87% would consider firing an employee for revealing confidential information on Twitter
A survey from SpamTitan Technologies has found that 87% of companies would consider firing an employee if they posted something confidential about the company on a social media site.
This comes as figures from Osterman Research discovers that 36% of corporate employees are using Facebook at work, up from 28% 12 months ago; while Twitter use has gone from 11% to 17%.
Ronan Kavanagh, CEO of SpamTitan, said: “The benefits of social media for companies are far-reaching.
“However it is a dual edge sword. To fully realise the benefit and to protect one’s business at the same time requires clear, audited and implemented HR and IT policies around the use of social media tools. Previous research shows that only 22% of organisations have a formal, detailed and thorough social media policy in place. In order to give employees the feelings of autonomy and ownership, they need to know the rules covering general HR issues as well as computer and Internet use.”
Osterman Research also found recently that one in six companies have dismissed an employee due to something they posted on social media – although this week a PR worker was not fired despite posting negative comments about one of the agency’s clients on Twitter.