Social Media Policy

Overview

ReGen Strategic and its associated entities (the Company) uses social media as part of its business and acknowledges that for many of its staff, personal use of social media is a significant (or at least present) part of life.

This policy sets out the way the Company requires its workers to use social media when they do so:

as representatives of the Company, and
for personal purposes both where there is a relevant connection to the Company and in a worker’s personal capacity.

Scope of this policy

This policy applies to all workers of the Company.

Workers engaged by the Company must comply with this policy at all times in the course of their engagement by the Company. However, this policy does not form part of any person’s contract with the Company or create any enforceable rights or entitlements for them.

Failure to comply with this policy is likely to lead to the Company taking disciplinary action against a person, which may include termination of the person’s engagement by the Company.

Who is a ‘worker’?

In this policy, a ‘worker’ of the Company means any person who carries out work in any capacity for the Company, including work as:

an employee
a manager
an employee of a labour hire company who has been assigned to work in the Company (i.e. a ‘temp’)
an apprentice or trainee
a student gaining work experience, or
a volunteer.

The policy applies to conduct on social media:

using the Company’s IT Resources, whether or not the conduct occurs during or outside of normal business hours and/or at or away from the Company’s workplace, and
using non-Company resources where there is a relevant connection to the Company, whether or not the conduct occurs during or outside of normal business hours and/or at or away from the Company’s workplace.

Please refer to and read this policy in conjunction with the Company’s Prevention of Workplace Bullying Policy, Respect in the Workplace Policy, and Acceptable Use of IT Resources Policy.

Definitions

In this policy:

IT Resources includes the Company’s:

computers (including desktop and laptop computers)
tablets and other electronic devices (including handset and mobile phones)
intranet
internet access
email system
document management and storage system
instant messenger systems, and
external storage devices provided by the Company.

Relevant connection to the Company includes where a person engages in conduct on a social media platform that:

breaches a Company policy (including but not limited to the Prevention of Workplace Bullying Policy, Respect in the Workplace Policy, and Acceptable Use of IT Policy), for example by bullying or sexually harassing a work colleague
is able to identify the person as a representative of the Company
adversely affects the person’s ability to perform their duties or responsibilities for the Company
adversely affects the reputation of the Company
is likely to cause damage to the relationship between the Company and the person
damages the Company’s interests, or
is incompatible with the person’s obligations to the Company.

Social media includes, but is not limited to:

social networking sites (e.g. Facebook, LinkedIn, Yammer)
video and photo sharing websites (e.g. Flickr, Instagram, YouTube)
blogs, including corporate blogs, personal blogs and blogs hosted by media outlets (e.g. Comments or Your Say feature)
micro-blogging (e.g. Twitter)
wikis and online collaborations (e.g. Wikipedia)
forums, discussion boards and groups (e.g. Google+ groups, Whirlpool, Reddit)
vod and podcasting
online multiplayer gaming (e.g. World of Warcraft, Second Life), and
geo-spatial tagging (Foursquare).

What Happens on the Internet, Stays on the Internet

Publishing content (often termed ‘posting’) on social media is not like having a conversation with friends in a café or pub. The content you post on social media:

may be viewed by all of the people with whom you have contacts on the relevant social media platform, and not just those with whom you are having a ‘conversation’
may be viewed by people other than your ‘friends’ or contacts, whether because your contacts’ ‘friends’ can see your content or because someone copies and shares the content elsewhere or creates links to it
is often permanent, as it can be extremely difficult to remove material from the internet, and
depending on the terms of use of the social media platform, may become the property of the platform where it is posted and so may be re-used in ways you had not intended.

For the above reasons, you should understand the terms of service and user guides before you post to a social media platform.

In addition, you should not rely on the privacy settings of a social media platform to protect you. You should adjust the privacy settings to your own needs and regularly check the social media platform has not changed the way these settings work.

Acceptable Use of Social Media

Company social media

The Company maintains accounts on various social media. You may only post content using the Company’s social media platform accounts for:

the Company’s business purposes; and
only with prior authorisation of the Company.

Other social media

If you publish content on other social media as a representative of the Company, you must:

do so in accordance with the Company’s policies and your obligations to the Company
make clear that any views expressed are your own, and not those of the Company (unless you are authorised to do otherwise), and
not infringe copyright.

If you publish content on other social media as a representative of the Company or in your personal capacity, you must:

not post content that is (or could reasonably be considered) obscene, defamatory, bullying, unlawful, threatening, harassing, discriminatory, or vilifying or hateful to, any person or organisation
not use a work email address to register personal social media accounts (other than LinkedIn)
not disparage the Company, or otherwise undermine the reputation of the Company or bring it into disrepute
not disparage past or present clients or workers of the Company, or otherwise lower or undermine their reputation or bring them into disrepute
not use or disclose confidential or sensitive information of the Company or its clients (past and present), and
not discuss work, the Company, the workplace or your colleagues in an unprofessional or inappropriate manner.

The above requirements apply even when you post content anonymously or using an alias or pseudonym.

Personal use of social media

The Company does not intend to discourage or unduly limit your personal expression or online activities. However, you should recognise the potential for your personal use of social media to (either directly or indirectly) cause damage to the Company and/or your colleagues. Even if you do not identify yourself online as a Company worker, you could still be recognised as such.

Accordingly, you should comply with this policy to ensure that you minimise the risk of such damage. Ultimately, you are personally responsible for the content you publish in a personal capacity on any form of social media platform.

Please refer to the Acceptable Use of IT Resources for details of the Company’s policy with respect to reasonable personal use of its IT Resources (including social media) during working hours.

It is not acceptable to spend significant periods of time during working hours using social media (whether using your personal resources or the Company’s IT Resources) that is not related to your work.