"Work-related blogging was once thought to be benign, but it is now one of the hottest, and most complex and far-ranging issues in the workplace," says CEO of the Employment Law Alliance Stephen J. Hirschfeld.[1]  A survey conducted by Hirshfeld´s group last month revealed as many as 10 million bloggers among the American workforce.  However, only 15% of employers have policies specifically related to blogging.[2] 

This article is designed to introduce you to blogging, show you how to use blogs as a valuable tool in employee relations, and encourage you to review your policies relating to blogging.

Love the Blog

A "blog," shorthand for "web log," is a website where a person can post absolutely any information - personal, political, professional, helpful, retaliatory, etc. - that

is viewed by whomever chooses to access it, somewhat like an Internet diary.  Blogs can contain text, photos, art, video clips, links to other blogs and websites, and places for readers to post responses.  There are 80,000 new blogs created daily for a total today of more than 30.1 million blogs, an increase from 17 million just five months ago.[3]  Despite what you may be thinking, people do read these blogs; in fact, more than 32 million Americans read blogs.[4]

Most blogs contain information pertinent to the writer´s life, which of course leads to writing about the workplace.  As to be expected, some employees use blogs to complain about workplace conditions and even to spread damaging and false rumors about their employers.  For this reason, some organizations have terminated employees specifically because of something written in a blog, usually statements that are unflattering to the employer or information intended to be kept confidential.  This type of termination is called "doocing" an employee, named in honor of the www.dooce.com blog owned by a worker who was fired in 2002 for writing about her workplace.  Incidentally, her blog now contains this admonition: "Never write about work on the Internet unless your boss knows and sanctions the fact that you are writing about work on the Internet."

Doocing and negative images aside, blogging can aid employee relations.  In fact, I challenge you to overcome any negative feelings toward blogs and instead use their power to your benefit.

• Insight into the Workplace

Simply by surfing the Web, an employer can obtain important and useful information about its employees.  There are several search engines that specifically scan blogs, including Technorati.com, Feedster.com, and Icerocket.com.  Typing an employee´s name into these search engines leads directly to any blogs that he or she owns.  Thus, if you are wary of a disgruntled employee who has access to confidential information, it is wise to find out if he is writing a blog.  Similarly, scanning for an employee´s blog could be a helpful endeavor during an internal investigation into certain complaints of misconduct or when conducting an environmental audit to determine how your employees view their supervisors and their workplace. 

Perhaps more importantly, scanning for a blog owned by a prospective employee could result in a much truer picture of whom you are hiring than the posed snapshot you get during an interview.  Please keep in mind that many blogs contain photos or other personal information about the blog owner that we normally do not inquire about nor consider during the hiring process, such as race, age, national origin, disabilities, etc.  For this reason, give thought to who searches for blogs and at what stage of the hiring process this is to be done.

• Facilitate Team Communication

One of the most unique features of blogs is their easy maintenance.  For example, a personal blog can be created very quickly and maintained for less than five dollars per month with the help of a hosted weblogging service such as Typepad or Blogger.  A blogger can update his blog at any time from anywhere without bothering with an IT Department.  Blogs, by their very nature, are interactive so they have the option of allowing readers to post comments and to see what others have posted.  These interactive, fast features make a blog perfect for project management and collaborative brainstorming among employees. 

If you are concerned about the rogue employee who may post an unprofessional or discriminatory comment, remember that blog owners have the ability to edit or remove inflammatory remarks or to restrict the people who have permission to comment on the blog.  For best results, a company blog should be consistently monitored.

Experts in the field have predicted that blogs will become the forum for transmitting critical corporate information to widely dispersed co-workers in global enterprises or businesses with large numbers of traveling or telecommuting employees.[5]  Companies such as IBM, American Airlines, and DaimlerChrysler have discovered that a blog is a casual complement to a company newsletter or employee intranet.  Other companies, like GM, use blogs to enable their customers to interact with their leaders thus supplying invaluable direct product feedback.[6] 

• Aide in Recruiting Efforts

With regard to employee recruiting, blogs are ideal for posting job openings or staffing needs.  In fact, over five thousand new job postings are added to Feedster.com daily.  When posting an open position, answers to frequently asked questions about the job can be posted once for all interested parties to read as opposed to answering the same question all day long in dozens of time-consuming telephone calls. 

