Gsbs 6040 Human Resource Managements Assessment Answer

Communication is one of the fundaments that build the social life, people communicate in order to exchange idea, emotions, information, reports etc. With the advancement of technology and growing acceptance of this advancement among the common people, has made communication easier.  Now with just one click a person can reach out to another regardless of the geographical differences. According to Stohl, Etter, Banghart and Woo (2017), social media is a platform is a gift of the advances of the information and communication technology. It allows an individual to connect and communicate with others who are in the same platform with the help of connectivity and internet. The advent of social media has made the world a smaller place as people can reach out easily to another person or a group of people with the help of the applications on the Smartphone. People showcase their individuality and their personality with the help of their messages and activities that they post on their portal (Holland, Cooper & Hecker, 2016).  There are a number of social media platforms that are widely used by the people all over the world, like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube etc. Even e-mails and chat rooms are a part of the social media community. Every Medium to large scale organisation must have a social media policy in the company which should be aligned with other Human Resource policies. This report includes a discussion regarding the way social media policy should be formulated in BeautyCo.

Importance of the social media policy in BeautyCo

It is important to have a social media policy in any organisation because it is a widespread platform and along with a number of advantages there are also a number of disadvantages follow the path of social media. Fusi and Feeney (2018), state that the social media policy of BeautyCo will outline the ways in which the company and its employees should conduct themselves in the social media space. The policy should help in safeguarding the reputation of the company as well as respect and encourage the people of the organisation to have a well balance professional and personal life. The importance of the policy lies in the fact that there are a number of security issues and risk that are associated with having so much information on a public platform. Therefore a policy will help the company to defend itself from the legal standpoint (Holland, Cooper & Hecker, 2016).

The role of HR in devising the policies

Having a social media presence means that an individual’s views and perspectives along with some of the other personal aspects are availed for others to be a part of. In these platforms the person who owns the account has the liberty of setting some of the private options, there are also chances for the people to choose whom they want to communicate and share their space with. Therefore, while building a social media policy for the BeautyCo, the company must respect the decision of an individual to exercise the freedom of speech and expression. Science the reach of this medium is so wide spread there is a number of researches that discuss about the responsibility that the one has towards using these platforms.

 There are a number of positive impacts of social media on an organisation; on the other hand as the employees of the company are the representative of the organisation in the social world, there should be some protocols that the person has to follow while handling the image that they have on the social media. Considering the stress that people go through in the current service scenario, it is important for an individual to have a personal life which is exclusive of the jurisdictions of the company that they work for. It is essential for the Human Resource management of the company to make sure that the people of the organisation are not stressed with such policy and are not adversely impacted with the decisions that the company has taken. The policy of the company should not restrict the personal choice or perspective of the employees in any means as stated by Holland, Cooper, & Hecker (2016), Generation Y employees are the most who are impacted by the social media and usually are the ones who have the desire to use social media to voice their concerns regarding the work or to appraise it at the same time.

Objectives of BeautyCo while developing the policy

The social media policy of BeautyCo is based on some of the objectives like align with the interest of the company, to avoid using any content which may give rise to an unhealthy work environment and the enforcement of the policy should be effective, keeping this in mind, the policy should be designed (Fusi &  Feeney, 2018). The policy of the company should encompass the right to privacy of the employees and respect the employees as an individual outside the jurisdiction of the company. The agenda of the policy must ensure that the employees get an opportunity to maintain a balance in between personal and professional life.

Contents of the Policy 

The policy of BeautyCo must include some of the basic rules and regulations that will direct the employees to maintain appropriate conduct on the social media platform so that the reputation and the goodwill of the company among the other stakeholders are not negatively impacted (Fusi & Feeney, 2018). However, these policies will not be such that the employees feel that their individuality is being restricted by the company even outside the work. In the regulations must be strictly associated with the company. It may include the kind of information that people are allowed to share in the social media platform regarding the organisation (Holland, Cooper & Hecker, 2016). It should include clauses on confidentiality where in case there is a breach and causes to impact the security of the organisation the company can take legal assistance in the case. The policy of BeautyCo should also have sections which will indicate the consequences in case any of the employees have abuse the platform and reflect the company in a negative way among the stakeholders. The policy also must have protocols regarding the way the company uses the platform to market the products or service.

The policy should also include the role of social media and the organisation in monitoring the acts of social media. It should also outline the degree to which the company can interfere with the personal decisions of the employees. For example: if a person is being accused of using social media means to pass restricted information to someone who is not associated with the company, in such cases the company must have transparency as one of the clause in the policy.  The company cannot hack their way in to the account of the individual as that would be bridging their private territory; however the individual should be notified and asked to reveal the documents. Therefore, the role and responsibilities of the individuals as well as the organisation must be stated in the policy. This segment includes response to crisis, customer service, engaging with an individual regarding the company on a social platform, monitoring and security etc (Fusi &  Feeney, 2018).

In order to align the interest of the company with the social media policy for the employees the policy must have the freedom for the people who are working for the company to associate with the organisation as an employee, this will not only help the individual to have an identity in the social media it will also spread the name of the company among all people who are connected with the person (Nankervis, Baird, Coffey and Shield, 2017). The company uses a number of social media marketing techniques and the employees can be a part of the strategy, the management should encourage the people to share and like posts that are made by the company’s official page. As social media platforms like Facebook and twitter have become significant medium of communication among the people in any organisation it is important for the company also to understand the ways in which this can positively impact the company (Holland, Cooper & Hecker, 2016).

Conclusion

 Therefore it can be concluded that the policy should include: rules and regulations, security protocols, potential legal and social risks, accountability. However, it should not curb the rights of the people and make them feel insure to work in the company in any way. The human resource department should encourage the involvement of the people while drafting the policies. The message that the company wants to share with the employees must be clear.

Recommendation

In order to effectively implement the policy the company can seek the help of the employees. While drafting the policy the company can ask the employees to provide their insights regarding the contents of the policy, this will not only ensure that the employee are aware of the implementation of such a policy but will be easier for the company to ensure that the people follow the regulations without feeling that they are being over burdened (Nankervis, Baird, Coffey and Shield, 2017).  The policy should not have specific adjustments; rather the focus should be on the long term effectiveness of the policy. This is because with technology social media is changing dynamics rapidly. The most important aspect of the policy should be that the employees must not feel that their rights are being curbed and they are being discouraged to use social media, rather the focus should be on the usage of social media in a more responsible manner not only for the organisation but also for the personal use.

Reference list:

Fusi, F., &  Feeney, M. K. (2018). Social Media in the Workplace: Information Exchange, Productivity, or Waste?. The American Review of Public Administration, 48(5), 395-412. Retrieved from: doi/abs/10.1177/0275074016675722

Holland, P., Cooper, B. K., & 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. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2016.1227867

Nankervis, A., Baird, M., Coffey, J. & Shield, J. (2017) Human Resource Strategy and

Practice (9th ed.), Cengage, South Melbourne.

Stohl, C., Etter, M., Banghart, S., & Woo, D. (2017). Social media policies: Implications for contemporary notions of corporate social responsibility. Journal of Business Ethics, 142(3), 413-436. Retrieved from: 10.1007/s10551-015-2743-9