Staff Handbook - Policies and Procedures

E-mail and Internet Policy: 24-06-24 Registered Office: Unit 2A Longrock Industrial Estate, Penzance, Cornwall. TR20 8HX Company Reg. No. 04124350 VAT Reg. No. 684598666 UTR No. 24386 09541 4. You must not create or forward or link to any social media content which is abusive, obscene, discriminatory, harassing, derogatory or defamatory in relation to your employment or our business/organisation, its customers, suppliers or other members of staff, however indirectly it identifies you, us or them. Use of social media by employees cannot be allowed to conflict with the aims of our business/organisation, or bring our business/organisation into disrepute in any way. “Use of social media by employees” means the use of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs, forums, comments on websites or blogs and any other form of content created on an internet website or any other internet or telephone network-based messaging or communications system of any form or description, by employees. Therefore guidelines apply to any social media content created by employees, whether using their own name or an assumed name or anonymously, in terms of reference to their employment, our business/organisation, or their place of employment or their job/role within our business/organisation, or other staff at our business/organisation or our customers, contractors and suppliers. There are also rules relating to the general use of social media while at work. 1. It is forbidden for any social media content that you create to identify our business/organisation. Therefore, giving the name of our business/organisation or a description of it or enough information to identify it or its location is not allowed, neither is the use of photographs taken at work or our business/organisation’s logos allowed. For similar reasons, any other form of indirect identification is also not allowed. 2. Any social media content that you create, or forward or link to should not identify other staff of our business/organisation, or its customers, contractors and suppliers, however indirectly it identifies them. 3. Exceptions to identification rules – the only exceptions to the rules relating to identification (items 1 and 2 in this list) are social media content in relation to our business/organisation which you may be asked to create as part of your employment and which is authorised and approved by your line manager. Or where you are authorised by your line manager to create content as part of your employment or professional role on social media directly related to your employment or professional where applicable to your role or profession, a personal entry on the “Linkedin” website or similar professional networking websites where the site and content you wish to create has been authorised and approved by your line manager. For this reason, the following policy has been introduced on the keeping of “blogs”. It will form part of the Company policy on computer and internet use. 1) No blogs can be created or updated on any computer on our premises. This includes all sites, whether temporary or permanent. 2) It is forbidden for any blog to identify the Company. Therefore, giving its name or enough information to identify its location is not allowed. For similar reasons, indirect identification, e.g. through the use of photographs or company logos is also banned. 3) No blog should identify other staff or the Company’s customers. This is in order to protect the Company business and its reputation. 4) Any breach of this policy will be treated as a breach of confidentiality and as misconduct and will be subject to disciplinary proceedings. In the most serious of cases, it could result in dismissal. The reference to a “blog” includes any internet page or web posting of any form or description. SOCIAL MEDIA