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Have a Policy and Enforce It

by Lee Kowarski

As you may have read in Ignites earlier this week, Fidelity fired four workers for violating the firm's anti-gambling policies by playing fantasy football at work. While I am personally a big fan of fantasy sports and am glad that kasina does not have policies against participating, I applaud Fidelity for enforcing its policies. One issue that I see increasingly popping up in regards to the whole social media trend is the lack of uniform enforcement of corporate policies. As Christophe Veltsos, president of Prudent Security LLC, says, "The easiest way for a company to lose a wrongful termination case is to demonstrate shoddy or selective enforcement of its own internal policies."

Currently, only 34% of firms have a policy that governs employees' online activity outside of work and only 10% have a policy that specifically addresses social networking sites. Many asset management and insurance companies have general policies on the books that technically prohibit participation in LinkedIn and other social networks, but most firms do not enforce these policies. This can certainly lead to complex legal issues if firms selectively chose to act. Every firm should have a clear policy outlining what employees can or cannot do online (both at work and outside of work) and should make sure that the policy can be uniformly enforced.

Finally, please wish me luck in the fantasy football playoffs this weekend.