Increasingly fragile companies

Just think of the spy whose personal story, unbeknownst to him, was unveiled by the world’s largest social network.
At the start of July this year, the British newspaper Mail on Sunday revealed that the life of Sir John Sawers, the future head of the British secret service, the MI6, was sprawled over the Web. His wife had in fact posted on Facebook dozens of photos and personal details about herself and her family… This example recalls that the rapid development of online social networks has profoundly modified the way in which people communicate and exchange ideas, as well as the way in which they share personal information. And whilst the uses made possible by these new tools are synonymous with great opportunities, the ensuing rapprochement of private and public, personal and professional spheres, can also be translated by an unsuspected exposure of companies to risk.
According to a study by the Deloitte firm, Social Networking and Reputational Risk in the Workplace, carried out in the United States in mid-April this year, and published in mid-May, 74% of employees surveyed consider that it is easy to damage a company’s reputation via social networks. Here’s proof: in April 2009, the online broadcasting of an obscene sequence in which Domino’s Pizza employees dirtied the ingredients of a pizza, forced the chain’s President in the United States, to fight back with another video posted on YouTube, in order to calm the growing Web crisis.

A capacity to harm
The example is undoubtedly extreme – here, employees demonstrate a deliberate desire to damage the brand –, but it illustrates the capacity to harm offered by Internet social media. Especially when damage can be caused by an employee’s simple blunder. “While the decision to post videos, pictures, thoughts, experiences and observations is personal, a single act can create far reaching ethical consequences for individuals as well as employers,” states Sharon Allen, Chairman of the Board of Deloitte. “Therefore, it is important for executives to be mindful of the implications of this connected world and to elevate the discussion about the risks associated with it to the highest levels of leadership.”
So it comes as no surprise that 60% of CEOs surveyed in the Deloitte study consider that they have the right to know how their employees speak of themselves and their companies on social networks.
A point of view that is not always shared by employees: 53% of them consider that their personal web pages have nothing to do with their employers – and this proportion reaches 63% amongst the famous “Y generation”, the 18 to 34 year-olds! Some 27% of employees surveyed moreover declare not to take into account the possible consequences of their posts, and more than a third do not take into consideration their bosses, colleagues or clients.
What should be the reaction of companies in the face of uses made by their employees of social networks? Should they let go of valued employees who may have let slip an awkward observation somewhere on the Web? Or should they be proactive about the matter and spy on their employees in cyberspace, at the risk of contravening the principle of respect for private life? (According to the Deloitte study, 17% of CEOs in the States surveyed declare that they already have programmes to survey their employees on Internet…) “The easy answer is to establish policies and protocols,” concludes the Deloitte survey. “However, the survey also finds that clearly defined company guidelines will not change how nearly half [49%] of respondents behave in cyberspace. Therefore, attempts to mitigate reputational risk in these online communities should include an emphasis on culture, values, and ethics within an organisation. By reinforcing these fundamental elements, business leaders will have the opportunity to encourage good decision-making in virtual social networking environments.” In other words, the adoption of behaviour that is more exemplary than ever in real life appears to be the only solution to this problem raised by the emergence of virtual networking. More exposed than ever, companies no longer have the right to error.