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Social media plays a huge part in many people's daily lives, which has inevitably led to the opinions of people becoming public where they were once private. This can cause problems for social media users in many areas of law, but especially in relation to their employment.

If you believe you have been unfairly disciplined or dismissed by your employer following a comment made on social media, you should speak with one of our Employment Solicitors.

Social Media During Working Hours

One common problem that UK employers have faced is their employees using social media platforms during the working day. As a result, some employers may block access to social media sites from within their network. However, if your employer has not blocked access, it does not mean that you are safe to use them during your working hours - many employers now have strict computer and I.T. use policies to prevent their employees being distracted from their work. It is important that you read and understand these policies.

Social Media Use Outside of Working Hours

A significant amount of disciplinary action taken by employers over social media actually arises from the employee's activity outside of working hours. This could be, for example, posting negative comments about your employer or the work itself. Or it can also be posting comments that, although having nothing to do with your employment, reflect your employer in a negative light.

If your social media profile makes it clear who you work for, you could be inadvertently holding yourself out as a representative of that employer. By posting comments or opinions that could be viewed as negative, the Courts have accepted the view that the employer's reputation could genuinely be affected as a result. This means that your employer could take disciplinary action against you, including summary dismissal, if they can show a reasonable belief that your comments have lowered their reputation or have breached the trust and confidence they had in you.

Private or Public?

A few employees have tried to argue that their dismissals were not fair because their comments were made on private social media accounts. In some of these cases the accounts were even restricted to a relatively small group of close friends. The majority of these claims have been unsuccessful, with the Courts deciding that by posting on social media platforms, you are deemed to understand that the post may become public, as evidenced by the fact that your employer has seen the post you made.

Arguments have been made against this, including representations relating to the European Convention on Human Rights, specifically referencing freedom of expression and the right to a private and family life. These arguments have been generally dismissed by the Courts by reason that the employer's right not to suffer a loss of reputation is a justified reason to restrict these rights.

Social Media and Unfair Dismissal

As you may imagine, the law on work related social media misconduct is constantly changing and being tested in the Courts as new forms of social media arise. Consequently, every case needs to be looked at on its individual merits. For example, an employee making a comment which is only seen by 10 people may not be fairly dismissed, whilst a different employee making the same comment which is seen by 100 people could be.

An employer who takes disciplinary action against an employee following comments made on social media still has to follow a fair disciplinary procedure. The onus is on the employer to prove that the comments made have had such an effect (whether by lowering their reputation or destroying the trust between them and the employee) that they are acting reasonably when choosing to dismiss the employee.

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Social media plays a huge part in many people's daily lives, which has inevitably led to the opinions of people becoming public where they were once private. This can cause problems for social media users in many areas of law, but especially in relation to their employment.

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What is your view of HR and their contribution to the organisation?

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What is your view of HR and their contribution to the organisation?

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Journals from the University of Lincoln Library

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Journals from the University of Lincoln Library

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HUMAN RESOURCE SYSTEMS AND HELPING IN ORGANIZATIONS: A RELATIONAL PERSPECTIVE

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HUMAN RESOURCE SYSTEMS AND HELPING IN ORGANIZATIONS: A RELATIONAL PERSPECTIVE

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Access the document here.

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Professor Ulrich's HR model still divides opinion 20 years after making first making its mark

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A distinctive approach for managing human resources published by Richard Walton in an article in 1985 in the Harvard Business Review called 'From Control to Commitment in the Workplace'. His argument was that effective HRM depends not on strategies for controlling employees but on strategies for winning employees' commitment.

Many of the diverse personnel and labour relations activities can be dealt with under four human resource (HR) categories as proposed by the Harvard model, they are employee influence, human resource flow, reward systems and work systems. These are general issues that managers must attend to regardless of whether the organisation is unionised or not, whatever management style is applied, and whether it is a growing or declining business.

Employee influence is the question of how much responsibility, authority, and power is voluntarily delegated by management to the employees. The assumption the authors make is that any influence employees have should be compatible with management's purpose and-priorities.

Managers and personnel specialists, according to the Harvard model, must work together to ensure that the organisation has an appropriate flow of people to meet its strategic requirements. Human resource flow concerns managing the flow of people into, through, and out of the organisation. This means making decisions on recruitment and selection, promotion, termination of employment, and related issues of job security, career development, advancement, and fair treatment.

Reward systems regulate how employees are extrinsically and intrinsically rewarded for their work. Extrinsic rewards are tangible pay and benefits: pay, overtime pay, bonuses, profit sharing, pensions, holiday entitlement, health insurance; and other benefits, such as flexible working hours. Intrinsic rewards are intangible benefits and are said to strongly influence employees' motivation, job satisfaction, and organisational commitment. Intrinsic rewards are rewards from the work itself, such as sense of purpose, achievement, challenge, involvement, self-confidence, self-esteem, and satisfaction. The Harvard model recommends that employees should be highly involved in the design of an organisation's reward systems but observes that final decisions, besides meeting employees' needs, must be consistent with the overall business strategy, management philosophy, and other HRM policies.

