Social media and employee voice

This report examines the extent to which employers are making use of social media to promote and access employee voice.

 

Social media describes online platforms that allow for user-generated content, interaction and collaboration.

 

It is a relatively new phenomenon, linked to the emergence of ‘web 2.0’ and the move from a static to an interactive internet.

 

This report is largely focused on enterprise social networks.

 

These have the common features of other social media platforms, but they are closed and exclusive, with membership restricted to an individual organisation...

 

For more information see Going digital? Harnessing social media for employee voice (Joe Dromey, ACAS).

Workplace trends and social media

ACAS has recently produced a document on contemporary workplace trends.

 

Included in this document is a consideration of social media as an emergent form of employee voice.

 

For more information click here.

Web 2.0 and employment relations

ACAS has published a research paper on the implications of Web 2.0 technologies (e.g. Facebook, LinkedIn, blogging, etc.) for employment relations.

The paper is called Workplaces and Social Networking: The Implications for Employment Relations.

It is written by Andrea Broughton, Tom Higgins, Ben Hicks and Annette Cox of the Institute for Employment Studies.

The aim of the paper is to answer the following questions:

● How extensive is the use of social media in UK workplaces?

● What challenges and opportunities do social media present for management of employment relations?

● What does good practice in this area look like?

Click here to access the paper.

Web 2.0 and the future of workplace relations

A new report from ACAS comments on Web 2.0 and how such technology could have an effect on the future of workplace/employment relations.

For employees the following is discussed in the new report:

The use of social media by unions to reach both a younger generation and a more dispersed workforce is already well underway.

Commentators believe that the unions are moving from the services model of the 90s through the organising model of the noughties to the more sophisticated social movement model with its greater appeal to a younger audience.

Web 3.0 technology with its seamless integration between data bases will enable
much greater interactivity between users and the web.

This will enable trade unions to refine their recruitment practices where individuals can be attracted to a social movement website first and then directed to trade union sites.

For employers:

As the virtual workplace becomes more prevalent, employers will need to give careful thought to the management of a dispersed workforce where employees may have infrequent face-to-face contact with their colleagues...

For more details and concluding comments see The Future of Workplace Relations - An ACAS View.

Is Web 2.0 changing the nature of employee-employer disputes?

According to a conference organised by ACAS: "the rise of social media could see more and different forms of unofficial unrest used in future disputes."

It was argued that "the accessibility and speed of tools such as Twitter, YouTube and Facebook mean that workers can be mobilised quicker than ever before."

For more details see Social media needs to be taken seriously warns Acas.

Facebook and trade union organising

A discussion paper released by ACAS this week recognises the use of Web 2.0 communication technologies in the organisation of industrial conflict.

Of particular note is a reflection on how tools such as Facebook appear to be an increasingly common organising and recruitment tool for "younger stewards".

The paper is entitled: Riding out the storm: managing conflict in a recession and beyond - click here for a copy.

Some details (p.5):

Unofficial action and alternative ways of organising

The ongoing decline in both collective bargaining as a method of managing employment relations and of collective action as a ‘managed’ expression of collective discontent shows no sign of slowing.

But if formal channels are closed off to employees there is likely to be a rise in unofficial expressions of discontent.

There are now more sophisticated methods of communicating with large audiences via social networking sites such as Facebook, and indeed there are already unions who are reporting younger stewards using this as a recruiting and organising tool.

ACAS guidance on social networking site use at work

ACAS has noted a recent increase in the demand for information on how to handle internet and email use at work.

In particular, how to deal with employee use of social networking sites that relates to employment matters.

Questions asked (and answered) in one of their latest bulletins include:

1) An employee has taken photographs at the company’s night out and posted them on a social networking site.

Some of her colleagues have come to me and complained, is there anything I can do as her employer?

2) Can an employer take disciplinary action for the use of social networking sites during work time?

3) My daughter has been dismissed because she wrote on her Facebook site that she did not like her employer and she couldn’t be bothered with them.

However she didn’t name her employer therefore does the employer have the right to dismiss her?

For all the answers see Scotland News - Issue 13.