MINNEAPOLIS – Despite a rise in the discipline of employees for their activities on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn there is still much work to be done around procedures for enforcing social media policy, according to a survey fielded by the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics (SCCE) and its affiliated Health Care Compliance Association (HCCA).

This is the second survey SCCE and HCCA conducted on business' response to social media – the first survey was conducted in 2009 – and the research was designed to track how business has responded to the explosion of social media usage.

Forty-two percent of survey respondents reported that their organization has had to discipline an employee for behavior on these sites. That is up significantly from 24 percent reported in 2009.

Policies for Social Media Use Away from Work
Yet, while headlines tell of employee firings for Facebook or Twitter rants or privacy violations, only about one-third of survey respondents report that their organizations have adopted policies specifically addressing the use of social media sites outside of work.  The data reveals an increase from 10 percent in 2009 to 31 percent in 2011 of respondent who report that their employer has specific policies for social media use when away from work.

Social Media at Work
Companies often set site-specific policies for workplace access to social media. Forty-seven percent reported that "anyone" may access LinkedIn, while lower numbers are reported for Facebook and Twitter – 32 percent and 31 percent respectively – and 35 percent of respondents companies allow no access to those two sites at work. It is interesting to note here that "for profit" companies are more likely than "non-profits" to allow access to LinkedIn. Healthcare companies (40 percent) were far less likely to allow access than industry as a whole (77 percent).

Monitoring Social Media Use
In 2009, passive systems for monitoring social media policies – acting when appraised of an issue – was used by 32 percent of respondents and yet, despite the exponential growth of social media use, the availability of monitoring solutions, and the increase in company policies that restrict its use, passive system are now relied upon by 48 percent of respondents.

[See also: 'Coffee shop test' may have prevented RI doc's Facebook debacle.]

"Business has clearly awoken to the risks and opportunities posed by social media. The increase in business usage of social media sites has been accompanied by increased efforts, at least on paper, to control employee activity inside and outside of work," said Roy Snell, chief executive officer, SCCE and HCCA. "However, reliance on informal monitoring methods and lack of clear owners of monitoring suggest that many companies have a long way to go in ensuring that their policies are followed," said Snell. "At the same time we must be very careful not to stifle one of the most effective business tool we have, social media."

For the complete survey results click here.