Social media damaging to food manufacturers?

Organized by food lawyers, Roythornes, whose clients include TMI Foods and the Cornish Pasty Company, it claims manufacturers are still leaving themselves open to employee abuse and reputational damage because they have failed to implement appropriate guidelines.

Peter Bennett, head of the food team, Roythornes, told FoodProductionDaily reputation takes a great deal of time to build and can be lost in seconds.

Too late once a Tweet is posted​

“Once a Tweet is issued or a message posted it is there for all time and will be recalled again and again​,” he said. 

“As individuals and not corporations are the main players in social media they are, by their very nature uncontrollable, but at least if you can help your staff understand this you will be doing all you can​.”

‘Worst case scenario’ Bennett made reference to the case of Preece vs JD Wetherspoon where Miss Preece posted critical comments on Facebook about customers who had verbally abused her while she had been working at a pub. 

Company name in disrepute​

“The daughter of one of the subjects of the comments saw the posting and complained to JD Wetherspoon who investigated​,” he added.

“Preece was subsequently dismissed for gross misconduct as she had specifically mentioned her employer, bringing the company name into disrepute​.  

“The case made us of more aware that work and home life is increasingly blurred by social media. The lesson is to have a policy which gives guidelines on the separation of work and home life and the mentioning of work related issued on private accounts​.”

The survey results show UK food businesses are increasingly aware of social media as over 63% have now introduced a specific policy for employees, an increase of 13% from last year.

Staff bring devices into work​

It also reveals the number of firms allowing staff to bring their own devices into work has slightly increased to 43%; this has coincided with a 30% increase in the number of companies introducing controls over what employees can do on social media channels while in the workplace. 

“There are some great examples of the use of social media in the sector, mainly retail/customer facing​,” said Bennett.

“Domino’s Pizza is often held up as a shining example of using social media to drive business and engage customers. I would have thought that if they have the public facing element right they may also have the internal procedures in place​.”

He added without fundamental rules and practices in place, employees’ use, or abuse of social media in the workplace will go on unmonitored.

“Those who do not currently have a policy need to consider it, the popularity of social media and the expanding number of channels means that robust, wider reaching policies are now needed​,” he said.

10% increase in engagement​

The research did show improvement in a few areas. There is a 10% increase in the number of business monitoring their social media presence and a growth of engagement with digital channels, the number of users on YouTube for example has grown by a quarter.

"We are seeing positive steps being taken, more companies are using digital platforms and checking on their online reputation than last year, however there has been very little movement in the number who check on employees’ social media use whilst at work (32.5%)​,” added Bennett.