and harassment at the workplace
According to the Fair Work Commission, there are two ways to find out the bullying and
harassment being done at the workplace. The posts of social media would be deemed as bullying

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if they are perceived in the context of work and secondly, the unfriending of a colleague on the
website of social media can be considered for the justification of a claim of bullying.
As per section 789 FD of the Part 6-4B of the Fair Work Act 2009(Cth), the grounds for
bullying at work comprise of when the individual or a group repetitively behaves unfairly
towards the workers. It also includes the behavior posing a risk to the safety and health of the
employees.
Therefore, cyberbullying can create serious problems for the company such as poor
morale and relations of the employees, increase in their absence or resignations. It may also lead
to poor performance and lost productivity and loss of respect for managers and supervisors
(Verhoeven et al., 2012).
Solution to the problem
In order to resolve this issue, the employer should formulate the frameworks on the use of
social media for bullying and disciplinary policies. The unacceptable behavior should be clearly
stated in the policies. It should also comprise the use of offensive and inferring language towards
the colleagues on the social media.
A policy should be formulated which should be in consultation with the representatives
of the trade union and employees. Moreover, the employees should take the complaints in a
serious manner and investigate them properly. It may be probable that the people may not be
aware of their unwelcoming behavior so during the informal discussion, they should be made
aware of their behavior in order to stop it. The employers should check the social networking
sites and emails if there is a reporting for instances of cyberbullying (Piotrowski, 2012).

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Recommendations on how it will help in the successful implementation of the social media
policy in the company
In order to resolve the issue of safeguarding the privacy of the employees at the
workplace, the employers should prudently research study about the privacy laws of the
employees. There should be appropriate policies regarding the electronic monitoring of the
phones, computers and emails of the employees (Holland, Cooper & Hecker, 2016).
The monitoring policies should be documented, well defined and the employees of
BeautyCo should give the written acknowledgment. If the polices regarding monitoring of
computer or emails exist in the company, they should state that there are no expectations from
the side of the employees for privacy until they stay on the property of the company or use its
resources.
For resolving the issue of maintaining the reputation of the company on the social media,
the employees should carefully proofread the stuff they are uploading on the websites. They
should respond to all the comments and complaints in order to build the royalty of the brand. If
any problem is perceived online, the aggrieved person should be sent a message to continue the
discussion offline so that the problem can be rectified (Mergel & Bretschneider, 2013).
It should also be ensured that the apps of the company are working properly. The links
should be checked frequently.Another important point that should be discussed here is that there
are possibilities that the social account of the company might be duplicated or hacked. The
duplicate pages not only harm the reputation of the company but also confuse the search engines
which are forced to choose from the versions they would feel is best for the query.

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In order to resolve the issue of prevention of bullying at the workplace, a gender-neutral
post or email should be used in order to communicate or post a comment on the website. The
password of the email should be 12 characters long and it should be a combination of capital and
lower case letters, symbols and numbers. The passwords should be changed frequently along
with reviewing the e-mail signature (Winer et al., 2018).
Conclusion
Hence, to conclude, it can be said that in the world driven by technology, the human
resources have moved beyond the water cooler gossip. With the help of emails and social media,
they can immediately share the information with their colleagues. It can open the world of
possibilities for bullying at the workplace, spoiling the reputation of the company and posing a
threat to the privacy of the employees at the workplace.So , the HR policies should comprise of
social media policies so that the electronic communications in all forms should be addressed.

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Referencing
Ball,K.(2010). Workplace Surveillance: an overview , Labor History ,51(1),87-106.
Dijkmans, C., Kerkhof, P. & Beukeboom, C. J. (2015). A stage to engage: Social media use and
corporate reputation. Tourism Management, 47(2015), 58-67.
Holland ,P., Cooper , B. & Hecker, R.(2016). Use of social media at work : a new form of
employee voice? The International Journal of Human Resource
Management ,27(21),2621-2634.
Magro, M. J. (2012). A review of social media use in e-government. Administrative
Sciences, 2(2), 148-161.
Mergel, I. & Bretschneider, S. I. (2013). A three‐stage adoption process for social media use in
government. Public Administration Review, 73(3), 390-400.
Mergel, I. (2013). Social media adoption and resulting tactics in the US federal
government. Government Information Quarterly, 30(2), 123-130.
Phair , N.(2017). The workplace and the law in age of social media. The Australian Business
Review . Retrieved October 5th , 2018 from
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/technology/opinion/the-workplace-and-the-
law-in-age-of-social-media/news-story/333c8e59c5549d633b2a399f0342c1f7
Piotrowski, C. (2012). From workplace bullying to cyberbullying: The enigma of e-harassment
in modern organizations. Organization Development Journal, 30(4), 44.

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Tsitsi Chikandiwa, S., Contogiannis, E. & Jembere, E. (2013). The adoption of social media
marketing in South African banks. European Business Review, 25(4), 365-381.
Verhoeven, P., Tench, R., Zerfass, A., Moreno, A. & Verčič, D. (2012). How European PR
practitioners handle digital and social media. Public Relations Review, 38(1), 162-164.
Voshel, E. H. & Wesala, A. (2015). Social media & social work ethics: Determining best
practices in an ambiguous reality. Journal of Social Work Values and Ethics, 12(1), 67-
76.
Winer, McKenna, Burritt, & Tillis LLP(2018). Social Media and Workplace Harassment.
Retrieved October 5th , 2018 from https://www.wmlawyers.com/2017/06/social-media-
workplace-harassment/