• Assist Marketing Efforts

Lastly, you may want to introduce your sales staff or marketing group to blogs.  Consumers interested in buying a product often look to the Internet for guidance and opinions.  Thus, blogs are wide-open advertising space for companies to promote their products and offer detailed information in a positive light.  In fact, as you peruse a few blogs, you will see that many products from Ipods to Manolo Blahnik shoes are advertised on personal blogs. 

Police the Blog

Personal blogging on company time is no different than writing a novel while at work -- in most environments it is obviously unacceptable.  A more difficult question is how much the employer should police discussion of the workplace in a personal blog written outside of work.  To address these and other blog-related issues, now is the time to review employer policies, as well as employee confidentiality agreements.

In general, pursuant to employment-at-will principles, a blogger who posts information that is damaging or confidential can be terminated or "dooced."   However, there are laws that prohibit an employer from retaliating against an employee for engaging in lawful off-duty conduct, such as the National Labor Relations Act and California Labor Code sec. 95(k).  Similarly, states such as New York, Missouri, and Nevada have statutes that protect political expression, and First Amendment rights may protect employees of government agencies.  Communications or activities that are protected under these laws must not be unduly restricted.[7]

Even if you can terminate a worker strictly because of her blog, you may choose not to in order to avoid being branded a heavy-handed "Big Brother" by other employees or clients.  For this reason, you may not want to create an over-reaching policy on blogging; rather, you may choose to include a global statement such as, "We expect all employees to act professionally on the job, and to refrain from behavior, on and off the job, that could adversely impact the employer´s reputation or mission.[8]"

Those employers who choose instead to add a specific policy on blogging might consider beginning with a statement that the employer respects the employees´ rights to use the Internet in various ways during their personal time.  The policy could then state that if, however, an employee chooses to identify herself as a company employee in a blog, she must then do the following:  1) make it clear that any views expressed are hers alone and not necessarily those of the company; 2) refrain from revealing any confidential information (see the employee confidentiality agreement for definitions); 3) uphold the company´s values and avoid making defamatory statements about the company, its employees, clients, partners, affiliates and others, including competitors; and 4) be careful not to let blogging interfere with her job or client commitments.  The statement could then go on to say that if blogging activity is seen as compromising the company, then the company will request a cessation of such commentary, and the employee may be subject to counseling and disciplinary action.[9]

In order to be effective with regard to blogging, policies and employee confidentiality agreements should define confidential information in very clear terms.  Additionally, employers should remind employees that revealing confidential information over the Internet (including addresses, phone numbers, banking information, and health information) is a policy violation and can lead to identity theft and other serious harms.

Conclusion

A blog is a legitimate and effective mode of communicating internally with your employees and externally with the public at large.  By familiarizing yourself with the many positive features of blogging and reviewing your policies for thoroughness with regard to blogging, you will gain the most benefit from this effective employee relations tool.

DeDe Wilburn Church, Esq., Senior Consultant, is a self-taught blog enthusiast who tries very hard to become well versed in any area that may impact her clients.  She is loyal to a long list of public and private companies who invite her to educate their employees and managers on difficult subjects such as avoiding harassment and discrimination, hiring and firing, and embracing diversity.  DeDe also conducts internal investigations for large and small organizations when they receive a complaint of harassment, discrimination, or employee misconduct, and she testifies as an expert witness in employment cases. 

DeDe learned her craft during the seven years she served as a Senior Assistant Attorney General prior to joining Employment Practices Solutions in 1998.  As an Assistant Attorney General, DeDe defended the State of Texas in hundreds of employment discrimination cases and counseled dozens of state agencies on avoiding discrimination and harassment lawsuits. She has argued complex cases before the Texas Supreme Court and the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

DeDe also has the privilege of being invited to speak on employment issues at distinguished conferences, including the Society for Human Resource Managers Conference in Houston and the Louisiana State SHRM Conference.

Board Certified in Civil Trial by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, DeDe is a recipient of the prestigious Presidential Citation from the President of the Texas State Bar in recognition of outstanding service to the citizens of Texas. Her Bachelor of Arts degree is from Louisiana State University, magna cum laude, and she received a Doctorate of Jurisprudence with Honors from the University Of North Carolina School Of Law in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.  She manages the Houston, Texas office of EPS.

With offices nationwide, Employment Practices Solutions, Inc., www.epexperts.com, provides organizations with assistance in preventing and minimizing workplace employment claims and lawsuits by providing the highest quality human resources consulting available.