Work systems are the ways in which people, information, activities, and technology are arranged, at all levels of the organisation, so that work can be performed efficiently and effectively.

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Critically analyse the Harvard model of HR. What implications does it have for the HR manager? - Bayt.com Specialties

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A distinctive approach for managing human resources published by Richard Walton in an article in 1985 in the Harvard Business Review called 'From Control to Commitment in the Workplace'. His argument was that effective HRM depends not on strategies for controlling employees but on strategies for winning employees' commitment.

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Explore the CPD cycle for HR and learning and development professionals.

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Empowerment

Rewards

Recognition

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Can include policies

Rules and standards

Contracts

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How could HR have assisted in this case study?

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HR staff may be involved in creating the firm's organizational chart.

Jupiterimages/Creatas/Getty Images

An efficiently run human resources department can provide your organization with structure and the ability to meet business needs through managing your company's most valuable resources -- its employees. There are several HR disciplines, or areas, but HR practitioners in each discipline may perform more than one of the more than six essential functions. In small businesses without a dedicated HR department, it's possible to achieve the same level of efficiency and workforce management through outsourcing HR functions or joining a professional employer organization.

Recruitment

The success of recruiters and employment specialists generally is measured by the number of positions they fill and the time it takes to fill those positions. Recruiters who work in-house -- as opposed to companies that provide recruiting and staffing services -- play a key role in developing the employer's workforce. They advertise job postings, source candidates, screen applicants, conduct preliminary interviews and coordinate hiring efforts with managers responsible for making the final selection of candidates.

Safety

Workplace safety is an important factor. Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers have an obligation to provide a safe working environment for employees. One of the main functions of HR is to support workplace safety training and maintain federally mandated logs for workplace injury and fatality reporting. In addition, HR safety and risk specialists often work closely with HR benefits specialists to manage the company's workers compensation issues.

Employee Relations

In a unionized work environment, the employee and labor relations functions of HR may be combined and handled by one specialist or be entirely separate functions managed by two HR specialists with specific expertise in each area. Employee relations is the HR discipline concerned with strengthening the employer-employee relationship through measuring job satisfaction, employee engagement and resolving workplace conflict. Labor relations functions may include developing management response to union organizing campaigns, negotiating collective bargaining agreements and rendering interpretations of labor union contract issues.

Compensation and Benefits

Like employee and labor relations, the compensation and benefits functions of HR often can be handled by one HR specialist with dual expertise. On the compensation side, the HR functions include setting compensation structures and evaluating competitive pay practices. A comp and benefits specialist also may negotiate group health coverage rates with insurers and coordinate activities with the retirement savings fund administrator. Payroll can be a component of the compensation and benefits section of HR; however, in many cases, employers outsource such administrative functions as payroll.

Compliance

Compliance with labor and employment laws is a critical HR function. Noncompliance can result in workplace complaints based on unfair employment practices, unsafe working conditions and general dissatisfaction with working conditions that can affect productivity and ultimately, profitability. HR staff must be aware of federal and state employment laws such as Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, the National Labor Relations Act and many other rules and regulations.

Training and Development

Employers must provide employees with the tools necessary for their success which, in many cases, means giving new employees extensive orientation training to help them transition into a new organizational culture. Many HR departments also provide leadership training and professional development. Leadership training may be required of newly hired and promoted supervisors and managers on topics such as performance management and how to handle employee relations matters at the department level. Professional development opportunities are for employees looking for promotional opportunities or employees who want to achieve personal goals such as finishing a college degree. Programs such as tuition assistance and tuition reimbursement programs often are within the purview of the HR training and development area.

About the Author

Ruth Mayhew has been writing since the mid-1980s, and she has been an HR subject matter expert since 1995. Her work appears in "The Multi-Generational Workforce in the Health Care Industry," and she has been cited in numerous publications, including journals and textbooks that focus on human resources management practices. She holds a Master of Arts in sociology from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Ruth resides in the nation's capital, Washington, D.C.

Photo Credits

Jupiterimages/Creatas/Getty Images

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Six Main Functions of a Human Resource Department

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An efficiently run human resources department can provide your organization with structure and the ability to meet business needs through managing your company's most valuable resources -- its employees. There are several HR disciplines, or areas, but HR practitioners in each discipline may perform more than one of the more than six essential functions.

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What is HR?

Torrington (2017,7) implies HRM is hard to define and that it can be interpreted a number of ways.

What do HR do?

HR professionals are key drivers of HR strategies and practices in organisations.  (Farnham, 2010).

According to the CIPD (2017) HR practitioners see their role as ‘ethical stewards’ in challenging unethical organisational practice.