Business Intelligence – Where the Web Meets Human Resources

Kristy A. Bennett asked:




Data mining and business intelligence through gather information over the internet has become a major administrative task for the majority of businesses in most industries. Researching the competition, sourcing detailed information on potential suppliers and customers as well as watching the political announcements have all been added to the work loads of staff – but what about gaining business intelligence on both current and potential staff?

My first exposure to the perils of online privacy, or more so the lack thereof, was receiving invitations from staff at a company that I was working for to become ‘Facebook friends’. As Facebook was new at the time I felt obliged to add them and them was taken aback when I stumbled across recently posted photos of several staff members (women), in separate personal activities dressed in less than work-appropriate attire, intoxicated and posed in what could well be considered by some to be a sexually explicit manner. Even more shocked was I when one such photo featured alongside a picture of a particularly innocent looking daughter of approximately school age.

Of course, being social networking site, one could then link to their friends and I found myself stumbling across the web sites of other staff. Many had harmless pictures of family, their trophy cars, bicycles or computers but others showed not just alcohol use but also images and references that tied staff to drugs and stopped just shy of implicating themselves.

Shocked at my evenings wanderings through Facebook profiles I turned off my screen and went to bed. As I put my head on the pillow I wondered if management knew about this social network of staff that broke the boundaries of organisational structure and the implications that knowledge of specific staff members after hours exploits may result in when they explained odd performance issues during work hours.

The following morning before heading to the city I mused over one of my human resource management books over my cereal. I found myself considering the impact of such knowledge on my client’s potential to legally hire, promote and dismiss staff without claims of discrimination. In contrast, I pondered what right to privacy staff held when they openly share their after-hours exploits both publicly or with ‘invited friends’ online. This conversation brought some very interesting discussions over the following weeks as we addressed some of the corporate issues without my discussing what I had been exposed to.

So, what do managers need to do to protect themselves and their employer from the legal implications of staff actions on their own time? Both, as part of the strategic policy development for this organisation and in future consultancy work we have successfully implemented each the following points as policies that err on the side of caution for employers. We share them openly with you today to inspire consideration of the point where business intelligence meets human resources.

‘Hire and fire’ managers (including the ability to promote or negotiate working conditions) are not to add connections to or accept connection requests from subordinate staff either under their supervision or that of another manager on social networking or like web sites. Under no circumstances are ‘hire and fire’ managers to ‘Google’ or research either current staff or applicants in recruitment processes outside of the explicitly stated procedures. All pre-application recruitment documents are to explicitly state all places where information is sourced on applicants including usual sources (including but not limited to referee reports and credential validation) as well as web sites which are to be explicitly stated (including but not limited to web sites referred to in their curriculum vitae and other professional networking sites such as LinkedIn). All staff are encouraged to keep their private lives private by enabling privacy features on social networking web sites. All staff are expected to maintain a personal reputation that reflects the core values and ethics of the organisation this includes any physical or internet-based presence that can be associated with the organisation. This includes but is not limited to personal actions taken whilst in employer branded clothing, whilst in the use of a work vehicle or any site where there is reference to the organisation as their employer.